AI-Native Forward Deployed Engineer

Tread Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Tread Inc. is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to bridge customers and product, owning a mid-market book from integration to renewal. You’ll work in the field, deliver shipped software, and expand value with AI-powered workflows across our Rails API, GraphQL, and React stack.

Expect to embed with customers, prototype solutions, and turn field insights into roadmap items while scaling with a small, fast-moving team in a founder-in-training role.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of software engineering experience.
• Proficient in Ruby on Rails, JavaScript/React, and Python.
• Experience with APIs, databases, and data pipelines.
• Strong customer-facing communication and relationship-building.
• Willingness to travel to customer sites on a regular basis.
• Comfort working in a fast-moving startup with ambiguity.
• Familiarity with AI coding tools and modern development workflows.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical implementation for new customers: API integrations, data mapping, workflow configuration.
• Prototype and contribute to product from field insights, supporting Rails API, GraphQL, and React development.
• Analyze field feedback to inform roadmap and product improvements.
• Automate repetitive tasks with internal tooling and agents as the book grows.
• Own the technical health of your portfolio and drive expansion opportunities.

Skills

Software engineering

Ruby on Rails

JavaScript/React

Python

APIs & Data pipelines

Customer-facing instincts

Bias toward action

Travel willingness

Strong communication

Ambiguity tolerance

AI coding tools

Tools

Rails API

GraphQL

React

Job description

About Tread

Tread is an AI-native vertical SaaS platform transforming construction materials logistics—a massive, essential industry that moves the aggregate, asphalt, and concrete behind every road, bridge, and building. In March 2026, we crossed $1Bn in monthly delivered load value on the platform, and we're at ~$XM ARR and growing fast.

Our AI-powered platform serves Haulers, Producers, and Contractors—optimizing truck routing, loaded-mile delivery, and project planning while delivering exceptional customer service through personalized AI agents.

We're a Series A company backed by Mucker Capital, and we're building the team that will take us from $XM to $XXM+ ARR.

Why This Role Exists

Reporting to the VP of Customer Operations, this role sits at the intersection of Customer Operations, Product, and Engineering. You'll work directly with customers to understand how they operate, then turn those insights into shipped software, AI-powered workflows, and product improvements.

Tread's customers are construction companies, materials producers, and hauling fleets. Their operations are complex, messy, and high-stakes. Dispatchers are moving hundreds of trucks a day. Scale operators are weighing thousands of loads. Back-office teams are reconciling millions of dollars in freight.

We can't build the right product from a desk. This role exists to close the gap between our customers and our codebase. You'll be in the field learning how these operations actually work, then back at your machine shipping solutions the same day. The feedback loop is measured in hours, not sprints.

This is a founder-in-training role. Today, technical implementation and field-driven product development is run by the founding team and a small engineering group. To scale from $XM to $XXM+ ARR, we need Forward Deployed Engineers who can live at the intersection of customer operations and our codebase, turning what they see in the field into shipped software before the next site visit.

What You Own

You are the technical bridge between our customers and our product. You own a book of mid-market accounts end to end, from first integration through long-term expansion and renewal, and you own the full technical relationship for every account in it, across these core areas:

Customer Implementation & Technical Delivery

Lead technical implementation for new customers: API integrations, data mapping, workflow configuration, and scale house connectivity. Build custom integrations, data pipelines, and automation for customers with complex requirements. Debug and resolve technical issues in the field, often on the same day they surface. Own the technical relationship with assigned accounts, you are their go-to when something is broken or needs to be built.

Product Development from the Field

Turn customer pain points into shipped features. You have the context and the ability to build. Contribute directly to Tread's codebase (Rails API, GraphQL, React) based on what you learn in the field. Prototype and validate solutions with customers before they become full product investments. Feed structured, prioritized insights to Product and Engineering. Our model: 45 minutes with the customer, 45 minutes building.

Automating Your Own Work

You do the job first, then automate it as you go. As you learn the work and see the same tasks repeat across your book, you build agents and internal tooling that take that work off your plate. This is a secondary function that compounds over time: the more of your own role you automate, the more of your time goes to the accounts and moments that need a person.

Expansion & Retention Through Technical Depth

Identify what makes Tread sticky and execute relentlessly to deliver that value. Expand revenue with existing customers by uncovering problems and solving them before they're asked. Help turn our data moat into self-reinforcing product loops that get smarter the longer a customer is on the platform. Own the technical health of your portfolio. Plan and facilitate QBRs with strategic accounts. Bring data. Bring insights. Bring the roadmap.

What Success Looks Like

First 90 Days

• Visited at least 3 customer sites. You can describe their dispatch workflow, scale house operations, and back-office processes from memory.

• Shipped at least 2 customer-facing improvements based on direct field observations.

• Taken ownership of the technical implementation for at least 1 new customer.

• Built relationships with key users at your assigned accounts. They know your name and they call you directly.

• Established a baseline view of open technical debt and integration gaps across your portfolio.

First 6 Months

• Embedded with customers. Learning the codebase while in the field. Shipping fast alongside a team of under 20 people where your impact is immediate and visible.

• Established a repeatable pattern: customer meeting to shipped outcome in under a week.

• Contributed meaningfully to at least 1 product initiative that originated from your field work.

• At least 1 expansion opportunity identified and influenced by your work.

• Time-to-first-value for new implementations trending down measurably.

First Year

• Customers in your portfolio have measurably higher adoption and satisfaction than baseline.

• You've become the connective tissue between what customers need and what we build.

• Multiple product features in production trace back to your field insights.

• You've helped define the FDE playbook that the next hire will use.

• You are the person customers call when something is broken, and the person Engineering trusts to represent the field in any roadmap conversation.

What We're Looking For

• 2+ years of software engineering experience. You can write production code in at least one of: Ruby/Rails, JavaScript/React, Python, or equivalent.

• Comfort with APIs, databases, and data pipelines. You can read a GraphQL schema, debug an integration, and write a migration.

• Customer-facing instincts. You can sit in a room with a VP of Operations at a trucking company and earn their trust.

• Bias toward action. You see a problem, you fix it. You don't wait for a ticket.

• Strong written and verbal communication. You can translate a messy customer conversation into a clear problem statement and a proposed solution.

• Willingness to travel frequently to customer sites (at least once a month).

• You're comfortable with ambiguity and can thrive in a fast-moving startup where your role will evolve.

• Daily, opinionated use of AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.).

Bonus Points

• Construction technology, heavy civil, logistics, supply chain, or field-services experience

• You've built integrations or worked on implementation teams before

• You've shipped features based on direct customer feedback in a fast-moving engineering org

• You understand what a dispatcher or scale operator actually does on a Tuesday morning

• You've worked at a Series A-C startup under 50 people

Compensation & Location

The anticipated base salary range for this role is $120,000–$160,000. Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, skills, and overall qualifications.

This is an in-person position based in the San Francisco Bay Area, as regular collaboration with teammates and customers is a core part of how we work. The position also includes occasional travel to customer sites (approximately once every 4-6 weeks) to understand customer operations firsthand, build stronger relationships, and translate real-world challenges into shipped solutions.