Forward Deployable Engineer

Alhena AI; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Alhena AI in San Francisco is seeking a Forward Deployable Engineer to deploy AI systems into live merchant environments, solve critical technical problems, and ensure customers see value quickly. This hands-on role spans integrations, prompts, workflows, analytics, tooling, and deployments to keep our AI products performing at scale in production and directly impacting revenue and customer experience.

You will work with a fast-moving team and directly interact with customers to drive measurable

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field or equivalent practical experience.
• 1–2 years software engineering experience preferred; exceptional fresh graduates with strong product sense and high-impact internship or project experience are encouraged to apply.
• Experience with AI, prompts, and APIs is valuable; willingness to work in person in San Francisco (Bay Area).

Responsibilities

• Deploy Alhena for new customers and help bring them live quickly and successfully.
• Work directly with customers to understand workflows, pain points, edge cases, and success criteria.
• Build and configure integrations across e-commerce platforms, help desks, internal tools, and data sources.
• Improve agent performance through prompt design, workflow iteration, evaluation, testing, and debugging.
• Write production-quality code for customer requirements, internal deployment tooling, and product improvements.
• Investigate failures in real-world AI behavior across data pipelines, retrieval, integrations, and model outputs.
• Partner with engineering, product, and go-to-market teams to turn customer needs into scalable product capabilities.
• Create repeatable deployment playbooks, implementation patterns, and operational best practices.
• Move quickly from problem identification to shipped solution in high-impact customer situations.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

JavaScript

APIs

Debugging

Customer-facing

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Claude Code

Codex

Backend systems

Integrations

Job description

Engineering

Forward Deployable Engineer

San Francisco (Bay Area)

Full Time

Deploy production AI systems into real customer environments and help define how modern commerce companies use AI to drive revenue, support quality, and operational scale.

About us

We believe commerce should feel more helpful, more personal, and far less frustrating than it does today. Too many customer journeys still break at the exact moments that matter most, when shoppers are deciding what to buy, when support teams are overloaded, and when brands struggle to deliver a consistent experience across channels.

Alhena is building the AI platform that fixes that. We help modern merchants turn customer experience into a true growth engine through AI-powered shopping, support, and agent-assist systems that guide buyers, resolve issues, and improve outcomes across the full customer journey.

Our ambition is not to bolt AI onto commerce. It is to make AI a core operating layer for how commerce brands engage, support, and grow. That means building systems that are accurate, deeply integrated, fast to deploy, and trusted in production.

We are backed by top Silicon Valley investors including Slow Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, and South Park Commons. Our team includes former leaders from Meta, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Uber. We are early, mission-driven, intensely product-focused, and moving with urgency.

About the role

As a Forward Deployable Engineer, you will work at the intersection of engineering, AI, product, and customer outcomes. You will deploy Alhena into live merchant environments, solve high-priority technical problems, and make sure customers see value quickly.

This is a hands-on role for someone early in their career who wants more than a narrow engineering lane. You will work across integrations, prompts, workflows, analytics, internal tooling, and customer deployments to make our AI systems perform at a very high level in production.

You should be excited by ambiguity, speed, and ownership. If you want steep growth, direct customer exposure, and the chance to ship AI systems that influence revenue and customer experience, this role is built for you.

What you'll do

• Deploy Alhena for new customers and help bring them live quickly and successfully
• Work directly with customers to understand workflows, pain points, edge cases, and success criteria
• Build and configure integrations across e-commerce platforms, help desks, internal tools, and data sources
• Improve agent performance through prompt design, workflow iteration, evaluation, testing, and debugging
• Write production-quality code for customer requirements, internal deployment tooling, and product improvements
• Investigate failures in real-world AI behavior across data pipelines, retrieval, integrations, and model outputs
• Partner with engineering, product, and go-to-market teams to turn customer needs into scalable product capabilities
• Create repeatable deployment playbooks, implementation patterns, and operational best practices
• Move quickly from problem identification to shipped solution in high-impact customer situations

What you'll bring

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
• 1-2 years of software engineering experience preferred. Exceptional fresh graduates with strong product sense and high-impact internship or project experience are encouraged to apply
• Strong coding ability in Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, or similar modern languages
• Comfort working with APIs, backend systems, integrations, and debugging production issues
• Strong product instinct and willingness to engage directly with customer problems
• Interest in LLMs, AI agents, prompt systems, evaluation workflows, and applied AI products
• Comfort working with AI coding agents and agentic developer workflows. Hands-on experience with Claude Code, Codex, or similar coding agents is strongly preferred
• Ability to operate with high ownership and make progress in ambiguous situations
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work across technical and non-technical teams
• Bias toward action, speed, and practical problem solving
• Willingness to work in person in San Francisco (Bay Area)

Even better

• Experience with LLM APIs, agent frameworks, retrieval systems, or AI evaluation tooling
• Experience building AI agents, agentic workflows, or production systems that orchestrate models and tools
• Experience building and shipping product systems in fast-moving engineering environments
• Familiarity with analytics, experimentation, and measuring product or operational performance

Why this role

• Work on applied AI systems that already create measurable value for real commerce businesses
• Ship quickly in a high-ownership environment with direct exposure to customers and decision-makers
• Competitive compensation, meaningful equity, and the chance to grow fast alongside an exceptional team