Forward Deployed Engineer (Founding Customer Engineer)

Clera

$140K — $185K *
Enterprise Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 0-3 years of experience in a customer-facing technical role at a SaaS company (e.g., solutions engineer, customer engineer, technical account manager)
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, proven in leading product demos and onboarding
  • Hands-on experience with automation workflows (scripting, APIs, low-code/no-code tools)
  • Experience analyzing customer feedback and conversation data for product insights
  • Ability to convey customer insights into actionable product requirements and collaborate with engineering
  • Experience coaching AI sales agents in sales contexts, including defining personas and pricing narrative
  • Authorized to work in the U.S. without visa sponsorship.

Responsibilities

  • Teach and coach AI sales agents on product tiers and buyer personas
  • Own customer relationships from onboarding to long-term success
  • Analyze conversation logs to identify patterns and unmet customer needs
  • Build automation workflows to support the customer engineering function
  • Collaborate with the CTO to translate feedback into product features
  • Lead product demos and onboarding sessions with a consultative style.

Benefits

  • Early equity opportunity as a founding team member
  • Direct impact on company trajectory from day one
Full Job Description
About the Role

This is a rare opportunity to be the first non-founder hire at a seed-stage B2B SaaS startup in the conversational AI and sales automation space. As a Founding Customer Engineer, you will own every customer relationship and build the playbook that takes the company from its first handful of customers to thousands. You'll work side-by-side with the founding team, directly influencing product direction and shaping the customer engineering function from the ground up.

The ideal candidate is equally comfortable on a customer call as they are writing a script or configuring an automation workflow - someone who instinctively looks for ways to eliminate repetitive work and has a genuine interest in how AI agents can transform the B2B sales process.
What You'll Do
  • Teach and coach AI sales agents on product tiers, buyer personas, and pricing conversations to improve their effectiveness.
  • Own customer relationships end-to-end - from onboarding through long-term success - and continuously improve demo performance and product adoption.
  • Serve as the voice of the customer by analyzing conversation logs and support interactions to surface patterns, insights, and unmet needs.
  • Build automation workflows and internal tooling (scripting, APIs, low-code/no-code tools) to help the customer engineering function scale efficiently.
  • Work directly with the CTO to translate customer feedback into prioritized, shipped product features.
  • Lead product demos and onboarding sessions with strong communication and a consultative approach.
What We're Looking For

Required:
  • 0-3 years of experience in a customer-facing technical role at a SaaS company (e.g., solutions engineer, customer engineer, technical account manager).
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills with demonstrated ability to lead product demos and customer onboarding.
  • Hands-on experience building automation workflows to scale customer engineering tasks (scripting, APIs, or low-code/no-code tools).
  • Experience analyzing customer feedback and conversation data to identify patterns and inform product decisions.
  • Ability to translate customer insights into clear, actionable product requirements and collaborate closely with engineering leadership.
  • Experience configuring or coaching AI agents for sales contexts, including defining personas, product tiers, and pricing narratives.
  • Authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.
  • Able to work on-site in San Francisco, CA.

Nice to Have:
  • Prior experience at an early-stage startup (2-10 person team).
  • Familiarity with the B2B sales tooling or demo automation space (e.g., interactive demo platforms, conversational AI, GTM tooling).
  • Background at high-growth SaaS companies or top-tier consulting/strategy firms.
Compensation & Benefits
  • Salary: $140,000 - $185,000 USD annually
  • Early equity opportunity as a founding team member
  • Direct impact on company trajectory from day one
Location

This role is on-site in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be based in or willing to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area. Visa sponsorship is not available.

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