Forward Deployed Engineer

Zenline GmbH; Zürich; Hybrid; CHF 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Bonus

Job summary

Zenline AI, Zurich-based startup, builds AI agents that optimize decision making for retailers, brands and manufacturers. You will join a founding team focused on delivering real AI use cases across industries and see your work impact early customer value.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you own customer deployments end to end, translating business challenges into AI workflows and shaping reusable product modules. Growth paths include becoming an Industry Lead within the first year.

Qualifications

• 2–3 years of customer-facing technical experience.
• Strong Python and SQL skills with a curiosity for AI.
• Ability to translate business challenges into AI workflows.
• Ownership mindset and willingness to roll up sleeves.

Responsibilities

• Bridge retail and AI: translate priorities into AI deployments.
• Lead customer deployments with executives and category teams.
• Shape product modules and integration patterns from deployment learnings.

Skills

Python

SQL

Prompt engineering

Analytical thinking

Ownership mindset

Job description

A technical task to see if your skills match.

Cultural fit Q&A

Our questions, your questions and an honest talk about working in a pre-seed startup.

Technical interview

1h with our CTO for a deep dive.

Trial day

On-site at our office in Zurich Seefeld to meet the team and work on a task we do daily.

Reference calls

We talk to people you have worked with.

Offer call

We go through offer & details together.

About Zenline AI

Every product you buy is the result of a bunch of decisions. Most of them are still made in spreadsheets. At Zenline, we build AI agents that make these decisions for retailers, brands and manufacturers. Our goal is to move the physical product economy into the agentic era.

Our team brings experience from Google, P&G, BCG, Amazon and ETH Zürich, and we are backed by Seedcamp, one of Europe’s leading early-stage funds.

We build agent-native, so every new model release makes our agents better.

The role

As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you own the success of Zenline’s AI deployments with leading retailers. You work directly with senior commercial and category leaders, translate their biggest business challenges into AI-powered workflows and turn each deployment into scalable product capabilities.

• Bridge retail and AI: translate commercial priorities into AI deployments that create measurable margin and assortment impact.
• Lead customer deployments: work directly with executive stakeholders and category teams.
• Shape the product: turn deployment learnings into reusable product modules, agent capabilities and integration patterns.

This is a founding path with room to grow. As Zenline scales, you can become an Industry Lead within your first year, owning a vertical such as electronics, fashion or FMCG. Your growth, scope and bonus are tied directly to the value you create.

Who we’re looking for

An analytical mind with 2–3 years of experience who thrives in customer-facing, fast-paced environments. You might come from BCG, McKinsey, Palantir, QuantCo or a fast-scaling startup.

• Technical confidence: Python, SQL, prompt engineering and curiosity forAI.
• Analytical depth: strong data intuition, structured problem solving and the ability to quantify business value.
• Ownership mindset: from day one you own several customerdeployments.
• Roll up your sleeves: everyone at Zenline does what needs to bedone.

What you get

• Help shape Europe’s next generational AI company during its defining years.
• Competitive salary, stock options and bonus.
• You own your deployments end to end.
• The skill of the decade: deploy real AI use cases that change how enterprise teams work.
• Zurich-based, in one of Europe’s most vibrant startup ecosystems.