Forward Deployed Engineer

Tavus; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work schedule

Unlimited PTO

Competitive healthcare

Gear stipends

Supportive team culture

Job summary

A tech-driven research lab is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to bridge customers and engineering. This role involves debugging integrations, building prototypes, and translating customer feedback into product enhancements. Ideal candidates will have solid engineering fundamentals, a strong desire to solve customer problems, and the ability to influence product direction. Join a diverse team committed to creating human-friendly AI solutions, offering flexibility, unlimited PTO, and competitive benefits.

Qualifications

• Deep curiosity about problems across various tech stacks.
• Ability to work closely with end users to analyze needs.
• Experience in prototyping and building SDKs.

Responsibilities

• Debug and assist customers in their integrations.
• Build prototypes and tools for improved developer experience.
• Translate customer feedback into product improvements.
• Help define customer experience standards.

Skills

Software engineering fundamentals

Problem-solving

Customer engagement

Product management mindset

Action-oriented approach

Job description

About Us

Tavus is a research lab pioneering human computing. We’re building AI Humans: a new interface that closes the gap between people and machines, free from the friction of today’s systems. Our real-time human simulation models let machines see, hear, respond, and even look real—enabling meaningful, face-to-face conversations. AI Humans combine the emotional intelligence of humans with the reach and reliability of machines, making them capable, trusted agents available 24/7, in every language, on our terms.

Imagine a therapist anyone can afford. A personal trainer who adapts to your schedule. A fleet of medical assistants that can give every patient the attention they need. With Tavus, individuals, enterprises, and developers can all build AI Humans to connect, understand, and act with empathy at scale.

We’re a Series B company backed by world‑class investors including Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, and Scale Venture Partners.

Be part of shaping a future where humans and machines truly understand each other.

The Role

This isn’t a traditional engineering job. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you’ll split your time between two worlds:

• With customers (30–40%) — working hands‑on to debug integrations, unblock adoption, and help them build amazing things with Tavus.
• With our product (the rest of the time) — building SDKs, prototypes, and enhancements to our core platform that make Tavus more powerful, intuitive, and delightful to use.

You’ll be the bridge between customers and engineering, turning real‑world challenges into product improvements. Your mission is simple: ensure every developer and creator has a smooth, magical experience with Tavus — backed by great docs, guides, tools, and product enhancements.

Core Responsibilities

• Work directly with customers to debug, build POCs, and design solutions.
• Build prototypes, SDKs, sample apps, and tools that improve developer experience.
• Collect feedback, identify patterns, and translate them into product/engineering improvements.
• Partner on early feature adoption: test pre‑release features with customers, gather feedback, suggest iterations.
• Help define how we develop a world class customer experience.

What Makes You a Great Fit

• Extremely solid software engineering fundamentals.
• Deep curiosity about problems at every level of the stack, from ML to infrastructure to networking.
• The desire to work closely with end users to understand their problems.
• A good “PM hat” to see patterns in customer requests and use those patterns to inform product direction.
• A strong bias toward action and a founder mindset to keep going until a problem is truly solved.

Why This Role Matters

Success means:

• Customers integrate Tavus faster and more reliably because of your support.
• Engineering ships changes directly informed by your field learnings.
• Prototypes and tools you build demonstrate new use cases and accelerate adoption.
• Product priorities are influenced by the patterns you uncover across customers.
• The challenge is providing world class customer experience as Tavus grows, while still feeling the customer’s pain and turning it into fast product improvements.

Benefits & Culture

When you join Tavus, you’re joining a diverse and supportive team. Our work is driven by our people, and our success is shared by all. This position has a flexible work schedule, unlimited PTO, competitive healthcare, and gear stipends, as well as plenty of fun.

At the end of the day, we want Tavus to be a place for you to learn, directly drive impact, and work with a team you love. To learn more about our team culture and benefits, check out our hiring page.

Tavus is growing fast, and we’d like you to grow with us. If you’re excited to get your hands dirty and help make machines more human, drop your resume and we’ll be in touch.

We are not looking for cultural fits, we are looking for culture creators. Diversity is what drives our success – it’s at the core of how we hire, communicate, and work. We are inclusive to all and combine our diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and perspectives to build the best experiences for our clients.