Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This Founding Forward Deployed Engineer role sits at a key junction in modern SaaS: enterprise software adoption increasingly depends on proving value through real deployments, especially as AI capabilities move from demos to production. The “founding” remit signals a function still being defined, where customer environments, security constraints, and integration realities shape what the platform becomes in practice.
For a SaaS career, forward-deployed work builds a rare portfolio that blends product engineering with go-to-market influence. It develops judgement around implementation tradeoffs, stakeholder management, and what “production-ready” means across varied enterprise stacks. The feedback loop described, taking field learnings back into roadmap conversations, is a durable SaaS skill: translating usage, friction, and outcomes into platform improvements that scale beyond a single account.
This position is best suited to someone who prefers ownership across the full engagement lifecycle, from discovery through launch, and who is comfortable switching between hands-on building and executive-facing communication. It fits professionals who enjoy ambiguity and want their technical decisions to directly inform how a SaaS product is packaged, deployed, and adopted in complex customer settings.
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:
- This role is hybrid (3-4 days a week in one of our SF Bay Area offices)
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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