U.S. citizenship required. Visa sponsorship is not available.Location: San Francisco, in person; travel to customer sites as needed
Type: Full time
The roleSainapse runs inside high-stakes customer workflows. Getting from a promising use case to production requires more than configuration: someone has to understand the process, map the systems, build the integrations, prove quality, manage launch risk, and turn what was learned into a better product.
As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will own that path for strategic customers-from an agreed POC scope through hands-on delivery, evaluation, production launch, and early expansion.
What you'll do- Embed with customer operations and technical teams to understand the real workflow, not only the stated requirements.
- Translate ambiguous needs into architecture, milestones, success metrics, risks, and launch criteria.
- Build and debug integrations across helpdesks, CRMs, ERPs, APIs, identity systems, data stores, and customer infrastructure.
- Configure and extend AI workflows, retrieval, tools, guardrails, and human escalation.
- Execute agreed evaluations and operational readiness plans covering quality, observability, rollback, security, and sign-off. Coordinate UAT, shadow or copilot operation, and a controlled production ramp.
- Communicate clearly with frontline operators, engineering teams, executives, and internal stakeholders.
- Identify repeated customer needs and turn them into reusable code, templates, documentation, and product proposals.
What we look for- Production software-engineering ability in Python, TypeScript, or a comparable language.
- Experience with APIs, webhooks, authentication, data mapping, retries, logging, and operational debugging.
- Customer-facing technical delivery experience-or strong evidence you can build trust while staying hands-on.
- Practical knowledge of LLM systems, retrieval, tool use, evaluation, and failure modes.
- Ability to push back when scope is unsafe, make trade-offs explicit, and still keep the deployment moving.
- Willingness to travel when being in the room materially improves the outcome.
What success looks likeCustomers reach production with measurable outcomes and trust the system because the launch was rigorous. Each deployment makes the platform easier to deploy the next time.
How you'll work with the teamYou own execution of scoped POCs, customer integrations, evaluation, deployment, UAT, and controlled production rollout. Solutions Engineering leads pre-sale discovery and POC design. Agree scope, access owners, scoring criteria, dependencies, and the commercial path before delivery begins. Hand operational scope, baselines, known issues, and customer commitments to Customer Success after launch.
