Forward Deployed Engineer

Duku AI; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A cutting-edge technology firm in Greater London seeks Forward Deployed Engineers to build autonomous testing agents that improve software quality. The role requires strong engineering judgment, hands-on deployment experience, and the ability to navigate complex systems. Ideal candidates have worked in early-stage startups and possess practical experience with AI. This position is pivotal in redefining software testing for the future, offering a unique opportunity to shape product development and customer experience.

Qualifications

• Strong engineering judgement and instinct for shipping.
• Comfortable without processes or safety nets.
• Experience with LLMs and AI-driven workflows.

Responsibilities

• Deploy Duku AI in live customer environments.
• Translate real-world problems into platform capabilities.
• Design and evolve AI testing agents.

Skills

Engineering judgement

Communication with stakeholders

Fluency in backend systems

Ability to ship products

Problem-solving mindset

Tools

Backend development tools

Frontend development tools

Cloud infrastructure tools

Job description

QA is breaking under the weight of modern software. Releases are faster, systems are more complex, and test suites are brittle, slow, and increasingly ignored.
Duku AI is building autonomous testing agents that run real user journeys, adapt as code changes, and surface risk before customers do. This role sits at the centre of that mission.

We’re venture-backed and led by operators who’ve scaled Meta’s testing infrastructure, launched Uber’s global playbooks, and grew Deliveroo from zero to hypergrowth. We know what elite execution looks like and we’re hunting for one more builder to help us rewrite the rules of software quality.

This is not a support role. It is not a solutions engineer. It is not a ticket factory.
This is a builder role for someone who wants to shape product by deploying it into the real world.

What You’ll Do

• Deploy Duku AI into live customer environments and make it work under real constraints
• Sit directly with founders, CTOs, and engineering leads to understand where quality breaks at scale
• Translate messy, real-world product and infrastructure problems into durable platform capabilities
• Design, tune, and evolve AI testing agents that explore complex user journeys autonomously
• Own systems end to end: from code and models to infra, observability, and production reliability
• Ship fast, measure impact, and iterate relentlessly
• Feed sharp, first-principles insight back into the core roadmap and product direction

What We’re Looking For

• Strong engineering judgement and an instinct for shipping
• Comfort operating without a playbook, process, or safety net
• Ability to move from prototype to production without hand-holding
• Fluency across backend systems, modern frontend, and cloud infrastructure
• Practical experience working with LLMs, agentic systems, or AI-driven workflows
• High ownership mentality: you see problems, you fix them
• Clear communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders

Ideal Background

There’s no perfect pedigree. We hire for mindset, not credentials. That said, you might have:

• Built and shipped complex systems in early-stage startups
• Deployed AI or data-driven features into production environments
• Worked close to customers solving high-stakes technical problems
• Taken products from rough prototype to something people rely on daily

Why This Matters

Software velocity is accelerating. QA has not kept up.

Autonomous testing is inevitable.

Forward Deployed Engineers at Duku sit at the edge of that shift. You are where product, customer reality, and AI systems collide. What you learn and build directly shapes the platform and the category we are creating.

Join now, and you help define how software gets tested for the next decade.