Customer Engineer — Crustdata

davidjoseph-co; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

On-site work

Job summary

Crustdata (YC) is hiring a Customer Engineer to own customer success while actively building automation that reduces manual touchpoints. The role blends technical work with relationship management in a hybrid, builder’s seat that scales support without adding headcount.

You will drive automation, craft scalable workflows, and ensure customer feedback informs product and engineering teams for continuous improvement. SF in-person presence is expected.

Qualifications

• 0-3 years, early-career welcome.
• Genuine technical aptitude required.
• Builder mindset: automation over manual processes.
• Personable, improvement-oriented attitude.
• SF 5 days in-person.
• No prior CS experience required.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day customer success and support, including scheduling and running calls when necessary.
• Build automations that reduce manual response volume over time.
• Continuously improve how customer interactions are handled, balancing personal touch with scalable systems.
• Identify patterns in customer needs and translate them into automated or systematized solutions.
• Represent the voice of the customer back into the product and engineering teams.

Skills

Genuine technical aptitude

Builder mindset: automation over manua

Personable communicator

Improvement-oriented

Job description

Crustdata (YC) — Customer Engineer

Type: Full-time | On-site | San Francisco, CACompensation: $130,000–$170,000 + competitive equityHiring count: 1Visa sponsorship: None availableReports to: Not specified on role page

About Crustdata (YC)

Crustdata is building the gateway to the internet for AI agents. The way information is consumed online is shifting from humans searching pre-crawled Google indexes to AI agents performing real-time, targeted crawling from sources of truth — and Crustdata builds the APIs AI agents use to access that data. It provides live company and people data via APIs and full dataset delivery, piping live data from over a dozen sources and delivering it instantly at scale (use cases: automatic pipeline building, pipeline prioritization, champion watching, sales/marketing triggers, investment deal sourcing). 150+ enterprise customers, surpassed $10M ARR, profitable, with 10x growth in 2025. Backed by Y Combinator, General Catalyst, SV Angel, A Capital, and Liquid 2 Ventures.

Founded: 2023 | Team size: 11–50 (Seed) | Stage: SeedIndustry: AI ToolsWebsite: crustdata.comOffice: San Francisco, CA

Why Candidates Should Join

• Category-defining infrastructure: Building the real-time data layer for the AI-agent era, not another wrapper.
• Rare traction at Seed: 150+ enterprise customers, $10M+ ARR, profitable, 10x growth in 2025 — profitability at this stage is unusual.
• Elite backing: Y Combinator, General Catalyst, SV Angel, A Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures.
• A builder's seat, not a ticket queue: You own customer success and build the automation that scales support without scaling headcount — high autonomy and product influence early in your career.
• Early-career friendly, high ceiling: No prior customer success experience required; the bar is technical aptitude, hunger, and curiosity.

Intake Call Summary

• No intake call transcript or written summary was available on the role page (intake video present but not transcribed). Flag for David if a summary is needed before submissions.

The Role

Crustdata is hiring a Customer Engineer to own customer success while actively building the automation that reduces manual customer touchpoints over time. Hybrid technical and relationship-driven: hops on calls when needed, but is equally focused on building automated responses and workflows that scale support without scaling headcount. As much a builder's seat as a support seat.

What You'll Be Doing

• Own day-to-day customer success and support, including scheduling and running calls when necessary
• Build automations that reduce manual response volume over time
• Continuously improve how customer interactions are handled, balancing personal touch with scalable systems
• Identify patterns in customer needs and translate them into automated or systematized solutions
• Represent the voice of the customer back into the product and engineering teams

Tech stack: Not specified on role page (API integration and automation/workflow tooling implied by the responsibilities).

Requirements

• 0-3 years, early-career welcome
• Genuine technical aptitude required
• Builder mindset: automation over manual process
• Personable, improvement-oriented
• SF 5 days in-person
• No prior CS experience required

Green Flags

• Software engineering background with genuine interest in moving into a more customer-facing role
• Demonstrated technical aptitude through side projects, coursework, or prior automation work
• Personable communicator who genuinely enjoys improving how customers experience the product
• High curiosity and hunger, even without direct customer success experience
• Comfortable building systems and processes rather than just executing manual tasks

Red Flags

• Pure support or ticket-handling background with no technical building interest
• Lacks genuine technical aptitude or curiosity about automation
• Passive approach to customer interactions rather than a builder's mindset
• Cannot work SF in-person 5 days a week

Nice-to-Have (role body — supplementary, for sourcing)

• Prior customer success, solutions engineering, or technical support experience
• Software engineering background with interest in moving toward a more customer-facing role
• Strong academic performance in a technical field
• Experience building automation or workflow tools

Details

• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Work policy: On-site, 5 days a week
• Compensation: $130,000–$170,000 + equity
• Visa sponsorship: None available
• Employment type: Full-time

Screening Questions

None provided on the role page. (Ask David if he wants role-specific screening questions added before the call.)

Interview Process

Stage 1 — Vibe Call — Initial culture/fit conversation.Stage 2 — One-hour call/meet — Deeper conversation.Stage 3 — Third Round — Meeting with co-founders and other team members.Stage 4 — Final Round — Case study, mock exercise, or build-out session.Stage 5 — Offer ExtendedStage 6 — Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.