Forward Deployed Engineer

Wonderful; South Africa; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Wonderful is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to work directly with enterprise customers, translating complex problems into AI-driven deployments. You’ll own projects from problem definition to production, delivering reliable agents and measurable business impact.

This hands-on, generalist role requires navigating ambiguity, learning quickly, and collaborating with Product & Engineering to scale delivery across customer environments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in software engineering or technical problem-solving roles.
• Strong fundamentals in software design and system thinking.
• Experience working across systems, integrations, and data flows.
• Comfort working directly with customers and owning ambiguous problems.
• Clear communication skills and a strong ownership mindset.
• Curiosity and interest in building AI-powered systems that work in practice.

Responsibilities

• Partner with customers to understand operational challenges and success criteria.
• Translate open-ended problems into clear technical designs and implementations.
• Build AI agents that integrate with customer systems and perform real tasks.
• Own deployments, including reliability, performance, and continuous improvement.
• Test with real data, measure outcomes, and iterate based on results.
• Collaborate with Product & Engineering to ship high-quality solutions.
• Contribute to tools, documentation, and best practices that scale customer delivery.

Skills

5+ years experience

Software design

System thinking

Customer facing

AI systems

Job description

Wonderful helps large enterprises accelerate AI adoption to unlock their full potential, combining a complete AI operating system with local deployment teams that get AI into production quickly.

Role Overview

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) at Wonderful, you’ll solve high-impact, real-world problems alongside enterprise customers and own work from first principles through production outcomes.

You’ll work directly with customers to understand critical workflows, design AI-driven solutions, and deploy agents that operate reliably in production. You’ll own projects end-to-end from problem definition and system design to launch and iteration - and be accountable for real business impact.

This is a hands on-generalist rolefor engineers who enjoy navigating ambiguity, learning quickly, and working across systems while partnering with enterprises as they become AI-driven organizations.

What You’ll Do

• Partner with customers to understand operational challenges and success criteria

• Translate open-ended problems into clear technical designs and implementations

• Build AI agents that integrate with customer systems and perform real tasks

• Own deployments, including reliability, performance, and continuous improvement

• Test with real data, measure outcomes, and iterate based on results

• Collaborate with Product & Engineering to ship high-quality solutions

• Contribute to tools, documentation, and best practices that scale customer delivery

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in software engineering or technical problem-solving roles

• Strong fundamentals in software design, system thinking

• Experience working across systems, integrations, and data flows

• Comfort working directly with customers and owning ambiguous problems

• Clear communication skills and a strong ownership mindset

• Curiosity and interest in building AI-powered systems that work in practice

Nice to Have

• Experience in forward-deployed, solutions engineering, or customer-facing roles

• Exposure to AI agents, automation, or conversational systems

• Experience operating and improving production systems