Founding Forward Deployed Engineer

Linkup

$120K — $150K *
Consumer Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 4+ years in technical support engineering, software engineering, or solutions engineering with hands-on application development experience
  • Strong API integration skills, including design, debugging REST/JSON payloads, managing auth flows, and optimizing latency
  • Understanding of web infrastructure, distributed systems, or retrieval pipelines
  • Ability to debug integrations and tackle ambiguous technical challenges in customer settings
  • Clear and empathetic communicator for both technical and business audiences
  • Curiosity about AI infrastructure, retrieval systems, and the emerging agent ecosystem
  • Ability to thrive in fast-paced, high-ownership startup environments

Responsibilities

  • Design, prototype, and deploy integrations of Linkup's APIs into real-world systems
  • Participate in pre-sales efforts involving technical discovery and proof-of-concept design
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with backend, ML, and product teams to ensure scalability and reliability
  • Partner with GTM Engineer and DevRel to turn customer insights into automation and tutorials
  • Identify and implement technical integrations with partners in the value chain
  • Translate complex technical concepts for developers and business stakeholders

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work directly with founders and shape product direction
  • High-impact role that influences marketing narratives and product roadmaps
  • Cross-functional collaboration across engineering, go-to-market, and customer success teams
  • Chance to be involved in pioneering integrations in a growing field of AI
  • Growth potential within a startup environment that values innovation and ownership
Full Job Description
About the Role

We're looking for a top-tier Forward Deployed Engineer to join Linkup and work hand-in-hand with our founders, customers, and partners. This is our first hire at this role.

Your mission: help leading AI companies, developers, and enterprises integrate Linkup's AI-ready search APIs into their products - and shape how the next generation of AI agents connects to the web.

This is a highly cross-functional role. You'll operate at the intersection of engineering, GTM, and customer success, turning technical integrations into insights that drive our product roadmap, marketing narratives, and outbound strategy.

You'll be the connective bridge between what customers build with Linkup and how we tell that story to the world.

What You'll Do
  • Work directly with customers and partners to design, prototype, and deploy integrations of Linkup's APIs into real-world agentic systems.
  • Participate in pre-sales efforts - technical discovery, proof-of-concept design, demo environments.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with backend, ML, and product teams to ensure performance and reliability at scale.
  • Partner with the GTM Engineer and DevRel team to turn customer learnings into automation, tutorials, and playbooks.
  • Identify and implement technical integrations with our other partners ****in the value chain (workflow orchestration, AI frameworks, etc.)
  • Translate complex technical concepts into clear explanations for both developers and business audiences.


Why This Role Matters

Every integration you build helps define how AI systems connect to live, trusted information.

You'll operate on the frontier between customers and product - bringing the voice of the field into everything we build and say.

Your work will inform:
  • The stories we tell in marketing.
  • The use cases we automate in our GTM systems.
  • The features we prioritize in our roadmap.

If you love blending engineering with impact - building things users actually depend on - this role is for you.

You're a Great Fit If You
  • 4+ years in technical support engineering, software engineering, or solutions engineering, with direct application development experience.
  • Strong API integration skills - able to design and debug REST/JSON payloads, manage auth flows, and optimize latency.
  • Understand web infrastructure, distributed systems, or retrieval pipelines.
  • Are comfortable debugging integrations and solving ambiguous technical challenges in customer environments.
  • Communicate clearly and empathetically with both technical and business audiences.
  • Are curious about AI infrastructure, retrieval, and the emerging agentic ecosystem.
  • Thrive in a fast-paced, high-ownership startup environment.
Example Projects
  • Help a partner integrate Linkup's /search endpoint into their multi-agent workflow.
  • Build a proof-of-concept combining a customer's private data with Linkup's real-time web results.
  • Collaborate with the backend team to improve SDK telemetry and enterprise deployment reliability.
  • Work with the GTM team to turn successful integrations into published use cases and reference architectures.
  • Identify recurring customer needs that can become productized templates or automation.


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