Sr Forward Deployed Engineer

Zuora; Foster City (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Zuora, Inc. seeks a Forward Deployed role to own end-to-end customer engagements, turning messy signals into prototypes and clear specifications.

You will shepherd projects from idea to production in weeks, collaborating with Engineering, Product Management, Sales, Services and Support to ensure measurable customer outcomes. You will lead AI monetization efforts, design human-in-the-loop controls, and deploy agents across quote-to-cash workflows, driving adoption and commercial outcomes for

Qualifications

• Builder mentality: demonstrated ability to ship product/workflow/tool used by real people.

Responsibilities

• Discover and design: map workflows and define prototype success criteria for end-state integration.
• Identify and prioritize agent use cases by value, data readiness and risk.
• Be the primary day-to-day customer contact and define scope.
• Draft specifications with the engineer and drive signoffs with stakeholders.
• Build golden datasets and evaluation plans with customer experts.
• Design human-in-the-loop controls with Controllers and Internal Audit.
• Co-build with the customer and embed with their teams; own the outcome.
• Ship to a fixed clock and scope to what the customer can run after engagement ends.
• Start with a named sponsor and a real resourcing commitment; avoid unsigned builds.
• Build prototype agents, workflows and pricing models with AI tools on real data.
• Coordinate with Zuora engineers, product, services, and partners as needed.
• Drive adoption through rollout and report business impact in executive terms.
• Lead first customer deployments of Zuora's AI agents across quoting, billing and revenue.

Job description

About Zuora

At Zuora, we help businesses grow smarter and adapt faster. Our platform powers modern business models - from subscriptions and usage-based pricing to AI-driven and outcome-based offerings - helping companies launch new products, automate complex billing, and unlock predictable, recurring revenue.

We've led the Subscription Economy for more than a decade. Now we're evolving again by building the definitive platform for quote to cash and helping companies monetize their products and services with an adaptable, AI-ready foundation.

The Opportunity

Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) is Zuora's newest technical go-to-market motion, pairing a Forward Deployed Product Manager (internally, an Echo) with one or two Forward Deployed Engineers inside fixed-time customer engagements. This is a full-time role: you'll run a portfolio of engagements deployed in weeks to months, building the playbook as you go. Our focus: building the future of agentic quote-to-cash, which means helping enterprises monetize AI-native and usage-based products, and taking Zuora's new AI agents into their first customer deployments.

The job is to own the customer problem end to end and build the answer with the customer: turn a messy field signal into a working prototype, a clear specification and measurable success criteria, take the engagement from idea to production in weeks, not quarters, and leave behind a documented, reusable asset with a commercial next step. You'll work closely with Engineering, Product Management, Product Marketing, Sales, Services and Support to keep every engagement tied to a real customer outcome.

What you'll do & achieve

• Discover and designRun technical discovery with the customer's engineering, product and finance leaders. Map quote-to-cash workflows, exceptions, handoffs and control points, and define the prototype that proves the ideal end-state integration and the success criteria it must meet.
• Identify and prioritize agent use cases by value, data readiness and risk. Recommend what to automate, what to assist and what to leave to people.
• Be the customer's primary day-to-day contact, and decide what is in and out of scope.
• Specification & signoffDraft the specification with your Forward Deployed Engineer: customer need, gap, build and maintainer of record, plus the agent spec (success metrics, acceptance criteria, level of autonomy, escalation paths and approval rules for any action in a system of record). Drive it through customer sponsor, FDE leadership and Product & Engineering signoff. No unsigned builds.
• Build golden datasets and eval plans with customer experts, and review results with your engineer at every gate.
• Design human-in-the-loop controls with the customer's Controllers and Internal Audit, including approvals, segregation of duties and audit evidence.
• Co-build with the customerEmbed with the customer's engineering, product and finance teams and build alongside them and your Forward Deployed Engineer. You own the outcome, not a status report.
• Ship to a fixed clock. Scope to what the customer's team can run after we leave, not the wishlist.
• Start only with a named customer sponsor and a real resourcing commitment. The customer, not FDE, is usually the long pole on speed.
• Build first: prototype agents, workflows and pricing models yourself with AI tools, and prove the idea on the customer's real data before engineering commits.
• Pull in whatever the outcome needs: Zuora engineers, product, Services, partners, the customer's own people, or agents. Point them at the work; a great engagement puts far more hands on the problem than the pod alone.
• Drive adoption through rollout, and report business impact (hours saved, errors reduced, faster close, cash collected) in terms an executive acts on.
• Deploy agents and AI monetizationLead first customer deployments of Zuora's new AI agents, from deal desk and quoting to billing and revenue, and identify the use cases and customer segments they open up.
• Lead AI-monetization engagements: model usage, credit and hybrid pricing with the customer, and define how metering, entitlements, billing and revenue recognition fit together.
• Reuse & readoutOwn the engagement Brief (our standard exit write-up of what was built, what broke, what's reusable and where it should live next) and the reuse case. Present at the monthly readout and quarterly portfolio review, and turn repeatable patterns into playbooks, product requirements and filed product gaps.
• Commercial partnershipDual-thread with the account team: the AE owns commercials, you own the technical buyer. Every engagement names its commercial next step before kickoff.
• EnablementMentor new teammates as the team grows, and act as the motion's evangelist across the field.

What we look for

Builder. Show us what you've built: a product, workflow, agent or tool you shipped that real people use. Walk us through the decisions, the trade-offs and what broke.

Founder mentalit