Founding Forward Deployed Engineer (up to $220k)

Dex; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Dex seeks a versatile engineer to join a partner company building AI agents that automate manufacturing decisions atop ERP systems. You will translate complex operational problems into product features, prototype production-grade code, and own customer implementations from scoping to training.

Fluency in German is a significant advantage as the current customer base is primarily in Germany and US expansion continues.

Qualifications

• At least two years of full-time professional experience, customer-facing from day one.
• You turn complex user frustrations into intuitive, performant features.
• You can write production code and prototype features yourself.
• You design scalable processes in code, operations, and human workflows.
• Fluency in German is a significant advantage for our current clients.

Responsibilities

• Translate complex manufacturing operational problems into product features.
• Prototype and write production-grade code to implement new features and fixes.
• Own customer implementations end-to-end: scoping, onboarding, integration, and training.
• Extract reusable features, data models, and playbooks from each rollout to shape the core product.

Skills

Customer-facing experience

Product architect mindset

Ability to write production code

Systems thinking

German language proficiency

Job description

This role is with one of Dex's trusted partner companies. We work closely with their teams to truly understand their culture, goals, and what they're looking for, so we can match you with the right opportunity and give you context about the role before you commit to a process.

The role

This company builds AI agents that automate strategic decisions in manufacturing operations, sitting on top of ERP systems. Their customers are large manufacturers, currently in Germany and expanding to the US. Every deployment reveals new insights into complex operations. The mission: turn these bespoke learnings into a scalable product. They are backed by leading investors and a talent-dense team.

The work

• Translate complex manufacturing operational problems into product features.
• Prototype and write production-grade code to implement new features and fixes.
• Own customer implementations end-to-end: scoping, onboarding, integration, and training.
• Extract reusable features, data models, and playbooks from each customer rollout, directly shaping the core product with leadership.

What You Bring

• At least two years of full-time professional experience; you'll be customer-facing from day one.
• A product architect mindset: you turn complex user frustrations into intuitive, performant features.
• Ability to write production code and prototype features yourself, not just hand off specs.
• Systems thinking: you design scalable processes in code, operations, and human workflows, defaulting to data and automation.
• Fluency in German is a significant advantage, given the current customer base.