Founding Forward Deployed Engineer

gleanwork; United States; Remote; USD 160,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

gleanwork is seeking an early member of the forward deployed engineering team to identify critical business problems at large organizations and turn them into AI-enabled product capabilities. You will partner with customers, executives, and research teams to move ideas from discovery to production and scale solutions across customers.

You will investigate workflows, test hypotheses, design AI-powered surfaces, and communicate approaches and risks to diverse audiences, while collaborating with

Qualifications

• 4+ years in technical roles with production software and AI-powered solutions.
• Strong full-stack programming ability and understanding of enterprise systems.
• Business judgment to diagnose customer problems and connect them to useful product ideas.
• Ability to build trust and communicate clearly with senior stakeholders.
• Sound implementation judgment: assess feasibility and scope, deliver useful production outcomes quickly.
• Willingness to travel 25–50% of the time.

Responsibilities

• Investigate customer workflows and business needs to find valuable problems.
• Form and test product hypotheses with customer stakeholders, considering impact and feasibility.
• Design and build new product surfaces, including AI-powered capabilities, from concept to deployment.
• Explain technical approaches and risks clearly to executive and technical audiences.
• Collaborate with engineering and research teams to scale successful solutions into products.
• Make pragmatic scope decisions and keep delivery moving when requirements are uncertain.

Skills

Full-stack programming

Enterprise systems

Business judgment

Communication

Implementation judgment

Travel readiness

Job description

Role overview

As an early member of a forward deployed engineering team, identify important business problems at large organizations and turn the strongest opportunities into new AI-enabled product capabilities. You’ll work closely with a product partner, customer executives, and internal product and research teams, taking ideas from discovery to production and helping successful solutions scale across customers.

Responsibilities

• Investigate customer workflows and business needs to find valuable problems that existing products do not solve.
• Form and test product hypotheses with customer stakeholders, considering impact, feasibility, risk, and speed to production.
• Design and build new product surfaces, including AI-powered capabilities, from initial concept through deployment.
• Explain technical approaches, expected outcomes, and risks clearly to executive and technical audiences.
• Collaborate with core engineering and research teams to turn successful solutions into scalable products.
• Make pragmatic scope decisions, surface issues early, and keep delivery moving when requirements are uncertain.

Requirements

• At least 4 years in technical roles, with a record of shipping production software and AI-powered solutions beyond prototypes.
• Strong full-stack programming ability and understanding of enterprise systems.
• Business judgment to diagnose customer problems and connect them to useful product ideas without a predefined brief.
• Ability to build trust, communicate clearly with different audiences, and work effectively with senior stakeholders.
• Sound implementation judgment: assess feasibility and effort, simplify scope, and deliver useful production outcomes quickly.
• Willingness to travel 25–50% of the time.

Nice to have

• Experience as a founder, in a forward deployed engineering role, or at a leading technology company; a relevant technical degree; familiarity with LLMs, retrieval, and evaluation; or experience driving technology adoption at large organizations.

Benefits and work setup

Remote role with 25–50% travel. Annual compensation range: $160,000–$270,000, with level and offer based on location, skills, and experience; some positions may include variable pay, equity, and benefits. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, 401(k), home office support, and education and wellness stipends.