Forward Deployed Engineer

Poetic; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Poetic is looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer in San Francisco to transform business operations by building and deploying advanced automation solutions. The ideal candidate will have over a year of experience in technical, client-facing roles like a Software Engineer or Technical Program Manager.

This position emphasizes strong programming capabilities, excellent communication skills, and an ownership mentality. You’ll work closely with Fortune 500 companies, navigating complex workflows to achieve unprecedented results.

Qualifications

• 1+ years of experience in a technical, customer-facing role.
• Strong programming skills and experience shipping production applications.
• High agency in complex enterprise environments.

Responsibilities

• Write code to build production-grade processes for customers.
• Conduct deep process discovery with clients.
• Architect implementations that scale for high-volume processes.
• Drive adoption from pilot to full production.

Skills

Programming skills

Customer relationship building

Communication skills

Navigating ambiguity

Job description

About Poetic

Poetic (formerly known as Forge) is creating the next layer of human-computer interaction - combining the intelligence of AI with the reliability of software. We automate the most complex manual processes for the world's largest enterprises using a new English programming language that blends structured control flow with natural language instructions. Processes that once took hours can now be completed in a fraction of the time at superhuman quality. Poetic is deployed globally, powering critical workflows for Fortune 500 companies with 98%+ quality across over half a million production runs.

About the Role

As a Forward Deployed Engineer at Poetic, you re-program entire companies.

You are not measured by technical complexity nor lines of code, but by ownership of business outcomes. Agency, judgment, and customer understanding are just as valuable in this role as strong software engineering ability.

You will be driving a fundamental shift in how enterprises operate and how all of software is defined. You will own our most strategic customers (some of the largest companies in the world) to build and deploy automation and software that was previously impossible. These are not incremental improvements; you'll be replacing load-bearing workflows in production that previously consumed thousands of human hours.

This role sits at the intersection of engineering, customer partnership, and operational excellence. You'll go deep into complex enterprise workflows, architect robust solutions using our AI-English programming language, and own deployments end-to-end — from initial discovery through global rollout. You'll build lasting relationships inside Fortune 500 organizations, understand the intricacies of their most critical processes, and deliver solutions that fundamentally change how they operate.

You will be Poetic to our customers — the person who delivers previously impossible outcomes. This is a rare opportunity to re-build the largest industries in the world. And it requires someone who can do it all.

Responsibilities

• Write code and build production-grade processes using Poetic's primitives and platform, ensuring solutions meet customer requirements for quality and reliability
• Conduct deep process discovery with customers, breaking down complex, ambiguous workflows into precise, automatable steps
• Architect implementations that scale and work consistently across high-volume, business-critical processes
• Iterate closely with customers and cross-functional partners to drive adoption from pilot to full production
• Navigate complex enterprise organizations and communicate effectively with stakeholders from operations teams to C-suite executives
• Identify and codify repeatable deployment patterns, contributing insights back to the main platform
• Build long-term customer relationships and proactively identify new automation opportunities throughout engagements
• Grow accounts and scale deployments globally

You May Be a Good Fit If You Have

• 1+ years of experience in a technical, customer-facing role such as Forward Deployed Engineer, Technical Program Manager, or Software Engineer with consulting experience. Former technical founders are also encouraged to apply.
• Strong programming skills and experience shipping production applications
• High agency with the ability to navigate ambiguity in complex enterprise environments
• A people-facing disposition — you enjoy building relationships and want to do more than just write code
• An ownership mentality and willingness to do whatever it takes to make deployments successful
• Strong communication skills to conduct discovery and convey technical concepts to diverse stakeholders

Nice to Have

• Experience with LLMs, including prompt engineering or AI product deployment
• Experience in enterprise verticals
• Previous work in customer-facing roles
• Founder experience