Forward Deployed Engineer, Integrations

Rilla • Full-time • New York City, New York, USA • 1m ago

Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs

Forward Deployed Engineer roles sit at an important seam in SaaS: the point where a product’s core capabilities meet the messy reality of customer data and workflows. In Rilla’s case, the focus is conversational intelligence for offline sales, which makes integrations a primary lever for turning AI output into something operational inside established organizations. The in office NYC setup also signals close proximity to product and engineering decision making rather than a purely services style deployment function.

For a SaaS career, this kind of work builds durable instincts around implementation as a growth engine. It develops fluency in data models, API design, and reliability tradeoffs while keeping customer outcomes in view, a combination that translates across PLG and enterprise motions. The remit to bring insights back to the team is also a practical path into product shaping, especially in AI enabled products where edge cases discovered in the field often drive roadmap clarity.

This role fits engineers who prefer ambiguous problem spaces, enjoy direct customer collaboration, and are comfortable owning end to end delivery with limited guardrails. It will particularly suit someone who wants breadth across backend, integrations, and light full stack work, and who is open to significant travel as part of how SaaS adoption is won and retained.

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 Rilla

Rilla is on a mission to index the offline world.

Today, we’ve built the leading sales coaching software for organizations doing sales offline. We have over 1000 customers, including The Home Depot, KKR, Neighborly, and PulteGroup, using our product to enable AI sales coaching across their organization.

We are backed by Google Ventures, Bessemer Ventures, Crew Capital, and Broom Ventures, along with others.

We’re an in office team in NYC with builders who operate like high speed reinforcement learners. We obsess over our customers, move at a high velocity, are not afraid of failure, and look to maximize our real-world impact.

If you want to build the products and systems for how billions of conversations in the real world are captured and indexed, Rilla is the place to do it.

The Role

Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) work directly with customers to quickly understand their greatest problems and design and implement solutions integrating their data with Rilla's conversational intelligence. You’ll apply your problem solving ability, creativity, and technical skills to help organizations use their data to drive a real impact in the world. You’ll have the opportunity to gain rare insight into and contribute to the most critical industries of the offline world.

The role is strikingly similar to those of a startup CTO: you’ll work in small teams, often solo, and own end-to-end execution of high stakes projects. A day might span discussing data models and workflows with customer executives , wrangling massive-scale data, hacking an integration or full-stack feature, and bringing insights back to the rest of the team.

You will be on the forefront of extending Rilla’s existing footprint and strategy into new markets and problem spaces.

Do you aspire to be a founder or a leader in applying AI to the physical world? We believe Rilla is the best place — with the best peers — to learn how.

Technologies We Use

Different backend languages, including Typescript and Python
Open-source technologies like Node.js, Turborepo, Lodash, and Zod
Industry-standard build tooling, including GitHub Actions, Terraform, and Spacelift

What We Value

An infinite learner. Someone who is relentless in their curiosity.
A customer obsessive. Someone who deeply care about delighting customers and solving real pains, not vanity metrics.
A winning attitude. You thrive with extreme accountability, learning as a team, and both giving and receiving rapid feedback.
Extreme empathy. Our customers are not tech companies. They live and work in the real world. Empathy is critical to arriving at correct solutions.
Unafraid of failure. You take risks. You see failure as an opportunity to learn, grow, and be better the next time. In a weird way, you trick your brain into being excited when you fail, because it means you got a new opportunity to learn more.

What We Require

Strong coding skills with demonstrated proficiency in programming languages, such as Javascript, C++, Python, Rust, or similar languages.
Familiarity with storage and data processing systems, cloud infrastructure, and other technical tools.
Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to iterate quickly with teammates, incorporating feedback and holding a high bar for quality.
Ability and interest to travel up to 50%, as needed to client sites.

Don’t Work Here

Please don't join if you're not excited about:

Building an AI product for an industry untouched by modern software
Constantly talking to and visiting customers in the field
Working ~60 hrs/week in person and in the field with some of the most ambitious people in NYC
Attempting to build a generational company, and the intensity required to do so

Compensation

The estimated salary range for this position is $170,000 - $300,000/year.

Successful candidates with competing offers will receive matching and competitive offers.

Total compensation for this position may also include Incentive Stock Options, sign-on bonus, and other potential future incentives. This estimate excludes the value of any potential sign-on bonus; the value of any benefits offered; and the potential future value of any long-term incentives.

Our benefits aim to empower Rilla employees in removing roadblocks to achieving their life’s work. The list below details our available benefits and some of the perks that can be enjoyed as an employee of Rilla.