Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
Forward Deployed Engineering has become a defining function in modern SaaS, especially as enterprise buyers expect AI products to be tailored to their data, workflows, and security constraints. This founding FDE role sits at that intersection: shipping real deployments while feeding field learnings back into a platform product. The remit spans discovery through production launch, reflecting how AI-native SaaS is increasingly won or lost in implementation quality.
For a SaaS career, the long-term value is the breadth of exposure across go-to-market, product, and engineering without leaving a technical track. Work like this builds fluency in enterprise integration patterns, stakeholder management, and the practical realities of taking LLM-based capabilities from prototype to reliable systems. Experience translating customer outcomes into roadmap signals is also highly portable across product-led and enterprise-led SaaS companies.
This role tends to suit engineers who prefer ambiguity and ownership, and who enjoy being close to customers while still writing and shipping production code. It is a strong match for someone looking to operate as a technical generalist—part builder, part architect, part translator—within a remote-first setup, and for professionals motivated by shaping how a forward-deployed motion is established from the ground up.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
About the Role:
As a member of our Forward Deployed Engineering Team, you will partner directly with our customers to architect transformational AI solutions that address their most critical business challenges.
Collaborating with our Go-to-Market, Product, and Engineering teams, you'll bring together technical expertise, knowledge of enterprise AI systems, and client-facing abilities to design and launch production platforms that create measurable business value. You will own the full engagement—from initial discovery and technical planning to solution architecture, development, and production launch.
You will operate at the cutting edge of enterprise AI implementations and be among our founding FDEs who establish our forward-deployed approach. This is a significant opportunity: you'll shape how leading enterprises leverage AI to transform their operations while directly influencing Glean's product evolution through real-world deployment insights.
You will:
- Build production AI applications using Glean's platform including custom agents, workflows, connectors, and integrations that solve real business problems
- Develop deep customer relationships and manage executive stakeholder engagement throughout the lifecycle of your engagements
- Guide customers through the end-to-end deployment of Glean in complex enterprise environments, ensuring smooth implementation and rapid time to value
- Stay current on LLM advancements and AI tools to bring the latest capabilities to customer deployments
- Shape the product roadmap by sharing field learnings about platform strengths and opportunities for development
- Build lasting partnerships with customers while identifying new ways to deploy AI throughout your engagements
About you:
- 4+ years in technical, client-facing roles such as Forward Deployed Engineer, Software Engineer or Solutions Architect. Former technical founders are strongly encouraged to apply
- Production LLM experience including prompt engineering, agent development, evaluation frameworks, and deployment at scale
- Strong full-stack programming skills and experience building custom integrations in hybrid or SaaS environments, with a track record of shipping production software
- Cloud platform experience with GCP, AWS, or Azure
- Enterprise systems knowledge including networking, security frameworks, and common business application stacks
- High agency and comfort with ambiguity—you spot problems early and solve them independently
- Strong communication skills with both technical teams and business stakeholders
- Founder mentality: scrappy, resourceful, and outcome-driven
Good to have:
- Prior experience in customer‑facing, consultative roles (solutions, support, product management) and comfort presenting to senior leaders.
- Exposure to evaluating AI outcomes (e.g., defining success criteria, using sample tasks, reviewing results) and iterating for quality, latency, and cost.
- Ability to analyze usage signals and customer feedback to inform roadmap and drive adoption.
Location:
Compensation & Benefits:
The standard range for this position is $160,000-$270,000 annually. Compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for variable compensation, equity, and benefits. Special Note: This range encompasses varying levels of the role, you will be assessed for your level during the interview process.
We offer a comprehensive benefits package including competitive compensation, Medical, Vision, and Dental coverage, generous time-off policy, and the opportunity to contribute to your 401k plan to support your long-term goals. When you join, you'll receive a home office improvement stipend, as well as an annual education and wellness stipends to support your growth and wellbeing. We foster a vibrant company culture through regular events, and provide healthy lunches daily to keep you fueled and focused.
We are a diverse bunch of people and we want to continue to attract and retain a diverse range of people into our organization. We're committed to an inclusive and diverse company. We do not discriminate based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, civil or family status, age, disability, or race.
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