Forward Deployed Engineer

Tenarai; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Tenarai in Palo Alto, CA seeks a Forward Deployed Engineer who acts as a founder, owning end-to-end projects from discovery to production. You’ll work directly with product and business teams, shipping AI-native solutions and building across the stack with autonomy and clarity.

The role emphasizes rapid prototyping, stakeholder alignment, and delivering high-impact software at pace, leveraging state-of-the-art AI tools to multiply output.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of shipping software experience.
• AI-native to the core in daily workflows.
• Fluent English communication.
• Ability to decompose vague problems into workstreams.
• Experience collaborating with product and business teams.

Responsibilities

• Own projects end-to-end and deliver production systems from scratch.
• Embed with stakeholders and translate needs into technical roadmaps.
• Leverage AI as a force multiplier to prototype and ship quickly.
• Build across frontend, backend, data, and AI features.
• Prototype to production and harden concepts into resilient systems.
• Collaborate with product and business teams to align on direction.

Skills

Shipping software

AI native workflow

Problem decomposition

Clear communication

High autonomy

Tools

Cursor

Claude Code

Codex

Job description

About the Role: We are looking for Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)—senior, product-minded builders who operate like project founders rather than ticket-takers.

You won’t be handed a refined sprint backlog or a queue of Jira tickets. Instead, you’ll be handed an open-ended goal, embedded directly with product and business teams, and given the autonomy to take a project from discovery, design, build, ship, iterate. This role sits on a small, elite internal R&D and AI team whose mission is to validate ideas fast and build exceptional products using state-of-the-art tools. You are equal parts engineer, product thinker, and communicator—comfortable shipping working software one hour and aligning stakeholders in direction the next.

What You’ll Do

• Own Projects End-to-End: Take full accountability for outcomes, not just code. Deliver production systems from scratch with minimal oversight.
• Embed with Stakeholders: Sit close to product and business leaders, translate ambiguous needs into technical roadmaps, and build trust fast.
• Leverage AI as a Force Multiplier: Use agentic AI coding workflows aggressively to design, prototype, and ship at a pace traditional engineering teams can't match.
• Build Across the Full Stack: Move fluidly across frontend, backend, data, infrastructure, and AI features—picking the best tool for the job.
• Build AI-Native Products: Integrate LLMs, agentic workflows, RAG, and real-time capabilities directly into core products when it adds real value.
• Prototype to Production: Stand up rapid prototypes in days to validate ideas, then harden the winning concepts into resilient production systems.

Tech Stack & Tooling

While technology is secondary to a high-agency mindset, our core stack currently relies on:

• Primary Stack: Python, Next.js, TypeScript
• AI-Native Tooling (Must-Have): Daily, aggressive use of agentic tools like Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, etc. You build with AI by default to multiply your output.
• AI Ecosystem: Experience or familiarity with RAG, LLM evaluations, agentic frameworks, and voice/real-time models.

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ Years of Shipping Software: A track record of owning and delivering complex systems. Evidence of real impact matters far more to us than job titles.
• AI-Native to the Core: AI coding tools are an indispensable part of your daily workflow, not an occasional experiment.
• High Agency & Autonomy: You treat "figure it out" as a feature, not a bug. You thrive in ambiguity and move projects forward without needing to be managed.
• Problem Decomposition: Ability to take vague, open-ended business problems and break them into prioritized, sequenced workstreams.
• Clear Communication: Exceptional written and spoken English. You can write crisp docs, run working sessions, and communicate clearly with non-technical partners.