Forward Deployed Engineer – Post-Sales Integrations & AI Needs Analysis
Bounty Amount: $15,000 - 16,500
Company Name: Arist
Role Type: Full-Time
Location: East Coast US Only Applicants (Remote)
Salary / Hourly Rate: $200,000 - $220,000 per year
Benefits: US citizen/visa only
Role Information
Role Overview: N/A
Responsibilities: Own complex enterprise customer deployments end-to-end, from post-sale handoff through integration design, go-live, and post-launch iteration, Serve as the primary technical point of contact for customers after deals close, ensuring successful onboarding and adoption of Arist's platform, Work directly with enterprise customers to diagnose needs, scope integration requirements, and deliver production-ready deployments, Strong background in APIs, integrations, and data pipelines across systems such as HCM, LMS, CRM, or equivalent enterprise platforms, Hands-on experience implementing integrations via REST APIs, webhooks, and/or integration platforms (e.g., Workato, Zapier, MuleSoft, Tray.io), Design integration patterns and reusable templates that make future deployments faster and more repeatable, Comfort working directly with enterprise customers on ambiguous, high-impact problems in a post-sales context, Excellent communication skills; able to explain technical trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, Proven experience partnering with product, engineering, sales, and customer success to turn customer insights into product and platform improvements, Builder mentality — has founded a startup, shipped side projects, or independently built and launched products, Able to think both tactically (shipping integrations) and strategically (building systems and playbooks that scale), Thrives in fast-moving startup environments with high ownership, autonomy, and accountability for business outcomes, Excited to help define and build a solutions / FDE function, including processes, documentation, and eventually a small team
Qualifications: 5+ years of professional software or solutions engineering experience, with senior-level work in at least one of: Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or similar post-sales customer-facing technical role; founding/co-founding a startup with hands-on product building; or a demonstrated track record of independently shipping multiple products or side projects, Demonstrated experience owning complex customer integrations end-to-end (APIs, webhooks, data pipelines, or integration platforms such as Workato, Zapier, MuleSoft, or similar), Strong background in APIs, integrations, and data pipelines; able to design patterns and reusable templates that make future deployments faster and more predictable, Comfort working directly with enterprise customers on ambiguous, high-impact problems and collaborating closely with product, engineering, sales, and customer success, Based in the US with existing work authorization; Arist requires US citizen/visa only for this role
Minimum Requirements: 6+ years of professional software or solutions engineering experience,(a) senior-level FDE, Solutions Engineer, or similar post-sales customer-facing technical role, (b) founded or co-founded a startup with hands-on product building, or (c) demonstrated track record of independently shipping multiple products or side projects,Based in the east coast of the US with existing work authorization; Arist requires US citizen/visa only for this role,Experience with or strong interest in AI/ML systems (LLMs, RAG, prompt engineering) — hands-on production experience preferred but builder mentality and ability to ramp fast is valued,Comfort working directly with enterprise customers on ambiguous, high-impact problems and collaborating closely with product, engineering, sales, and customer success
Screening Questions: N/A
Company Information
About Company: N/A
Culture: N/A
Additional Information
Interview Process: Initial Call (30 min) – Introductory conversation with a founder or recruiter to learn more about your background, talk through Arist’s platform and the FDE role, and assess mutual fit., Technical Deep Dive (60–75 min) – Live discussion with senior engineers/founders covering your experience with APIs, integrations, data pipelines, and customer-facing scenarios, plus some system-design style questions., Practical Exercise / Case Study (60–90 min) – Short take-home or live exercise focused on designing and scoping an Arist-style integration and AI needs-analysis deployment for a sample enterprise customer, followed by a review session., Final Round (60–90 min) – Conversations with founders and cross-functional partners (product, sales, CS) to go deeper on collaboration style, customer orientation, and how you’d build the Solutions / FDE motion over time.
Day to day: Deep technical integration work (APIs, data pipelines, Workato workflows), Customer-facing discovery and troubleshooting after deals close, Iterating on reusable templates and tooling that make future deployments faster
Team: You will report directly to the Co-founder & Chief Product Officer., You’ll partner closely with core engineering, product, sales, and customer success to design integrations, close complex deals, and ensure deployments are successful., You’ll be the first/one of the first members of the Solutions / Forward Deployed Engineering function, with significant ownership over how it operates.
Growth: Phase 1 (0–6 months): Learn, execute, and streamline – Go hands-on with existing integrations and AI needs-analysis deployments, identify bottlenecks, and standardize workflows through templates, integration patterns, tooling, and documentation. Help decide whether to add a tactical integration engineer or shift more execution into core engineering. Begin defining the FDE playbook (required data, guardrails, recommended approaches by customer type)., Phase 2 (6–18 months): Own the motion and build the team – Own the full Solutions / FDE motion from pre-sale through go-live for AI needs analysis and core Arist integrations. Serve as the technical face of complex enterprise deals. Build and lead a scalable Solutions / FDE team and create tight feedback loops between customers, product, and engineering.
Ideal Candidate Profile: Andrew Reed — Applied AI @ LangChain, previously Hugging Face + Deloitte Consulting. Bridges AI depth with customer-facing work and consulting background., Neil Dahlke — Deployed Engineer @ LangChain. Customer-facing AI deployments with enterprise clients. Exactly the FDE archetype., Jake Broekhuizen — Deployed Engineer @ LangChain, UC Berkeley. Previously ML Engineer, now applied AI + GTM. Describes "Deployment Strategists" as the hottest role in AI startups., Yutong Xue — Founder of multiple AI startups (Ulegal, CipherGenix, Skjotr). Rice MEng. Represents the founder/builder archetype., Kelly Jones — Forward Deployed Engineer @ Palantir, Columbia University. Owns end-to-end delivery of high-stakes customer projects, embedding directly with clients to architect and build solutions., Has held an FDE, Solutions Engineer, or Deployed Engineer role in a post-sales capacity and owned customer deployments end-to-end, Has founded or co-founded a startup and built the product themselves, Is a prolific builder with a track record of shipping side projects, tools, or products independently, Equally comfortable talking to CIOs and admins as you are reading API docs and debugging data pipelines, Enjoys turning bespoke projects into reusable patterns, templates, and playbooks that make the next deployment easier, Motivated by cross-functional outcomes (retention, adoption, expansion), not just tickets closed, Excited to help define what "Forward Deployed Engineering" means at Arist and to grow into a leadership role as the team scales
