Forward Deployed Engineer

QofAI; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

QofAI seeks an engineer who can work in the field with investment teams and operators, embedding with clients to deploy AI solutions that de-risk product development and drive measurable outcomes. You will be a rare mix of engineer and trusted partner, moving from UI to backend and guiding customers from concept to adoption.

We value broad capability over stack specialization. You should be comfortable with AWS, Postgres, Docker, Python or Node.js, and be ready to turn complex problems into

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience building across the full stack.
• Strong customer empathy and ability to translate needs.
• Ability to operate autonomously in ambiguity.
• Write clean, correct code and ensure reliability.
• Excellent communication with non-engineers.

Responsibilities

• Embed with client teams and learn how their business runs to identify AI value.
• Deploy the de-risking product into real workflows and drive adoption.
• Build and deploy product into client environments and sustain value delivery.
• Translate between technical and business stakeholders to avoid misalignment.
• Identify common patterns to create reusable building blocks for the company.
• Operate with high agency in fast-moving, ambiguous settings.

Skills

Full-stack builder

Customer empathy

Autonomy

Clear communication

Problem solving

Tools

AWS

PostgreSQL

Docker

Python

Node.js

Job description

QofAI brings elite consulting and forward-deployed engineering to the middlemarket — turning artificial intelligence into measurable EBITDA growth acrossevery deal, portfolio, and business. We sit where strategy meets software: workingalongside investors and operators, finding where AI actually moves the numbers, andthen building the systems that get it there.

At the center of that is our core product: a system that uses AI to de-riskproduct development — taking the guesswork out of what to build, helping teamsprove out the right ideas faster, and getting the cost of a wrong turn down beforereal money is spent. It's how we turn "AI could help here" into outcomes a CFO canpoint to.

Forward deployment isn't a side note here — it's the whole idea. This role is asclose to that idea as the company gets: you sit alongside the people using thatsystem in the field and you own its traction — making sure it lands, gets adopted,and earns its place in how our customers actually work.

What you'll do

You’ll embed with the people we serve — investment teams, operating partners,management at the companies in a portfolio — put our product to work on theirmessiest, highest-stakes problems, and build the software that closes the gaps itdoesn't yet cover. You're equal parts engineer and trusted partner: in the roomunderstanding what creates value, then back at the keyboard building the thing thatdelivers it.

• Sit alongside a client, learn how their business actually runs, and pinpoint whereAI changes the outcome — not where it merely looks impressive.
• Put our de-risking product into a customer's real workflow and drive its adoption —turning a first deployment into a habit the team relies on, and surfacing what theyneed next back to the people building it.
• Build and deploy real product into a client's environment, then stay with it untilit's driving the result you promised.
• Translate between worlds — making the technical legible to operators and thebusiness legible to engineers — so nothing gets lost between strategy and shipped.
• Spot the patterns that repeat across engagements and turn one-off solutions intoreusable building blocks for the rest of the company.
• Operate with high agency in ambiguous, fast-moving situations, where the right moveisn't written down and waiting to be told isn't an option.

What we're looking for

We care more about range and judgment than any particular stack. We're looking forengineers with roughly 3+ years of experience who:

• Are genuinely full-platform builders — comfortable moving from UI to backend to thedata underneath — and lean toward breadth over staying in one narrow layer.
• Have real customer empathy: you listen well, earn trust quickly, and can hold aroom of non-engineers as easily as a code review.
• Thrive on autonomy and ambiguity — you can walk into an under-defined problem anddrive it to a shipped, measurable outcome.
• Write clear, correct code and care that what you ship actually holds up in someoneelse's environment.
• Communicate plainly, in person and in writing, and bring people along with you.

Nice to have

• Time spent in a forward-deployed, professional-services, or solutions-engineeringrole where you owned the outcome, not just the code.
• Exposure to private equity, portfolio operations, or finance.
• Comfort building across a modern stack — Python and/or Node — and the ability topick up ours quickly (AWS, Postgres, Docker). Breadth matters more here than deepspecialization.
• Experience building data-heavy or AI-adjacent products.

None of these are required. If you're a strong builder who's energized by being closeto the customer, we want to hear from you.

Location & compensation

This role is open remote and from any of our three HQs — the San Francisco BayArea, Pittsburgh, and Austin — with some travel to be on-site with theteams you're embedded with. We offer competitive compensation and work whose impactyou can point to by name.