Forward Deployed Engineer 3

Exotel; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 2,000,000 - 3,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Exotel, India's leading AI-first cloud communications platform, seeks a senior technical leader for Voicebot Delivery. You will set standards for complex voicebot builds, own architecture decisions and be the technical voice for enterprise customers.

You will lead LLM-backed systems, design reusable tooling, and shape product roadmaps to turn patterns into platform work. Mentoring engineers and guiding escalations are key parts of the role.

Qualifications

• 5+ years hands-on engineering or forward-deployed experience.
• Proven ability to build reusable tooling and accelerators.
• Experience leading enterprise implementations end to end.
• Strong Python and/or TypeScript coding skills.
• Experience with LLM orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation, agents and tool calling.
• Able to architect integrations with CRM, ticketing, marketing automation and contact centre stacks.
• Deep debugging across distributed systems, APIs and real-time voice.
• Working knowledge of cloud platforms, Linux, SQL and networking.

Responsibilities

• Own the most complex and novel voicebot builds and set the technical approach.
• Be the design authority on solution and integration architecture across the customer stack.
• Be the technical voice in front of enterprise customers and in escalations.
• Set prompt patterns, evaluation standards and guardrails for the team.
• Own the architecture of LLM-backed conversation systems: orchestration, retrieval, tools, latency and failure behavior.
• Build connectors, test suites, accelerators and tooling reused by the team.
• Shape the product and engineering roadmaps to drive platform work over bespoke builds.
• Partner with Product and Engineering on customer-specific enhancements and escalations.
• Grow FDE I and FDE II engineers into independent owners.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

LLM Architecture

Solution Architecture

Enterprise Delivery

Tooling Accelerators

Cloud Platforms

Linux

SQL

APIs

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/CE

LLM / multi-agent exp

Contact centre platforms / SIP / VoIP

Product roadmap influence

Conversational AI platforms

Tools

Job description

Exotel is India's leading AI-first cloud communications platform, powering over 25 billion customer conversations annually for 6,000+ enterprises across India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. From voice and contact centres to AI-powered customer engagement, Exotel enables businesses to build reliable, scalable, and intelligent customer experiences.

About the Role

You will be the senior technical voice in Voicebot Delivery: setting the standards others build to, taking on the hardest and most novel builds, and shaping what gets productised rather than rebuilt for each customer.

What You'll Do

Solution Architecture and Delivery

• Own the most complex and novel voicebot builds, and set the technical approach others follow.
• Act as design authority on solution and integration architecture across the customer's communication stack, and make the feasibility call at scoping.
• Be the technical voice in front of enterprise customers and in escalations.

LLM and Platform Engineering

• Set the prompt patterns, evaluation standards and guardrails the team builds to.
• Own the architecture of LLM-backed conversation systems: orchestration, retrieval, tool use, latency and failure behaviour.
• Build the connectors, test suites, accelerators and tooling the whole team reuses.

Technical Leadership

• Shape the product and engineering roadmaps — turn recurring patterns into platform work rather than repeated bespoke builds.
• Partner with Product and Engineering on customer-specific enhancements and on resolving escalations.
• Grow FDE I and FDE II engineers into independent owners.

What We're Looking For

Experience

• 5+ years, with significant time in a hands-on engineering or forward-deployed role.
• A track record of building reusable tooling and accelerators, not only of delivering projects.
• Experience leading enterprise implementations end to end.

Technical Expertise

• Strong software engineering background with hands-on coding in Python and/or TypeScript.
• Experience with LLM application architecture: orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation, agents and tool calling, evaluation and guardrails.
• Able to architect integrations against any customer communication stack — ticketing, CRM, marketing automation, deflection and contact centre systems.
• Deep debugging ability across distributed systems, APIs and real-time voice or telephony.
• Working knowledge of cloud platforms, Linux, SQL and networking fundamentals.

Customer and Leadership Skills

• Credible with engineering teams and with enterprise customers alike.
• Strong stakeholder management and escalation handling.
• Able to mentor engineers and raise the technical bar of a team without owning it on paper.

Education

• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Engineering, Computer Science or an equivalent computer-related degree. Good to Have
• Experience with LLM application or multi-agent frameworks.
• Contact centre platforms, SIP, VoIP or WebRTC.
• Experience influencing a product roadmap from the field.
• Exposure to conversational AI platforms in the market.