Customer Engineer, APAC

Openkrill; United States; Remote; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenRouter is seeking a Customer Engineer to serve as the technical quarterback for enterprise sales cycles, partnering with account executives to run discovery, deliver compelling demos, and architect solutions. The role spans pre-sales and regional support across APAC, with collaboration to optimize deployments and adoption.

You'll work at the intersection of sales, engineering, and product, balancing customer guidance with hands-on technical execution and feedback to product teams.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in sales engineering, customer engineering, solutions engineering, or similar in B2B SaaS/API/Infrastructure.
• Hands-on software development, APIs, or cloud infrastructure experience.
• Excellent presentation skills and ability to explain complex concepts to diverse audiences.
• Customer-first mindset with willingness to balance pre-sales with adoption support.
• Autonomous regional contributor while collaborating with global teams.
• Experience in AI/ML tech or LLM-focused sales engineering is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical discovery calls to understand AI/ML architecture, use cases, and requirements.
• Design customized demonstrations and manage PoC environments to prove OpenRouter value.
• Collaborate with account executives throughout the sales cycle and respond to technical questions.
• Address objections, discuss SLAs and timelines, and support negotiations.
• Provide feedback to Product/Engineering on feature requests and market needs.
• Support APAC onboarding and regional adoption with US-based teams as needed.
• Assist customers with technical issues during APAC business hours and coordinate handoffs.

Skills

Sales engineering

APAC regional experience

APIs & cloud

Presentation skills

Customer advocacy

Job description

ABOUT OPENROUTER

OpenRouter is the open AI routing and infrastructure layer that enterprises use to access, manage, and optimize the best large language models across providers—without lock-in, capacity constraints, or unnecessary cost. We power some of the most advanced AI teams in the world by giving them the flexibility to move fast, scale confidently, and stay future-proof as models evolve.

As enterprise adoption of AI accelerates, OpenRouter sits at the center of how organizations operationalize LLMs across research, product, and production workloads.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As a Customer Engineer, you'll be the technical quarterback for OpenRouter's enterprise sales cycles. You'll partner with account executives to conduct discovery, deliver compelling demos, architect solutions, and overcome technical objections. You'll be the trusted technical advisor who helps prospects understand how OpenRouter solves their specific AI challenges.

This role sits at the intersection of sales, engineering, and product—you'll need to be equally comfortable in customer meetings, building demo environments, and providing product feedback to engineering.

This foundational individual-contributor role supports OpenRouter’s expanding APAC footprint. While the primary focus is pre-sales, you’ll also have additional Customer Support and Customer Success responsibilities as we build out a regional team.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Lead technical discovery calls to understand prospects’ AI/ML architecture, use cases, and requirements, and assess technical fit across API integration, model requirements, data residency, and compliance.
• Develop expertise in OpenRouter’s products and solutions, design customized demonstrations, and manage proof-of-concept environments that show how OpenRouter can solve prospects’ specific business problems.
• Partner with AEs throughout the sales cycle from discovery through close, including responding to proposals and technical questions and presenting at customer meetings, QBRs, and executive briefings.
• Address technical objections and competitive positioning, and support negotiations on technical terms, SLAs, and implementation timelines.
• Provide feedback to Product and Engineering on feature requests, competitive gaps, and market requirements to inform roadmap prioritization.
• Support technical onboarding and adoption for APAC customers and serve as the regional point person for account health, partnering with US-based teams to identify technical blockers and adoption risks.
• Assist customers with technical issues during APAC business hours, including hands‑on API and code‑level debugging and minimal reproductions, with handoffs to US-based Support and Engineering for deeper investigation or off‑hours coverage.

What You Bring

• 5+ years as Sales Engineer, Customer Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or Solutions Architect in B2B SaaS/API/Infrastructure platforms.
• Strong technical background with hands‑on experience in software development, APIs, or cloud infrastructure, including reading and debugging code and troubleshooting API integrations.
• Excellent presentation skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to varied audiences. Strong problem-solving skills and ability to architect solutions under pressure.
• Customer‑first mindset with a genuine desire to help customers succeed and willingness to balance a primary pre‑sales focus with technical adoption, account health, and initial support responsibilities as needed.
• Ability to operate autonomously as a foundational regional contributor while collaborating closely with a globally distributed team, including maintaining flexible overlap with US colleagues for planned training, team meetings, and important customer handoffs.
• Experience in a sales engineering role related to AI/ML technologies, LLMs, or machine learning platforms is a plus.