Forward-Deployed Engineer , Strategic Accounts

About the Role

Deepgram is seeking Forward-Deployed Engineers (FDEs) for its strategic accounts. You will embed with one strategic customer at a time, working directly with their technical and business teams, alongside Deepgram's core research teams. Engagements currently focus on leading restaurant enterprises and restaurant technology partners.

As a Forward-Deployed Engineer, you will take Deepgram's voice AI platform the last mile, building production-scale integrations with customer systems, voice agents, and supporting tooling. You will be on-site regularly with the customer and have a senior FDE reviewing your work. Your learnings in the field will contribute to Deepgram's product offering.

Forward-Deployed Engineering at Deepgram involves embedding into dedicated account pods, working inside the customer's day-to-day operations with high autonomy. Your work directly shapes how large brands implement voice AI. You will be part of the broader Applied Engineering team, which serves as the technical interface between Deepgram and its customers.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and ship solutions, including end-to-end services, integrations, internal tooling, and agent/prompt engineering.
• Design, develop, and maintain production-scale integrations with third-party systems such as point of sale, loyalty, payment gateways, and customer data platforms.
• Spend regular time on-site with customers, working directly with their technical and business teams.
• Monitor, debug, and optimize shipped solutions in production, including challenging audio environments.
• Collaborate with research and product teams to evolve the platform based on customer needs and field learnings.
• Test changes against live production data to measure impact on accuracy, latency, and throughput.

Time Allocation

• Embedded customer delivery (60-80%)
• Scoping and expansion support (10-25%)
• Internal collaboration (~15%)

On-Site Expectation

• Regular, recurring time with customers, with on-site visits at least once or twice a month.
• On-site time can increase to 80% during critical engagement phases.
• Maintain an in-office presence in either our San Francisco or New York City office.

Your First 90 Days

• First 30 Days: Complete accelerated onboarding, shadow an active engagement, make your first customer site visit, and take ownership of a workstream reviewed before shipping.
• 60 Days: Own a significant part of a customer's solution, join the on-site rhythm, and build relationships with the customer's technical team.
• 90 Days: Operate with independence, run your own on-site visits, bring field learnings back to the team, and join solution-scoping conversations.

You'll Love This Role If You

• Are an engineer first with strong customer skills.
• Thrive in high-ambiguity environments, moving fast and making sound decisions under pressure.
• Enjoy deeply embedding with customers, building trust, and becoming their technical partner.
• Find satisfaction in shipping production systems and seeing them operate in the real world.
• Desire rapid growth with high-stakes accounts, a steep learning curve, and mentorship.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field degree, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on experience developing and deploying backend systems that run in production.
• Experience with cloud-based infrastructure and API design.
• Proactive problem-recognition and a focus on work impact.
• Relationship building skills.
• Ability to read the room and understand team dynamics.
• Action-oriented approach to identified opportunities.
• Coachability and an appetite for learning.

Would Be Great If You Had

• Experience working with audio or voice interfaces.
• Experience building and maintaining systems integrating with multiple third-party APIs, particularly point-of-sale systems.
• Experience taking a system from zero to one.
• Depth in modern languages (e.g., Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Rust, Go, Kotlin) and flexibility to learn new ones.
• Experience with containerization tools (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience presenting technical information to non-technical audiences.