Forward Deployed Engineer

firecrawl; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous PTO

12 weeks parental leave

Wellness stipend

Learning & Development allowance

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

401(k) plan

Pet insurance

Job summary

A cutting-edge technology company is looking for a Forward Deployment Engineer to work directly with customers in deploying solutions. This role requires strong software engineering skills and a customer-centric approach. You will troubleshoot and optimize integrations while collaborating with core engineers. The position offers a competitive salary range of $150,000 to $250,000, equity opportunities, and flexible work arrangements including hybrid and remote options.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in software engineering or related field.
• Experience in customer-facing roles or solutions engineering.
• Familiarity with web crawling or scraping technologies.

Responsibilities

• Deploy and customize Firecrawl in customer environments.
• Own technical deliveries for priority accounts.
• Debug real-world issues involving APIs and data pipelines.
• Build templates and playbooks based on customer needs.

Skills

Strong software engineering

API development

Problem-solving

Customer communication

Debugging

Job description

Forward Deployment Engineer

Salary Range: $150,000–$250,000/year
(Range shown is for U.S.-based employees. Compensation outside the U.S. is adjusted fairly based on your country’s cost of living. You can explore how we calculate this here: https://www.firecrawl.dev/careers/compensation.)

Equity Range: Up to 0.10%

Location: San Francisco, CA (Hybrid) OR Remote

Job Type: Full-Time (SF) OR Contract (Remote)

Experience: 3+ years

Visa: US Citizenship/Visa required for SF; N/A for Remote

About Firecrawl

Firecrawl is the easiest way to extract data from the web. Developers use us to reliably convert URLs into LLM-ready markdown or structured data with a single API call. In just a year, we’ve hit millions in ARR and 70k+ GitHub stars by building the fastest way for developers to get LLM-ready data.

Previously, we built Mendable, one of the first commercially available “chat with your data” applications. We sold to companies like MongoDB, Coinbase, Snapchat, and more. To do this, we spent a surprising amount of time building reliable infrastructure for getting clean data from the web. When we started to see our founding friends rebuilding the same thing, we thought we might be on to something.

Why Firecrawl

• Customer impact, immediately — Your work directly unblocks customers and drives revenue
• Technical ownership — Own real-world deployments and customer-facing integrations
• High velocity — Fast iteration, fast feedback, fast shipping
• Founder access — Work directly with founders and core engineers
• Small team, big ambition — Influence how our product is used at scale

About the Role

We’re looking for a Forward Deployment Engineer who thrives at the intersection of engineering, product, and customers. You’ll work directly with users to deploy Firecrawl in real‑world environments, unblock integrations, and turn customer needs into repeatable solutions and product improvements.

This is a highly hands‑on, customer‑facing engineering role — ideal for someone who likes solving complex problems live and shipping pragmatic solutions fast.

What You’ll Do

• Work directly with customers to deploy, customize, and troubleshoot Firecrawl in production environments
• Own technical delivery for priority accounts, from first integration through ongoing optimization
• Debug complex real‑world issues involving APIs, crawling, data pipelines, and infra constraints
• Build reusable solutions, templates, and playbooks based on customer needs
• Translate customer feedback into clear product and engineering insights
• Collaborate closely with core engineers to improve reliability, performance, and usability
• Help define best practices for how Firecrawl is implemented at scale

Who You Are

• Strong software engineer with solid fundamentals (APIs, systems, debugging)
• Comfortable working directly with customers and explaining technical concepts clearly
• Calm and effective in ambiguous, fast‑moving situations
• Biased toward action — you unblock first, optimize later
• Enjoys shipping pragmatic solutions over perfect abstractions
• Comfortable working quickly in a small, high‑trust team

Bonus Points

• Experience in solutions engineering, devrel, SRE, or customer‑facing infra roles
• Familiarity with web crawling, scraping, proxies, or data extraction systems
• Startup experience or ex‑founder
• Shipped systems used by real customers at scale

What It Means to Join Firecrawl

• High Leverage — Your work directly impacts customer success and company growth
• Autonomy — Own your domain; we care about outcomes, not hours
• Remote‑First Culture — Work from anywhere, with access to our SF HQ
• Growth Opportunity — Early equity and a role that scales with the company
• Creative Freedom — If you find a better way to do things, we’ll run with it

Benefits & Perks

Available to all employees

• Salary that makes sense — $150,000‑250,000/year OTE (U.S.-based), based on impact, not tenure
• Own a piece — Up to 0.10% equity in what you're helping build
• Generous PTO — 15 days mandatory, anything after 24 days, just ask (holidays excluded); take the time you need to recharge
• Parental leave — 12 weeks fully paid, for moms and dads
• Wellness stipend — $100/month for the gym, therapy, massages, or whatever keeps you human
• Learning & Development – Expense up to $150/year toward anything that helps you grow professionally
• Team offsites — A change of scenery, minus the trust falls
• Sabbatical — 3 paid months off after 4 years, do something fun and new

Available to US‑based full‑time employees

• Full coverage, no red tape — Medical, dental, and vision (100% for employees, 50% for spouse/kids) — no weird loopholes, just care that works
• Life & Disability insurance — Employer‑paid short‑term disability, long‑term disability, and life insurance — coverage for life's curveballs
• Supplemental options — Optional accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and voluntary life insurance for extra peace of mind
• Doctegrity telehealth — Talk to a doctor from your couch
• 401(k) plan — Retirement might be a ways off, but future‑you will thank you
• Pre‑tax benefits — Access to FSAs and commuter benefits (US‑only) to help your wallet out a bit
• Pet insurance — Because fur babies are family too

Available to SF‑based employees

• SF HQ perks — Snacks, drinks, team lunches, intense ping pong, and peak startup energy
• E‑Bike transportation — A loaner electric bike to get you around the city, on us

Interview Process

1. Application Review — Resume + quick note on why you’re excited
2. Technical + Customer Scenario Interview (~45 min) — Real‑world problem solving
3. Interview with Founders (~30 min) — Culture, ownership, and vision
4. Paid Work Trial (1–2 weeks) — Work on something real with us
5. Decision — We move fast

If you enjoy solving real customer problems and shipping impactful solutions, you’ll thrive here.

👉 Apply now and let’s talk.