Staff Forward Deployed Engineer

Intercom; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI Customer Service company in the UK is looking for a Staff Forward Deployed Engineer. This role requires you to partner closely with strategic customers to help integrate the company's advanced AI capabilities, enhancing support operations. You’ll lead engineering functions and collaborate cross-functionally, providing mentorship while having a hands-on coding role. The position fosters creativity and ownership, offering a competitive salary, equity, and a hybrid working environment.

Benefits

Competitive salary and equity

Free lunch and snacks

Regular compensation reviews

Pension scheme

Health and dental insurance

Flexible paid time off

Paid parental leave

Cycle-to-Work Scheme

MacBooks or Windows laptops

Qualifications

• Experience as a primary technical leader for a team for 2+ years.
• Deep knowledge of programming languages like JavaScript, Python, or Ruby.
• Proficiency in using and writing REST APIs.

Responsibilities

• Lead the adoption of Fin with strategic customers.
• Embed with customers to understand challenges and technical needs.
• Collaborate with Sales, Success, and Product teams.
• Mentor Forward Deployed Engineers.

Skills

SaaS product development

Autonomous decision-making

AI/ML interest

Cross-functional collaboration

High-level programming languages

REST APIs

Strong communication

Willingness to travel

Job description

Intercom is the AI Customer Service company on a mission to help businesses provide incredible customer experiences.

Our AI agent Fin, the most advanced customer service AI agent on the market, lets businesses deliver always-on, impeccable customer service and ultimately transform their customer experiences for the better. Fin can also be combined with our Helpdesk to become a complete solution called the Intercom Customer Service Suite, which provides AI enhanced support for the more complex or high touch queries that require a human agent.

Founded in 2011 and trusted by nearly 30,000 global businesses, Intercom is setting the new standard for customer service. Driven by our core values, we push boundaries, build with speed and intensity, and consistently deliver incredible value to our customers.

What's the opportunity?

In the last six months, we experienced an increase in demand for software engineers who work closely with our most strategic customers and help bridge the gap between their business goals and our AI Agent for Customer Service, Fin.

As a Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, you’ll work directly with these customers and our Go-To-Market team to deeply understand use cases and design, build, and implement solutions for them. You’ll operate with a high degree of autonomy and trust: expected to set direction, own outcomes, and represent Intercom confidently in high-stakes customer contexts. As a result, you’ll play a pivotal role in revolutionising how our customers scale their support operations while unlocking meaningful business impact.

In addition, you’ll lead by example: acting as a cross-functional force multiplier who influences product direction with field insight and helps define what Forward Deployed Engineering means at Intercom.

If you’re looking for ownership, creativity, and the chance to steer R&D and Go‑To‑Market teams in a fast‑paced environment, this role is for you.

What will I be doing?

• Lead the adoption of Fin by helping prospects unlock the power of Intercom’s AI capabilities to automate and scale their support operations.
• Embed deeply with strategic customers to understand their business challenges and technical requirements, acting as a proactive partner who steers them toward outstanding results with Fin.
• Work hands‑on with customers’ technical teams as a confident subject‑matter expert and trusted advisor, coding side‑by‑side to drive projects to completion.
• Collaborate closely with Sales, Success, and Product teams, and actively influence their work to ensure seamless customer experiences, project success, and timely, actionable product feedback.
• Lead and evolve the Forward Deployed Engineering function, sharing insights and shaping how the role operates as it grows.
• Leverage connections across our strategic accounts to anticipate challenges, align stakeholders quickly and influence decisions that drive us to success.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to Forward Deployed Engineers and Solutions Engineers as we continue to scale.

What skills do I need?

• Ideally, you’ve built an exciting SaaS product in your previous roles and loved the satisfaction that comes with knowing that people around the world are using something you’ve created. Bonus points if you’re a former founder or early engineer at a startup.
• Demonstrated track record of autonomous decision‑making, prioritisation and accountability for outcomes: such as 2+ years serving as the primary technical leader for a team.
• You are interested in AI/ML and able to ramp up on unfamiliar concepts quickly: absorbing new capabilities, limitations and trade‑offs fast enough to guide customers and internal teams.
• You set the high bar for cross‑functional collaboration. Skilled at navigating organisational boundaries, rallying diverse teams, and steering everyone toward the best outcome for our customers and Intercom.
• Deep knowledge of a high‑level programming language (for example, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, etc.) but it doesn’t need to be a language that we use here. Great people are effective and learn what we use quickly (or introduce us to better ways of working).
• Decisive and pragmatic: know when to prototype and ship fast yourself, and when to elevate or delegate. Always keeping quality high and business goals front‑of‑mind.
• Proficient using and writing REST APIs to integrate systems effectively.
• Strong communicator who tailors the message to any audience. Can easily talk to engineers and non‑technical audiences about the same topics at the right level of detail.
• Willing to travel and work on‑site with customers to build strong relationships and deeply understand their needs.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity in a fast‑growing start‑up
• We serve lunch every weekday, plus a variety of snack foods and a fully stocked kitchen
• Regular compensation reviews – we reward great work!
• Pension scheme & match up to 4%
• Peace of mind with life assurance, as well as comprehensive health and dental insurance for you and your dependents
• Flexible paid time off policy
• Paid maternity leave, as well as 6 weeks paternity leave for fathers, to let you spend valuable time with your loved ones
• If you’re cycling, we’ve got you covered on the Cycle‑to‑Work Scheme. With secure bike storage too
• MacBooks are our standard, but we also offer Windows for certain roles when needed.

Policies

Intercom has a hybrid working policy. We believe that working in person helps us stay connected, collaborate easier and create a great culture while still providing flexibility to work from home. We expect employees to be in the office at least three days per week.

We have a radically open and accepting culture at Intercom. We avoid spending time on divisive subjects to foster a safe and cohesive work environment for everyone. As an organization, our policy is to not advocate on behalf of the company or our employees on any social or political topics out of our internal or external communications. We respect personal opinion and expression on these topics on personal social platforms on personal time, and do not challenge or confront anyone for their views on non‑work related topics. Our goal is to focus on doing incredible work to achieve our goals and unite the company through our core values.

Intercom values diversity and is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity. Intercom will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, age, physical or mental disability, veteran or military status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state, or local law.

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