Forward Deployed Engineer - AI Software

🚀 We're Hiring: Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) — AI / Agentic Software 📌 POSITION DETAILS 📍 Locations: | Toronto, Canada 🏢 Work Model: Hybrid 📅 Office Requirement: Minimum 3 days/week — 4 days preferred 💼 Employment: Full-time 🎯 Experience: 3–6 years 💰 Base Salary: $185,000+ Base 📈 Equity: Competitive equity ✈️ Travel: 2–3 days/week to portfolio company locations 🌎 Visa: H-1B transfers, OPT transfers & relocation supported 👥 Hiring: Multiple openings About the Opportunity We’re looking for Forward Deployed Engineers who can operate at the intersection of software engineering, AI, product, and business operations. This is a highly hands-on, Palantir-style FDE opportunity within a software holding company. You will work directly with portfolio companies, understand their operational challenges, identify high-impact opportunities for AI and agentic automation, and then build, deploy, operate, and improve production systems end-to-end. This is not a presentation-heavy solutions role. You will be expected to write production code, work directly with operators and executives, and take ownership of measurable outcomes. What You'll Do 🔹 Embed with portfolio companies Work directly with portfolio companies to understand their operating models, workflows, and business priorities.Build relationships with GMs and operational leaders and quickly earn their trust.Identify the 2–3 highest-leverage workflows where agentic software can create meaningful impact.🔹 Build and deploy AI-powered solutions Design and build the initial “wedge” for each deployment.Develop integrations, prompts, evaluations, UI surfaces, and agentic workflows.Launch the first production agentic loop using the organization’s core platform.Own the entire technical delivery cycle rather than handing work between specialized teams.🔹 Operate systems after launch Monitor and tune deployed systems in production.Adjust autonomy levels and gating based on real-world performance.Track outcomes and continuously improve deployed workflows.Transition stable solutions to portfolio operations teams when appropriate.🔹 Act as the technical partner to business leaders Serve as the technical face of the organization to portfolio company GMs.Translate ambiguous operational challenges into clearly scoped technical solutions.Set expectations, communicate trade-offs, and ensure stakeholders understand the value created by the system.🔹 Build reusable organizational knowledge Bring lessons from deployments back to HQ.Identify recurring patterns across companies and verticals.Codify successful approaches into reusable playbooks.Help accelerate future deployments by turning individual solutions into repeatable systems.Required Technical Skills You should be comfortable owning a production system from backend through frontend and data layer. Core requirements: Strong full-stack engineering capability.TypeScript or Python for backend development.Strong React experience.Strong SQL proficiency.Ability to independently own end-to-end technical delivery.Experience programming with Go and/or TypeScript.Experience working with modern AI development tooling and coding agents.Strong understanding of LLMs / foundation models and agentic workflows.AI / Agentic Engineering Experience A major requirement is experience building real production AI systems, not simply experimenting with AI or creating demonstrations. Strong candidates will have experience with: Production LLM applicationsAgentic workflowsAI-powered automationEvaluation frameworks / evalsAutonomy gatingOutcome trackingAI developer tools and coding agentsIntegrations and workflow automationProduction deployment and post-launch iterationWe are specifically looking for engineers who have shipped AI/agentic software to external users. Business & Operator Mindset Technical ability alone isn't enough for this role. You should be able to: Understand how a business operates.Read and interpret a P&L.Identify operational inefficiencies.Translate business problems into technical opportunities.Determine where AI can create the highest leverage.Work effectively with non-technical executives.Navigate ambiguity without requiring highly prescriptive requirements.Balance technical quality with business outcomes.Ideal Background The strongest candidates may come from backgrounds such as: Forward Deployed Engineering Palantir-style FDEDeploy-and-operate engineeringCustomer-facing product engineeringFull-Stack / Product Engineering Senior full-stack engineer with direct customer exposureProduct engineer who has shipped production AI systemsGeneralist engineer capable of owning an entire technical solutionHigh-Growth Startups Founding engineerEarly-stage engineerEngineers who have operated with significant autonomy in high-growth environmentsBusiness / Operator Exposure Experience working with PE-backed or portfolio companiesConsulting environmentsVertical SaaSPortco environmentsM&A integration or similar operational transformation workCommunication & Leadership You should demonstrate: Strong executive presence.Polished communication with C-suite executives and GMs.Ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly.Strong stakeholder-management skills.Ability to build trust quickly with business operators.Comfort working in ambiguous, rapidly changing environments.Ability to independently drive projects from problem discovery through deployment and measurable outcomes.What We're Looking For ✅ 3–6 years of relevant experience in full-stack, customer-facing software/product engineering or forward deployed engineering ✅ Production experience with LLMs / agentic software ✅ Strong TypeScript or Python ✅ React + SQL proficiency ✅ Full-stack ownership capability ✅ Experience with AI development tools and coding agents ✅ Customer-facing / embedded engineering experience ✅ Strong business and operator instincts ✅ Ability to work directly with executives and GMs ✅ Strong communication and executive presence ✅ Willingness to travel frequently to portfolio company locations ✅ Ability to work in a hybrid environment Strong Candidate Archetypes ⭐ Founding Engineers ⭐ Early-stage startup engineers ⭐ Forward Deployed Engineers ⭐ Product Engineers with strong AI experience ⭐ Generalist Full-Stack Engineers ⭐ Engineers from high-growth technology companies ⭐ Customer-facing engineers who have owned production deployments Tech Environment Languages: TypeScript, Python, Go Frontend: React Data: SQL, Snowflake, Databricks, Apache Iceberg AI: LLMs, Foundation Models, Agentic Workflows, Evals Architecture: Event-driven systems Development: AI-native development tools and coding agents This Role Is NOT a Fit If... ❌ Your experience is limited to solutions engineering demos or prototypes without production ownership ❌ You have primarily worked as a backend-, frontend-, or mobile-only specialist and cannot own full-stack delivery ❌ You have not built or coded with modern AI development tools ❌ Your experience consists primarily of short consecutive stints ❌ You have not shipped production AI/agentic systems to real users ❌ You prefer narrowly defined requirements and do not enjoy ambiguous business problems Compensation & Benefits 💰 Base Salary: $185,000+Base 📈 Competitive Equity 🧑 💻 Full-time employment 🏢 Hybrid work model ✈️ Frequent exposure to portfolio companies and high-impact deployments 🌎 Visa transfer and relocation opportunities available Why This Opportunity? This is an opportunity to work on high-impact AI deployments where engineering directly changes how businesses operate. Instead of building isolated features, you will repeatedly: Discover → Design → Build → Deploy → Operate → Measure → Scale You’ll work closely with business operators, ship production AI systems, learn from each deployment, and help turn those learnings into reusable solutions across an entire portfolio. 📍 Locations Toronto, Canada Candidates should be comfortable with a hybrid schedule and 2–3 days per week of domestic travel to portfolio company locations. How to Apply If you're a Full-Stack Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, Product Engineer, Founding Engineer, or AI Engineer who has shipped production LLM/agentic systems and enjoys solving ambiguous business problems, we'd love to hear from you. 📩 Apply through LinkedIn or send your updated resume for consideration. #Hiring #ForwardDeployedEngineer #FDE #AIJobs #AIEngineering #AgenticAI #LLM #GenerativeAI #FullStackEngineer #SoftwareEngineer #TypeScript #Python #React #SQL #ProductEngineering #Palantir #StartupJobs #TechJobs #NewYorkJobs #SanFranciscoJobs #TorontoJobs #MachineLearning #ArtificialIntelligence #EngineeringJobs