Forward Engineer

Zetta2; Houston (TX); Presencial; USD 150.000 - 250.000; Jornada completa

Ventajas ofrecidas por este puesto de trabajo

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Equity and bonuses

Relocation assistance

Office lunches & snacks

Flexible time off

Descripción de la vacante

ZETTA² is seeking Senior Forward Deployed Engineers/Architects to lead AI solutions for enterprise clients. You will start as the technical leader on new engagements, shaping AI systems end-to-end and building the team around you to deliver them.

You will design, implement, deploy, and iterate on AI systems in close collaboration with customers, subject matter experts, and fellow engineers. This role emphasizes hands-on delivery and strategic guidance.

Formación

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field.
• 5+ years’ software engineering experience delivering enterprise software with AI depth.
• 2+ years designing and delivering enterprise AI-native solutions with LLMs
• Experience with AI stack technologies (Google, AWS, Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok AI, Cursor, Bloc, Typesafe AI, Thinking Machines, WorkOS, Databricks, Apache Iceberg, Snowflake, Zapier, Ping Identity, and others).
• Proven experience as a hands-on technical lead building and shipping AI-native solutions.

Responsabilidades

• Lead technical discovery with clients and understand environments and constraints.
• Design and deliver AI-native solutions balancing speed, reliability, scalability, and cost.
• Deploy proprietary AI products, solutions, agentic workflows and services.
• Lead and coach engineers on the account and set technical direction.
• Support team growth and determine team composition per account needs.
• Act as the forward-deployed face of technical leadership to clients and sponsors.
• Influence decisions by guiding smart technical choices for AI success.
• Mentor engineers from design through delivery and translate client solutions into reusable products.
• Share insights across the company to raise deployment standards.

Conocimientos

LLM integration

AI-native architectures

Technical leadership

Client engagement

Team leadership

Educación

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Herramientas

Google Cloud

AWS

NVIDIA

OpenAI

Databricks

Snowflake

Descripción del empleo

At Zetta², we’re on a mission to help enterprises realize the value of AI for their business. We’re a pure-play, agnostic AI-native firm that provides a full range of AI infrastructure and software products, solutions, agentic workflows and services, alongside leading AI technologies and best-in-class partnerships, helping enterprises drive measurable business outcomes, quickly taking AI solutions from idea to production.

ZETTA² integrates leading AI models, hyperscale platforms, and AI technologies to deliver secure, production-ready AI-native solutions. Our vendor-neutral approach enables us to recommend the best technology or ground-up approach for each customer — not just a preferred platform. We continually vet partners from the fast-moving AI world and have strategic partnerships with many of the industry’s leaders. We work with Google, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, IBM, OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Cursor, Grok by X, Typesafe AI, Thinking Machines, Apache Iceberg, Databrinks, WorkOS, Zapier, Unsloth, Snowflake, Ping Identity, Pinecone, ServiceNow, Microsoft, Salesforce and many more AI stack industry leaders.

ZETTA² raised a substantial seed round in August of 2026, led by Smith/Newberg Road Partners, L.P./Bekman 514, Ltd. Smith, with sales in excess of $12B, is one of the world's largest independent electronic-component distributors, offering supply chain services on a global scale.

About the Role – Senior Forward Deployed Engineer/Architect

We're looking for several Senior Forward Deployed Engineers/Architects. Think of it as being the technical leader of the account: often starting as the first engineer on a new engagement, shaping the AI solution from the ground up, and building and leading the team around you to deliver it.

This is not a demo-building role. Senior Forward Deployed Engineer/Architects are hands-on builders. They design, implement, deploy, and iterate on end-to-end AI systems in close partnership with customers, subject matter experts, and other ZETTA² engineers.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership

• Work closely with the ZETTA² leadership team to drive technical discovery with clients, understand environments, constraints, and the realities of dynamic enterprises.
• Work closely with the ZETTA² leadership team to design and deliver AI-native solutions that balance speed, reliability, scalability and cost.
• Work closely with the ZETTA² leadership team to design and deploy proprietary AI products, solutions, agentic workflows and services.
• Lead and coach the engineers on the account — set technical direction for people and project outcomes.
• Partner with ZETTA² leadership team to support team’s growth as well as figure out team composition according to account needs.

Client Engagement

• Act as the forward-deployed face of technical leadership, tailoring communication from engineers to business leaders and project sponsors.
• Influence decision-making by helping make smart technical choices that help clients realize AI success.

Delivery & Enablement

• Guide and mentor engineers from design through delivery.
• Partner with ZETTA² leadership team to translate client-specific solutions into reusable proprietary AI products, solutions, agentic workflows and services.
• Share insights across the company and team, raising the bar for future deployments.

About You:

• Academic excellence - Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related technical field.
• 2+ years’ experience designing and delivering enterprise AI-native solutions. You have built applications powered by LLMs or other AI models and are comfortable composing multiple components — prompts, agents, tools, retrieval, evaluators, workflows, and integrations — into end-to-end systems.
• 5+ years’ software engineering experience, designing and delivering enterprise software systems, with strong AI/ML depth.
• Experience with AI stack technologies (Google, AWS, Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok AI, Cursor, Bloc, Typesafe AI, Thinking Machines, WorkOS, Databricks, Apache Iceberg, Snowflake, Zapier, Ping Identity and others).
• Track record of partnering with clients to grow the account over numerous weeks, months and years.
• Track record of leading and coaching AI engineers over multiple years.
• Proven experience as a hands‑on technical lead — building and shipping AI-native solutions.
• Mastery of the AI development lifecycle: from data lakes to model deployment and monitoring.
• Ability to engage credibly across audiences – from engineers to executives.
• Ability to travel - typically 10–50%, depending on the project, customer needs, and your role on the engagement.
• Background in consulting or client‑facing engineering roles.

What We Offer

The base salary range for this role is $150K – $250K, total salary for role expected to be $200K – $400K, depending on experience, location, and level. In addition to base compensation, this role is eligible for meaningful early‑stage equity, quarterly and year‑end bonuses, along with a comprehensive benefits package:

• 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents.
• Ongoing training across our strategic AI partners.
• Access to state‑of‑the‑art AI models, generous usage of modern AI tools, and exciting customers with real‑world business problems.
• Complementary in‑office lunches and snacks provided.
• Ownership of high‑impact projects across some of the world’s best companies.
• Flexible time off.
• Relocation assistance.
• Enjoy a fast‑moving culture that values the desire and ability to learn AI technologies while having fun.

ZETTA², has offices in Houston, Los Angeles (2027) & Boston (2027). This role is required to work out of one of our offices while not on client engagement.

We believe diverse perspectives make our work stronger and more impactful. We are an equal opportunity employer and evaluate all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.