Founding Forward Deployed Engineer

AustinWorks; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

AustinWorks is seeking a highly technical, customer-facing engineer to own enterprise deployments end-to-end in New York. You will engage with enterprise stakeholders to understand pain points, build bespoke AI-powered workflows, and deploy solutions into production environments.

You will act as a technical owner and trusted advisor, scaling with strategic accounts over time. This role requires strong backend/full-stack skills, the ability to learn new technologies quickly, and exceptional

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering fundamentals across backend and/or full-stack systems.
• Comfortable integrating with complex or messy real-world systems.
• Ability to quickly learn new technologies and languages.
• Demonstrated 0→1 ownership and independent execution.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Clear interest in AI systems, agents, or applied LLM workflows.

Responsibilities

• Own enterprise customer engagements from scoping through deployment.
• Build integrations into complex internal systems and workflows.
• Develop and improve AI agents deployed in production environments.
• Work directly with VP, SVP, and C-level stakeholders.
• Translate ambiguous operational problems into scalable technical solutions.
• Expand customer relationships and identify new opportunities within accounts.

Skills

Backend

Full-stack

Systems integration

Stakeholder management

Technical communication

Job description

$150K-$400K+ base + meaningful equity + performance upside

About the Company

Our client is building AI agents that automate complex customer support and operational workflows for enterprise companies. Their agents integrate deeply into internal systems, knowledge bases, and historical workflows to resolve issues with high accuracy in production environments.

The company has already reached millions in ARR with enterprise customers paying $300K-$3M+ annually, while remaining an extremely lean team. They scaled ~20x in 2025 and are on track for another major growth year.

The Role

This is not a traditional solutions engineering role. This is a highly technical, customer-facing engineering position focused on owning enterprise deployments end-to-end.

You’ll work directly with enterprise stakeholders to understand operational pain points, build bespoke AI-powered workflows and integrations, and deploy solutions into complex production environments. You’ll also help grow strategic customer accounts over time, acting as both a technical owner and trusted advisor.

What You’ll Do

• Own enterprise customer engagements from scoping through deployment


• Build integrations into complex internal systems and workflows


• Develop and improve AI agents deployed in production environments


• Work directly with VP, SVP, and C-level stakeholders


• Translate ambiguous operational problems into scalable technical solutions


• Expand customer relationships and identify new opportunities within accounts


• Operate with significant autonomy in a fast-moving startup environment

Ideal Backgrounds

• Forward Deployed Engineers, especially Palantir-style FDE backgrounds


• Founding engineers at high-growth startups


• Technical founders with credible startup experience


• Highly technical, product-minded engineers with strong customer exposure

Requirements

• Strong software engineering fundamentals across backend and/or full-stack systems


• Comfortable integrating with complex or messy real-world systems


• Ability to quickly learn new technologies and languages


• Demonstrated 0→1 ownership and independent execution


• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills


• Clear interest in AI systems, agents, or applied LLM workflows


• Ability to thrive in ambiguity and move quickly

Nice to Have

• Experience deploying AI systems in production


• Startup or early-stage company experience


• Strong side projects, GitHub, or demonstrated builder mentality