Role Title: Forward Deployed Engineer

Hiring Company: Confidential (seed-stage applied AI startup)

Location: Hybrid - New York City, NY

Candidate Criteria

• Years of Experience: 1-9
• Skills: Full-stack JavaScript/TypeScript; modern back-end frameworks; prompt engineering; AI agent configuration and productionization; LLM-based workflows; client-facing delivery; translating ambiguous requirements into technical specs; end-to-end implementation ownership; building internal tooling

Job Description

A seed-stage AI startup is automating consumer debt collection - a $35B market in the US alone - with AI agents that already outperform human collectors by 2x at a fraction of the cost. The platform handles the entire late-stage recovery process, including asset research, pre-legal outreach, litigation, credit reporting, and enforcement actions. A team of three took the company from $1M ARR in a few months to $3M ARR in under a year, with a recent funding extension valuing the business in the eight figures; the target is $10M ARR within the next 12 months.

The role blends hands-on software engineering with direct customer work: translating ambiguous business requirements into technical specs, shipping fast, and building the internal tools that make future implementations faster and more repeatable. It is a highly visible, high-ownership seat reporting directly to the founder, working closely with clients from day one.

What you'll own:

• Building and maintaining custom integrations with client systems
• Configuring and productionizing AI agents for each client, from prompt design through workflows and data transfers
• Developing and shipping client solutions using modern back-end frameworks
• Translating ambiguous customer requirements into clear technical specs and working software, quickly
• Building internal tools that make future implementations faster and more repeatable

Must-haves:

• Strong engineering background in full-stack JavaScript/TypeScript
• Shipped real production products at an early-stage startup OR built meaningful side projects / started your own company
• Strong communication skills - presenting technical work simply, building trust with customers and executives, driving decisions in the room
• Native English speaker (US/Canada)
• Prompt engineering experience

Nice-to-haves:

• Prior forward-deployed engineering, solutions engineering, or other technical customer-facing role
• Experience building or configuring AI agents, LLM-based workflows, or prompt engineering in production
• Background in fintech, collections, or another regulated financial services domain
• Experience at an early-stage startup with high ownership expectations

Compensation & benefits:

$150,000 - $200,000 base + 0.1% - 0.5% equity; health insurance; full-time, hybrid in New York City. Visa sponsorship not available for this role.