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RRC- Ruiz Recruiting & Consulting

Forward Deployed Engineer

$160K - $1900K San Francisco, CA, US Mid Posted July 20, 2026

Role Description

RRC - Ruiz Recruiting & Consulting is a specialized recruitment firm trusted by startups and enterprise-level companies nationwide. We're working with a leading venture-backed startup pioneering the next generation of AI-driven workflow for enterprise operations.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you will partner directly with our most strategic enterprise customers to design, implement, and scale custom AI Operator solutions that solve complex, real-world business challenges. Sitting at the intersection of product, engineering, and customer operations, you will translate intricate business requirements into robust technical architectures.

You will own the technical build end-to-end: integrating AI systems with enterprise data sources, configuring our dynamic orchestration decision graphs, and shipping production-grade solutions that seamlessly coordinate data, rules, AI, and human-in-the-loop workflows.

What You Will Do (The Impact) ---------------------------------

  • Architect Custom Solutions: Lead design decisions to build secure, scalable, and compliant workflows on our platform, aligning directly with customer infrastructures and engineering best practices.
  • Build & Configure: Program, configure, and extend core platform primitives to construct live, production-grade workflows that route tasks across static rules, AI models, humans, and third-party APIs.
  • Deploy End-to-End: Ship fully integrated solutions encompassing data pipelines, LLM interfaces, customized operator portals, and immutable system event-logging for absolute traceability.
  • Develop Agentic Features: Stand up custom, AI-powered automation sequences designed to resolve high-consequence operational work, integrating human-in-the-loop gates wherever risk or complexity demands it.
  • Embed with Customers: Work hand-in-hand with customer teams—from frontline operational specialists to C-suite executives—to deeply understand their systems, ensure smooth adoption, and prove measurable business outcomes.
  • Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner closely with internal Deployment Strategists, Product teams, and Sales to guide customers seamlessly from initial pre-sales scoping to live production.
  • Scale the Platform: Package custom customer implementations into reusable accelerators, frameworks, and deployment patterns to accelerate future deliveries and directly influence our core product roadmap.

What You Bring (Basic Qualifications) -----------------------------------------

  • Proven Engineering Depth: 4+ years of professional software development, AI systems design, or data/solutions engineering experience.
  • Tech Proficiency: Strong skills with Javascript, Python, solid SQL capabilities, and comfort across systems integration.
  • Production Delivery: Professional/Non-Professional experience designing, building, and deploying production-grade applications that unify data pipelines, AI/ML features, and user-facing frontend interfaces.
  • Hands-on AI Integration: Direct experience integrating commercial AI APIs (such as Anthropic, OpenAI, or Gemini) into functional enterprise systems.
  • Strong Client-Facing Communication: Exceptional communication skills with the ability to build trust with technical peers, operational leaders, and executive stakeholders alike.
  • US-Based: Located in the United States

Bonus Points (Preferred Qualifications) -------------------------------------------

  • Enterprise AI Deployments: Experience implementing and scaling complex data or AI/ML products within major, named enterprise accounts.
  • Orchestration & State Systems: Familiarity with distributed workflow/orchestration engines, rules-driven execution systems, event-driven architectures, or multi-agent frameworks.
  • Enterprise Integration Patterns: Experience constructing enterprise integrations involving secure authentication/authorization patterns, webhooks, data synchronization, and auditing.
  • Operational Domain Experience: Industry experience working with high-volume operational environments, such as customer service, supply chain, or complex business-process operations.
  • Agile Background: Prior experience as an early-stage startup employee, founder, or tech consultant.

RRC is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment including the decision to hire, promote, discipline, or discharge, will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.

About Forward Deployed Engineering

Forward Deployed Engineers are embedded directly with customers to build custom solutions, integrate products into existing infrastructure, and bridge the gap between product engineering and customer success. The role combines deep technical skills with the ability to operate in client environments and translate business requirements into working software.

Originally pioneered by Palantir, the FDE model has spread across AI, enterprise SaaS, and cloud infrastructure companies. FDEs write production code, architect integrations, train customer teams, and feed product insights back to the core engineering organization. At companies like OpenAI, Salesforce, and Databricks, FDE teams are treated as elite engineering units that can ship custom solutions in days rather than quarters.

Typical FDE stack: Python, TypeScript, SQL, REST/GraphQL APIs, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), and increasingly LLM APIs and AI orchestration frameworks. Strong communication and the ability to context-switch between technical and business conversations are as important as coding ability.

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