Forward Deployed Engineer

Protech Talent; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

75th-percentile equity

Job summary

Protech Talent in San Francisco is seeking a high-impact engineer for a 0-to-1 role embedded with major financial clients. You will translate field learnings into working software, deploying AI agents that automate critical lending and underwriting workflows.

Expect to code 70% of your time while spending 30% embedded with customers, shaping product architecture, and delivering end-to-end deployments. This is a fast-moving, field-facing opportunity with equity upside.

Qualifications

• 0–to–1 engineering role embedded with customers.
• Proven history of building end-to-end AI-powered apps.
• Experience with field discovery and feedback loop to product.
• Strong systems design and full-stack capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Embed with bank underwriters to map workflows.
• Build 0-to-1 AI-powered applications on top of the platform.
• Own end-to-end lifecycle from discovery to deployment.
• Collaborate with engineering to shape platform architecture.

Skills

TypeScript

React

Next.js

Customer-facing

Education

CS degree, top programs (Stanford/Berkeley/MIT/CMU/Georgia Tech)

Tools

Python

PostgreSQL

LangChain

Vercel AI SDK

Job description

Location: On-site in San Francisco, CA (Market & Montgomery area)

Travel: 3-4 days per month (mostly US East Coast / Midwest customer sites)

Compensation: $160,000 - $300,000 Base Salary + 75th Percentile Equity

The Company

Our client is a fast-growing, Y Combinator-backed startup ($33M+ in total funding backed by top-tier fintech investors) building "AGI for banking."

They are replacing multi-billion-dollar legacy banking platforms with an AI-native operating system that automates up to 90% of manual lending, underwriting, and account opening workflows. With over $10M+ in contracted ARR and active deployments inside top-10 US banks, they are building the "Palantir for commercial banking."

The Role

This is a high-impact, 0-to-1 engineering role for a builder who wants direct access to real users in one of the largest, least-automated industries in the economy.

Operating like a "mini-CTO," you will embed directly with bank executives, underwriters, and lenders to understand broken, manual processes. You will translate those field learnings into working software, deploying AI agents that replace manual tasks. Everything you build in the field directly shapes and feeds back into the core platform architecture.

Work Split: Roughly 70% building & shipping code and 30% embedded with customers and collaborating with your team.

• Embed in the Field: Spend time alongside bank underwriters and operators to map their day-to-day workflows, bottlenecks, and pain points.
• Build 0-to-1 Applications: Rapidly architect and ship full-stack, AI-powered systems (e.g., digital account opening, credit management automation) directly on top of the platform.
• Own the Lifecycle: Take end-to-end responsibility from initial customer discovery to production deployment and rapid iteration.
• Shape Platform Architecture: Feed field learnings and reusable primitives back into the core platform to power future enterprise deployments.
• 0-10+ Years Experience: Full-stack, product, or forward-deployed engineering experience.
• 0-to-1 Builder Track Record: Proven history of building applications from scratch—whether as a startup founder, employee #1-20 at an early-stage company, or creator of hackathon/side projects with real users.
• Core Tech Mastery: Strong proficiency in TypeScript, React, and Next.js, with a solid understanding of systems design.
• Customer-Facing Instincts: Exceptional verbal communication and the ability to work directly alongside non-technical business users to translate complex problems into technical solutions.
• Education: CS degree required for candidates with 0-3 years YOE (preferably from top engineering programs like Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, CMU, Georgia Tech, etc.). Candidates with 3+ years YOE can substitute with demonstrated technical project depth.
• Prior Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) experience at companies like Palantir, Scale AI, Databricks, Moveworks, or Glean.
• Former founder, co-founder, or CTO experience.
• Experience with Python, PostgreSQL, and modern LLM frameworks (LangChain, Vercel AI SDK).

Benefits & Package

• Top-Tier Equity: 75th-percentile equity grant in a fast-scaling startup backed by top fintech founders and VCs.
• High-Level Mobility: FDE is treated as equal to (or more advanced than) core product engineering, with full optionality to pivot into core platform engineering anytime.
• Massive Market Scope: Build applications that automate core processes for multi-billion-dollar financial institutions.

1. 1. Initial Recruiter Screen (30 mins): Background check, 0-to-1 builder DNA, verbal communication, and logistics alignment (SF in-office + 3-4 days/month travel).
2. 2. Technical Screen w/ Engineering Leadership (45-60 mins): Deep dive into a 0-to-1 product you’ve built from scratch and your approach to translating customer problems into scalable code.
3. 3. Systems Design & Coding (60-90 mins): Practical full-stack coding (TypeScript, React, Next.js, Python) and AI system/agent architecture.
4. 4. Final Onsite (Half Day - San Francisco): In-person pairing session at the SF office, meeting the founding team, and working through a collaborative customer deployment simulation.