Founding Forward Deployed Engineer

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