Forward Deployed Engineer

HartleyCo; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

HartleyCo in San Francisco is seeking a highly technical engineer to work close to business and customer problems, building AI agents and production-scale systems in a fast-moving startup. You’ll be part of a small team with real ownership from day one, shaping both product and technical direction.

You’ll work with Python and Node.js/TypeScript, design APIs and cloud infrastructure, and deploy AI-enabled solutions directly in enterprise environments.

Qualifications

• Strong backend engineering experience with modern stack
• Ability to communicate clearly with customers and stakeholders
• Demonstrated ownership and initiative in fast-moving environments

Responsibilities

• Build AI agents and production-grade code
• Design and maintain scalable infrastructure
• Deploy systems into customer environments
• Collaborate with enterprise stakeholders to solve operational problems
• Shape product and technical direction early

Skills

Strong backend engineering

Customer communication

Ownership & initiative

Tools

Python

Node.js

TypeScript

APIs

Cloud infrastructure

Job description

I’m working with a YC startup building AI systems that are being deployed directly into real-world enterprise workflows.

They’ve recently raised their Seed round, signed initial customers, and are now looking for a highly technical engineer who wants to operate closer to the business, product, and customer problems rather than sitting in a siloed engineering function.

This is not a traditional solutions engineer role.

You’ll be:

• building AI agents
• writing production code
• designing infrastructure
• deploying systems into customer environments
• working directly with enterprise stakeholders to solve operational problems

The founders are specifically looking for engineers who can both:

• build at a high technical level
• communicate clearly with customers

The backgrounds they tend to like:

• early engineers at AI startups
• strong backend or product engineers from high-calibre engineering companies
• engineers already building with LLMs, agents, or AI-native tooling

What makes the role interesting:

• Very early-stage with real traction already
• Small, high-agency team
• Real ownership from day one
• Fast-moving environment with very little bureaucracy
• Opportunity to shape both product and technical direction early
• Python
• Node.js / TypeScript
• APIs + integrations
• AI agents / LLM systems
• cloud infrastructure

You’ll likely enjoy this if:

• you want your work close to customers/users
• you prefer ownership over process
• you’re excited by agentic AI systems rather than traditional SaaS