Forward Deployed Engineer

AI Fund; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Ayama, in partnership with Andrew Ng's AI Fund, seeks a Forward Deployed Engineer for customer-facing work across Bay Area operations. You will split time between helping customers remotely and on-site engagements, writing Python and SQL daily, and configuring Ayama to fit each client's reality.

This 100% hands-on role requires deploying solutions, building integrations, debugging pipelines, and translating field observations into product feedback, with travel to customer sites.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience.

Responsibilities

• Own customer deployments end-to-end at the technical working level: daily operations, training, configuration, incident triage
• Configure Ayama for new customers: enterprise system integrations, operational data mappings, asset hierarchy, customer-specific workflows
• Debug customer-affecting issues end-to-end: read logs, trace through pipelines, patch in production, file precise root-cause reports for engineering
• Scope and execute pilot deployments as Ayama brings on new customers
• Translate field reality into structured product feedback that engineering can act on directly
• Build customer-specific scripts, integration adapters, and small tools that don't belong in core product code

Skills

Python

SQL

Customer-facing

GCP

Communications

ERP/CRM/CMMS

Tools

Django

FastAPI

GCP

Job description

Ayama has partnered with Andrew Ng's AI Fund and a Fortune 500 energy leader to use AI to reshape how $10+ Trillion of heavy assets operate, are managed, and are maintained. With electrification driving rapid growth in energy and reshoring accelerating the build out of U.S. electronics and IT manufacturing, the company plans to close critical gaps by raising asset uptime & output as well as staff productivity. Ayama is looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer to be the technical face of Ayama at our customers.

The Forward Deployed Engineer is customer-facing every day. You work with customer end users and customer IT teams primarily remotely, with periodic on-site visits to customer operational sites for deeper engagement, training, and incident response. This is a 100% hands-on role split between customer engagement and code. You write Python and SQL daily, debug across systems you didn't build, configure Ayama for each customer's operational reality, and translate field observations back into product decisions.

This is a full-time hybrid role located in the Bay Area. Additional locations will be considered in the Western US as long as you live within 30 miles of a major airport with daily flights to San Francisco. Some travel to customer sites will be required. There is no relocation package budgeted for this role.

Responsibilities for the Role Include:

• Own customer deployments end-to-end at the technical working level: daily operations, training, configuration, incident triage


• Configure Ayama for new customers: enterprise system integrations, operational data mappings, asset hierarchy, customer-specific workflows


• Debug customer-affecting issues end-to-end: read logs, trace through pipelines, patch in production, file precise root-cause reports for engineering


• Scope and execute pilot deployments as Ayama brings on new customers


• Translate field reality into structured product feedback that engineering can act on directly


• Build customer-specific scripts, integration adapters, and small tools that don't belong in core product code

Requirements For the Role Include:

• 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience


• Daily Python fluency (Django/FastAPI preferred, transferable from Flask or other modern Python frameworks)


• Strong SQL: joins, aggregations, window functions, and reading query plans


• Track record of customer-facing engineering: deployments, integrations, or incident response with customers in the room


• Direct, structured communication: you can write a clear bug report and explain a technical issue to a non-engineer


• Cloud experience (GCP preferred) and at least one shipped integration with an enterprise system (ERP, CRM, CMMS, or similar)

Nice To Haves Include:

• Prior Forward Deployed Engineer, Implementation Engineer, or Solutions Engineer experience at enterprise or B2B SaaS companies


• Industrial or operations domain background: heavy assets, telemetry, asset management


• Background in a physical-engineering discipline (mechanical, electrical, industrial)

Why Join Ayama:

• Exclusive Ecosystem: Unparalleled access to AI Fund's experts and Dr. Andrew Ng's network of AI luminaries.


• Real-World Impact: We are solving critical performance gaps in energy supply while demand driven by global electrification skyrockets.


• Growth Path: First role on what will become Ayama's customer engineering function. Lead and hire that team as the company scales.

The compensation package will include a base salary plus equity along with a full-benefits package.