Human Delta — Forward Deployed Engineer

davidjoseph-co; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation support

Meals provided

Job summary

Human Delta in San Francisco is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to drive commercial work with enterprise customers, translating complex problems into scalable AI-powered solutions. You’ll own relationships from discovery through scope to closed contracts, collaborating closely with the co-founders and CEO.

The role blends engineering insight with business impact, requires AI fluency and startup experience, and offers uncapped commission (5–7% of contract value) plus equity (0.2–0.7%), with

Qualifications

• 2 to 5 years of engineering or related experience (YOE).
• Forward-deployed or customer-facing technical background.
• Technical fluency plus AI knowledge required.
• Prior startup experience strongly preferred.
• SF on-site, relocation assistance.

Responsibilities

• Own direct relationships with enterprise customers from discovery through technical scoping to closed contracts.
• Translate messy, ambiguous customer problems into clear technical plans and simple, effective solutions.
• Make high-impact architectural and system-design decisions under real customer constraints.
• Work across the stack when deployment requires it — APIs, data layers, UI surfaces, and customer-facing tooling.
• Own feedback loop between enterprise needs and platform development with founders.

Job description

Human Delta — Forward Deployed Engineer

Type: Full-time | On-site | San Francisco, CACompensation: $130,000–$160,000 base + uncapped commission (5–7% of contract value) + 0.2–0.7% equityHiring count: 1Visa sponsorship: Yes — H-1B, O-1, OPTReports to: Co-Founder and CEO (name / LinkedIn not in source HTML)

About Human Delta

Human Delta is the AI adoption engine for American enterprises, building the operating layer that makes enterprise AI reliable, safe, and genuinely usable at scale. The platform sits at the center of how large enterprises adopt AI, serving both technical teams and operations leaders who depend on it to understand what their systems know, how their processes run, and how AI behaves in real scenarios. Early customers include Disney and ESPN. The team is small, engineering-led, and moves fast while holding a high bar for clarity, correctness, and maintainability.

Founded: 2025 | Team size: 1–10 (Seed) | Total funding: $3MBacking: Susa Ventures, Wischoff Ventures, Afore Capital, Kleiner Perkins Scout Fund, plus angels from leading research labs and financial institutionsIndustry: AI ToolsWebsite: humandelta.aiOffice: San Francisco, CA

Why Candidates Should Join

• Ground-floor commercial ownership: Early Forward Deployed Engineer working directly with the co-founder and CEO, owning enterprise relationships end to end — from discovery through technical scoping to closed contract.
• Marquee early customers: Disney and ESPN already onboard at seed stage.
• Real upside: Uncapped commission (5–7% of contract value) on top of base, plus meaningful early-employee equity (0.2–0.7%). Meals covered; relocation supported for candidates outside SF.

Intake Call Summary

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The Role

A Forward Deployed Engineer role weighted more toward commercial work than pure engineering. The majority of the job is going deep with enterprise customers — understanding their systems, diagnosing their real pain points, and scoping and selling a technical solution that fits. Technical fluency and working knowledge of AI are essential, but the role is measured on customer outcomes and closed contracts, not volume of code shipped. It sits at the intersection of engineering, product, and operations, with close daily collaboration with the founders and early customers. Candidates who want a heads-down engineering seat should not apply.

What You\'ll Be Doing

• Own direct relationships with enterprise customers, from discovery through technical scoping to closed contract
• Translate messy, ambiguous customer problems into clear technical plans and simple, effective solutions
• Make high-impact architectural and system-design decisions under real customer constraints
• Work across the stack when deployment requires it — APIs, data layers, UI surfaces, and customer-facing tooling
• Own the feedback loop between what enterprise customers need and what the platform becomes, alongside the founders

Nice-to-have (from role body): Experience with LLMs, retrieval systems, knowledge bases, or search; familiarity with enterprise software (CRMs, ticketing systems, content platforms); prior work with large or messy datasets; strong intuition for product, UX, and system design.

Tech stack: Not specified in source. Cross-stack in practice — APIs, data layers, UI surfaces, customer-facing tooling; LLM / retrieval / search adjacent.

Requirements

• 2 to 5 YOE
• Forward deployed or customer-facing technical background
• Technical fluency plus AI knowledge required
• Prior startup experience strongly preferred
• SF, 5 days on-site, relocation supported

Green Flags

• Prior forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, or comparable customer-facing technical experience
• Prior startup experience with evidence of full end-to-end ownership rather than a narrow assigned scope
• Strong academic background
• Backgrounds from technical deployment-heavy AI companies such as Scale AI
• Demonstrated ability to hold both sides of the role credibly: technical depth with enterprise buyers and commercial instinct in the room

Red Flags

• Pure account executive or sales profiles without genuine technical fluency
• No prior startup experience or no evidence of owning work end to end
• No prior experience interacting directly with customers
• Preference for a heads-down engineering role, since the majority of this job is commercial
• Seeking remote or hybrid work, since the role is five days on-site in San Francisco

Role Details

• Salary — $130,000–$160,000
• Equity — 0.2–0.7%
• Commission — Uncapped, 5–7% of contract value
• On-site policy — San Francisco, 5 days per week; relocation supported
• Visa sponsorship — H-1B, O-1, OPT
• Employment type — Full-time
• Location — San Francisco, CA

Screening Questions

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Interview Process

Stage 1 — Pending Approval — Candidates awaiting initial approval.Stage 2 — Intro chat — Intro chat with the Co-Founder and CEO.Stage 3 — Second round — With either the Head of Engineering or the Co-Founder.Stage 4 — Work trial — Virtual or on-site, typically one to two days.Stage 5 — Offer Extended — Offer has been extended.Stage 6 — Candidate Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.