Founding Forward Deployed Engineer

Vibehackers; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Vision insurance

Dental coverage

401(k) plan

Generous PTO

Home office stipend

Education stipend

Wellness stipend

Company events

Daily lunches

Job summary

Glean is hiring a founding Forward Deployed Engineer to identify large, unsolved business problems at strategic customers and build 0-to-1 AI product surfaces on Glean’s Work AI platform.

You will work in small pods with Forward Deployed PMs and partner directly with customer C-suite and technical teams, traveling 25–50% as needed while delivering production AI solutions at enterprise scale.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in technical roles with track record of shipping production software.
• Proven 0-to-1 product delivery experience at scale.
• Production AI experience (prompt engineering, agent development, evaluation frameworks).

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery with customers to form product hypotheses.
• Design and build 0-to-1 production-ready AI solutions for enterprise customers.
• Partner with C-suite and cross-functional teams to scale prototypes into features.
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to ensure scalable solutions.
• Align with R&D to inform platform roadmaps.

Skills

Full-stack development

Production AI

Prompt engineering

Agent development

Executive communication

Stakeholder management

Product discovery

Problem solving

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Tools

LLMs & retrieval systems

Evaluation frameworks

Deployment at scale

Job description

Building AI agents and production LLM integrations—directly aligned with vibe coding and prompt/agent engineering.

About the Role

Join Glean as a founding Forward Deployed Engineer to discover and build 0-to-1 AI-powered product surfaces for strategic enterprise customers, partnering closely with Forward Deployed PMs and C‑suite stakeholders. You will drive deep opportunity discovery, ship production AI solutions and scale successful prototypes into platform features while traveling 25–50%.

Job Description

Role

As a founding member of Glean’s Forward Deployed team, you will operate with founder-level autonomy to identify large, unsolved business problems at strategic customers and build 0-to-1 product surfaces on Glean’s Work AI platform. You will work in small pods with Forward Deployed PMs, partner directly with customer C-suite and technical teams, and collaborate closely with Glean’s core R&D teams to shape platform capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead deep opportunity discovery with customers to form and pressure-test product hypotheses.
• Design and build 0-to-1, production-ready solutions that extend Glean’s platform and solve problems no product currently addresses.
• Serve as a technical partner and communicator with C-suite stakeholders and cross-functional customer teams.
• Make working solutions repeatable and scalable by collaborating with core engineering and product teams.
• Stay aligned with platform R&D and feed field learnings back into product and platform roadmaps.

Requirements

• 4+ years in technical roles with a track record of shipping production software; former technical founders encouraged to apply.
• Proven 0-to-1 product delivery experience: built production systems from scratch used by real customers at scale.
• Production AI experience (prompt engineering, agent development, evaluation frameworks, deployment at scale), not just prototypes.
• Full-stack technical depth and strong programming skills across the stack; solid understanding of enterprise systems.
• Strong business acumen and customer instincts: able to diagnose real problems and translate them into product hypotheses.
• Excellent executive communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Builder’s judgment: make pragmatic tradeoffs, simplify scope, and spot/solve problems early.
• Curiosity, resourcefulness, and a scrappy approach to ambiguous problems.
• Willingness to travel 25–50%.

Nice-to-haves

• Prior experience as a founder, at a top-tier tech company, or in a forward deployed engineering role.
• Technical degree in CS, engineering, math, or related field.
• Deep familiarity with LLMs, retrieval systems, and evaluation frameworks.
• Experience driving technology adoption inside large enterprises.

Location & Travel

• This role is remote and requires 25–50% travel.
• Standard range: $160,000 - $270,000 annually (varies by location, level, experience).
• May be eligible for variable compensation, equity, and benefits.
• Benefits include medical, vision, and dental coverage; opportunity to contribute to a 401(k) plan; generous time-off policy; home office improvement stipend; annual education and wellness stipends; regular company events; and daily healthy lunches.

Interview note

• As part of the interview process, candidates complete a brief AI-focused exercise or discussion to demonstrate how they think about, design, and use AI to drive impact.

Skills

Full-Stack Development System Design 0-to-1 Product Development Product Discovery Executive Communication Stakeholder Management Customer Engagement Business Acumen AI Product Development Prompt Engineering Agent Development Evaluation Frameworks Deployment & Scaling Cross-functional Collaboration Problem Solving Strategic Thinking Builder's Judgment Curiosity & Scrappiness Travel Readiness