Founding Forward Deployed Engineer

About this role

ABOUT THE ROLE

A fast-growing, Y Combinator–backed AI startup in the industrial logistics space is hiring its first technical hire on the ground in the US. As a Founding Forward Deployed Engineer, you will own the full technical success of US customers end-to-end — sitting at the front line of every deployment and shaping how the product lands in the market.

The company builds AI agents targeting the short-haul trucking and waste management sector — a massive market still largely run on spreadsheets — and is scaling rapidly with strong month-over-month growth heading toward key ARR milestones.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Lead technical deployments and onboarding for US customers from kickoff through go-live

- Serve as the primary technical point of contact for customers, diagnosing and resolving integration and operational issues

- Integrate the platform with customers' existing job management systems and GPS/telematics infrastructure

- Translate customer feedback and real-world deployment learnings into clear product insights for the engineering team

- Build internal tooling, scripts, and processes to make deployments faster and more repeatable

- Partner closely with founders to define the forward-deployed function as the US business scales

- Act as a trusted technical advisor to logistics operations teams, often in industrial field environments

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Required

- 3–10+ years of experience in a forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, or technical implementation role

- Strong software engineering fundamentals — comfortable writing code to solve customer problems on the fly

- Experience integrating SaaS platforms with third-party systems via APIs, webhooks, or data pipelines

- Excellent communication skills — able to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical operations teams

- Self-starter mentality; comfortable operating with significant autonomy in an early-stage environment

- Willingness to be on-site in Austin, TX and travel to customer sites as needed

Nice to Have

- Background in logistics, fleet management, waste management, or industrial operations

- Experience at an early-stage startup or as a first technical hire in a market

- Familiarity with route optimization, scheduling systems, or GPS/telematics platforms

- Experience working with AI/ML-powered products in a deployment or customer-facing context

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

- Salary: $110,000 – $135,000 USD annually

- Founding-team equity opportunity

- Visa sponsorship: Not available — candidates must be authorized to work in the US

LOCATION

- Austin, Texas, US — on-site role

- Travel to customer sites (primarily industrial/logistics environments) is expected