Forward Deployed Engineer, Professional Services

Napster; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity opportunities

Comprehensive benefits

Travel up to 25%

Job summary

Napster is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to embed with strategic customers and turn embodied AI into production reality. You will design, build, and ship AI agents and experiences inside enterprise systems, working closely with Solution Engineering and Product teams.

You will thrive in ambiguity, lead with technical excellence, and represent Napster at the highest customer levels, including on-site installations and executive engagements.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in a technical, customer-facing role such as Forward Deployed Engineer or Solutions Engineer.
• Hands-on experience with agentic coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex).
• Production experience with LLMs, prompt/context engineering, tool use and evaluation frameworks.
• Experience building MCP servers, agent skills, or similar extensibility layers.

Responsibilities

• Work within customer systems to build production-grade AI agents and digital twins on the Napster platform, ensuring accuracy, latency, brand, and experience quality.
• Ship technical artifacts used in production workflows, including MCP servers, agent skills, sub-agents, tool integrations, knowledge and memory layers.
• Prototype rapidly with customers in the room and move from PoC to production quickly using agentic tools.
• Design multi-agent architectures and orchestration patterns for each use case, selecting models and tools accordingly.
• Translate customer needs into clear technical plans, timelines, and success criteria with Solution Engineering.
• Provide white-glove deployment support across web, mobile, and on-site installations, coordinating with teams as needed.
• Design evaluation pipelines for agent behavior, tool use, persona fidelity, conversation quality, and safety guardrails.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

Customer-facing

Tools

Claude Code

Cursor

Codex

OpenAI Agents SDK

LangGraph

Job description

Forward Deployed Engineer, Professional Services

Reports to: VP of AI & Engineering

Level: Individual Contributor

Location: Remote-first, Europe

About Napster

Founded on the principle of democratizing access, first to music in 1999, now to expertise in the AI era, Napster has consistently remained at the forefront of technological shifts that empower users. Today, the company builds embodied, multimodal AI agents that engage employees and customers where they already work: through video presence, voice, and text. Designed to work alongside people rather than replace them, Napster’s agents carry institutional knowledge into every interaction, elevating the user’s experience and improving business outcomes. For more information, visit napster.com.

About the role

As a member of the Professional Services team at Napster, you will be a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) who embeds directly with our most strategic customers to turn embodied AI from a compelling demo into a production reality. You will work closely with customer teams to design, build, and ship AI agents and experiences that solve real business problems, whether that's a digital twin of an executive greeting shoppers, a multilingual agent in a public-sector kiosk, or a specialist crew of agents supporting employees and customers inside existing enterprise systems.

Working closely with our Solution Engineering, Enablement, Product, and Engineering teams, you'll combine strong engineering skills, a deep understanding of multimodal and agentic AI, and customer-facing judgment to understand customer workflows and deliver solutions that meet high standards for quality, reliability, and responsible use.

You will sit at the frontier of enterprise embodied AI deployments and help shape how Napster delivers in the field. We expect our FDEs to operate autonomously, thrive in ambiguity, and represent Napster at the highest level in customer environments, including on-site installations and executive-level engagements.

How we build

Our FDEs work AI-native. You'll use agentic coding tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex as everyday teammates, not novelties, to scope, prototype, and ship in days rather than weeks. We package what we learn into reusable agent skills, MCP servers, sub-agents, and plugins so every deployment makes the next one faster. If you already run parallel coding agents, maintain your own skills library, and have opinions about context engineering, you'll feel at home here.

Responsibilities

• Work within customer systems to build production-grade AI agents and digital twins on the Napster platform, ensuring they meet customer requirements for accuracy, latency, brand, and experience quality.
• Build and ship technical artifacts used in production workflows, including MCP servers, agent skills, sub-agents, tool integrations, knowledge and memory layers, and custom front-end experiences.
• Use agentic development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and similar) to rapidly prototype, iterate with customers in the room, and move from proof of concept to production quickly.
• Design multi-agent architectures and orchestration patterns, choosing the right models, tools, and frameworks for each use case.
• Scope integrations and translate customer needs into clear technical plans, timelines, and success criteria alongside Solution Engineering.
• Provide white-glove deployment support for Napster products across web, mobile, and physical installations, coordinating with remote and on-site install teams where needed.
• Design and run evaluation pipelines for agent behavior, tool use, persona fidelity, conversation quality, and safety guardrails, including LLM-as-judge and regression testing.
• Codify repeatable deployment patterns into reusable skills, templates, plugins, and reference architectures, and feed insights back to Product and Engineering.
• Contribute to internal programs, including agent dogfooding and enablement, that help the wider team adopt AI-native ways of working.
• Stay current on the rapidly evolving AI stack: frontier LLMs, real-time voice and video models, agent SDKs, protocols like MCP and A2A, and observability tooling.
• Build long-term relationships with customers and proactively identify new opportunities for AI deployment throughout an engagement.
• Travel to customer sites to build and launch in person, estimated at 25% depending on location.
• Be a champion for Napster’s mission and responsible AI practices in the field.

You may be a good fit if you have

• 5+ years of experience in a technical, customer-facing role such as Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or Software Engineer with consulting or professional services experience. Former technical founders are encouraged to apply.
• Hands-on, daily experience with agentic coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex, and a clear point of view on how to use them effectively on real production codebases.
• Production experience building with LLMs, including prompt and context engineering, tool use and function calling, agent development, retrieval and memory design, and evaluation frameworks.
• Experience building MCP servers, agent skills, or similar extensibility layers that give agents access to real systems and data.
• Working knowledge of modern agent frameworks and SDKs (for example Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, LangGraph, or Vercel AI SDK) and when not to use a framework at all.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or TypeScript, with a track record of shipping production applications and integrating with third-party APIs.
• High agency and comfort navigating ambiguity in complex organizations and fast-moving product environments.
• A cooperative mindset for cross-functional collaboration, balancing competing priorities with integrity.
• Strong communication skills to run discovery with customers and explain technical concepts to diverse stakeholders, from developers to C-suite, with a low ego and collaborative approach.
• Genuine enthusiasm for building AI experiences that people actually want to talk to.

Nice to have

• Experience with real-time voice, video, or multimodal AI systems (WebRTC, streaming audio/video, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, avatars).
• Experience with LLM observability and eval tooling such as Langfuse, Braintrust, LangSmith, or Arize.
• Experience running multiple coding agents in parallel, or building internal workflows, plugins, or skill libraries that other engineers use.
• Background in retail, government and public sector, education, healthcare, or another enterprise vertical.
• Experience deploying solutions in physical environments such as kiosks, venues, or retail spaces.
• Familiarity with enterprise IT, security reviews, and integration patterns (SSO, CRM, e-commerce, content management).
• Experience working in the Middle East, Europe, or other international markets with multilingual requirements.
• Public work that shows how you build: open-source MCP servers or skills, blog posts, demos, or talks.

Our Culture

• Impact: Play a crucial role in our growth journey.
• Culture: Join a vibrant team valuing creativity and collaboration.
• Growth: Thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Reward: Enjoy competitive compensation, equity opportunities, and comprehensive benefits.

We're looking for more forward-thinking, collaborative people to be part of our innovation journey and mission to push the boundaries of technology. If you're ready to help us achieve this vision, we'd love to hear from you! At Napster Corp, we're looking for people who are invigorated by our values and driven to change the world, not those who simply check off boxes.