Staff Forward Deployed Engineer - Applied AI

Rula; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% remote work environment

Attractive pay and benefits

Comprehensive health benefits

401(k) plan access

Generous time-off policies

Paid parental leave

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Quarterly department stipend

Community and employee resource groups

Home office stipend

Wellness at Rula program

Job summary

Rula looks for a Staff Forward Deployed Engineer to work with core business and clinical teams. You will learn how work is performed, ship tools that cut multi-hour tasks to minutes, and create reusable building blocks for future teams. Privacy-by-design is central as we serve mental health patients.

You will stay with teams until tools run independently and then translate learnings into scalable components for other teams, enabling faster delivery across the organization.

Qualifications

• 8+ years shipping production-quality software with end-to-end ownership.
• Proven track record of shipping tools used weekly by customers with telemetry.
• Deep experience learning operational workflows via observation/interviews/data before designing software.
• Daily use of coding agents with privacy‑by‑design standards.

Responsibilities

• Ship tools used weekly by the team, turning long tasks into short flows.
• Work with a team to understand how work gets done and build reusable building blocks.
• Ensure privacy is incorporated from day one when serving patients.

Skills

8+ years shipping software

Ownership of outcomes

Tool delivery to customers

Customer-centric discovery

AI fluency and engineering workflow

Job description

At Rula, we are a remote-first company that believes mental health is just as important as physical health. We recognize that mental health issues can be complex and multifaceted, and we are dedicated to treating the whole person, not just the symptoms.

We aim to create a world where mental health is no longer stigmatized or marginalized, but rather is embraced as an integral part of one's overall well-being.

We believe that by providing quality care that is both evidence-based and compassionate, we can empower individuals to take charge of their mental health and achieve their full potential. We are passionate about making a positive impact on the lives of those struggling with mental health issues and we strive to be a force for positive change in the field of mental healthcare.

About the Role

Rula's business and clinical teams lose hours every week to manual work, and we want AI to give that time back. As a Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, you will sit with a team, learn how the work actually gets done, and ship tools they use every week, often turning a six-to-eight-hour task into under thirty minutes. You stay until the team runs each tool on its own, then turn what you learned into building blocks that help the next team move faster. Because we serve patients in mental health care, privacy is part of the design from day one.

Required Qualifications

• Experience & Ownership: 8+ years shipping production-quality software systems (consumer or business) with end-to-end ownership of outcomes.
• Rapid Tool Delivery: Proven track record of shipping tools or products used weekly by customers or business teams, supported by usage telemetry.
• Customer-Centric Discovery: Deep experience learning operational workflows through observation, interviews, or data before designing software solutions.
• AI-Fluency & Engineering Workflow: Daily use of coding agents (specifying, testing, and reviewing output diffs) with rigorous evaluation practices (test sets, evals) and privacy‑by‑design standards (synthetic/masked data, isolating clinical content from operational tools)

Preferred Qualifications

While having the preferred qualifications enhances your candidacy, having all of them is not mandatory. We encourage all interested applicants to apply, even those who may not meet every preferred requirement.

• Measurement Infrastructure: Experience building custom measurement frameworks for cost, usage, and impact tracking when standard vendor dashboards were unavailable.
• Forward‑Deployed Experience: Direct prior experience being forward‑deployed to non‑engineering business teams or external customer organizations.
• Model & Cost Optimization: Practical experience migrating systems across different LLM models to optimize costs while maintaining quality guardrails.
• Integration with Legacy/Messy Systems: Proven ability to integrate AI into complex business platforms with imperfect data/APIs (e.g., CRM, billing, scheduling).
• Technical Enablement: Track record of coaching non‑engineering team members to build or adopt software workflows independently.

We're serious about your well-being! As part of our team, full-time employees receive:

• 100% remote work environment: Working hours to support a healthy work‑life balance, ensuring you can meet both professional and personal commitments (must be based in United States, currently not hiring in Hawaii)
• Attractive pay and benefits: Full transparency of pay ranges regardless of where you live in the United States
• Comprehensive health benefits: Medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and FSA/HSA
• 401(k) plan access: Start saving for your future
• Generous time‑off policies: Including 2 company‑wide shutdown weeks each year for self‑care (for most employees)
• Paid parental leave: Available for all parents, including birthing, non‑birthing, adopting, and fostering
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Supporting your mental and physical health
• Quarterly department stipend: Fun team‑building activities or in‑person gatherings
• Community and employee resource groups: Participate in groups that celebrate employee identity and lived experiences, fostering a sense of community and belonging for all
• Home office stipend: New hire home office stipend & $50 monthly stipend to help cover internet or cell phone expenses
• Wellness at Rula program: Year‑round wellness initiatives and a $50/month wellness stipend

Our team

We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental to our mission of making mental healthcare work for everyone. We are dedicated to having a culture of inclusion that will support our employees in feeling safe, seen, heard, and valued.