Software Engineer, Forward Deployed (Entry - Senior Level)

ZipHQ, Inc.; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Startup equity

Healthy benefits package (medical, viz

Catered meals

Flexible PTO

Commuter benefit

Team events

Home office stipend

Phone/internet reimbursement

Parental leave

401k plan

Unlimited AI token usage

Job summary

ZipHQ, Inc. is seeking a Forward Deployed Software Engineer to own engineering on high-impact customer deals. You will write production code, partner directly with critical customers, and own the engineering on deals that matter most to Zip.

You will work close to customers, move with urgency, and build features that determine whether major deals close on time and ensure our enterprise-grade platform remains cutting-edge.

Qualifications

• Shipped non-trivial production systems across the stack (Python backend, React/TypeScript frontend).
• Able to translate customer needs into technical specs and product direction.
• Strong communication with customers and internal teams to align on scope and timing.

Responsibilities

• Lead the engineering on critical customer projects with clear scope and delivery timelines.
• Ship high-impact features that advance strategic deals and renewals.
• Collaborate with product teams to decide what to build and how to frame trade-offs.
• Shape Zip's platform roadmap by delivering patterns that scale with key customers.
• Communicate with procurement, finance, and IT teams to diagnose issues live and translate trade-offs.

Skills

Strong software engineering

Product instincts

Customer empathy

Speed and urgency

High ownership

Leadership communication

Tools

Python

React/TypeScript

Job description

About Zip

Zip is the AI platform for enterprise procurement — built for humans and agents working together. By orchestrating procurement across teams, tools, and suppliers with the help of AI agents, companies can secure the resources they need to innovate faster than ever before.
The world’s most influential enterprises trust Zip, including T-Mobile, OpenAI, AMD, Mars, Dollar Tree, and more. Together they’ve saved over $8 billion and processed over $500 billion in spend. Zip’s team includes product leaders from Apple, Airbnb, and Meta, as well as former procurement leaders from United Health, Sanofi, MGM Resorts, Discover, and NASA.
Backed by Adams Street, Alkeon, BOND, CRV, DST, Tiger Global, and Y Combinator, Zip has raised $371 million, most recently at a $2.2 billion valuation and has been recognized by Forbes Fintech 50, Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies, Inc. Best in Business, and LinkedIn Top Startups.

Your role

You’ll join Zip's Forward Deployed Software Engineering team as a software engineer on some of the highest-impact product work at the company. You'll write and ship production code, partner directly with our most critical customers, and own the engineering on the deals that matter most to Zip.

The team operates close to the customer, moves with urgency, and builds the features that determine whether the biggest deals close on time, whether our most demanding customers stay on the leading edge of the product, and what enterprise-grade looks like in our platform.

If you've done Forward Deployed work elsewhere, this is a place to keep doing it - on real product, at scale, for some of the most recognizable companies in the world.

You will

• Lead the engineering on critical customer projects. You'll own scope, sequencing, and delivery against the timelines that high-stakes deals demand, embedded in the implementation cadence alongside our Field PM and Solutions Consultants.
• Ship high-impact features that move the most important strategic deals and renewals forward. The work this team takes on is what makes the platform enterprise-grade - net-new product capabilities, framework gaps (APIs, exports, notifications, etc), and targeted enhancements that ship in days or weeks.
• Bring strong product sense to every decision. Partner with core product teams to decide what to build, what to push back on, and what to redirect. Strong opinions are welcome; strong opinions grounded in what you heard on a customer call are gold.
• Shape Zip's long-term platform and roadmap. Features you ship land at our most critical customers first and compound into the platform, and the patterns you see first become next year's product investments.
• Communicate directly with customers. You'll be on calls with procurement, finance, and IT teams, diagnose problems live against real deadlines, and translate trade-offs in language that lands with both engineers and executives.

Your qualifications

• Strong software engineering skills. You've shipped non-trivial production systems and you can read and write code across the stack: Python on the backend and React/TypeScript on the frontend at Zip.
• Product instincts and judgment. You're the engineer on your current team who pushes back on poorly scoped requirements, who notices when a feature is solving the wrong problem, and who's willing to say so.
• Customer empathy and crisp communication. You can sit in a room with a Director of Procurement at a $50B company, hear what they're actually worried about, and translate it into a tech spec, and vice versa. If you've never done this before but the idea sounds energizing, that counts.
• Speed and urgency with a high quality bar. You can move on a customer-driven timeline and still write code that holds up in production.
• High ownership. You diagnose, build, and ship with minimal supervision. You're the kind of engineer who follows a problem upstream until it's actually fixed.

Helpful, not required:

• Prior experience as a product engineer or full-stack engineer on a team that owned features end-to-end, shipped frequently, and worked closely with users or customers.
• Prior founder or early-employee experience. Many of the best FDEs are people who want to start a company someday and are using this role to build empathy for what enterprises actually buy and why.
• Experience with procurement, finance, ERP, or AP automation systems.

The base salary range for this role is $150,000 - $250,000. The salary for this position is determined based on a variety of job-related factors that may include location, relevant experience, education, or particular skills and expertise.

Perks & Benefits

At Zip, we’re committed to providing our employees with everything they need to do their best work.

• Start-up equity
• 100% health, vision & dental coverage options
• Catered breakfast, lunch, & dinner
• Flexible PTO
• ClassPass membership
• Monthly commuter benefit
• Team building events & happy hours
• Home office stipend
• Phone/internet reimbursement
• Paid parental leave
• Fertility stipend
• 401k plan
• Unlimited AI token usage

We're looking to hire Zipsters and that means hiring people who take ownership, communicate openly, have an underdog mindset, and are excited to increase the pace of innovation for every business in the world. We encourage all candidates to apply even if your experience doesn't exactly match up to our job description. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workspace where everyone (regardless of age, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and more) feels like they belong. We look forward to hearing from you!