Forward Deployed Engineer
Speakeasy · San Francisco ·
- Work mode
- Onsite
- Category
- Solutions engineering
- Experience
- 5+ years
Speakeasy · San Francisco ·
AI is moving from chat interfaces to operational systems.
Across enterprises, AI agents are connecting to internal systems, using APIs, accessing data, and taking actions on behalf of employees. But while AI adoption is accelerating, governance, visibility, and control have not kept pace.
Speakeasy is building the Enterprise AI Control Plane.
We help organizations securely connect AI systems to their APIs, tools, and internal infrastructure while providing the identity, governance, permissions, auditability, and observability required to operate AI at scale.
Our customers include companies like Mistral, Verizon, Cisco, Vercel, Redis, Glean, LaunchDarkly, PlanetScale, and Docusign. We are backed by Google Ventures, FPV, and Quiet Capital. Today, hundreds of companies rely on Speakeasy infrastructure across API platforms, MCP deployments, and enterprise AI systems.
We’re a highly technical team based across San Francisco and London, building at the intersection of AI, infrastructure, security, developer platforms, and enterprise software.
Forward Deployed Engineers sit at the center of our customers, product, and engineering teams.
You will work directly with engineering leaders, platform teams, security teams, and AI initiatives at some of the most sophisticated companies deploying AI today.
This is not a traditional solutions engineering role. You’ll operate across pre-sales, deployment, product feedback, and engineering, acting as the technical bridge between our customers and our platform.
You will partner closely with customers from initial evaluation through production deployment. You’ll lead technical discovery, design integrations, solve architecture challenges, build proofs-of-concept, influence product direction, and help define how enterprises securely adopt AI agents and MCP infrastructure.
One week you may be helping a customer connect internal APIs to AI systems. The next week you may be designing access control models, debugging identity flows, implementing MCP governance, or working with our product team on entirely new capabilities driven by customer feedback.
You will often be the technical face of Speakeasy and one of the first people customers trust with mission-critical AI initiatives.
Partner with Account Executives on strategic customer opportunities
Lead technical discovery and architecture conversations with prospective customers
Design and deliver demos, proofs-of-concept, and pilot implementations
Help customers evaluate how Speakeasy fits into their AI, security, and infrastructure strategy
Translate customer requirements into deployment plans and product feedback
Serve as the technical owner for complex opportunities from evaluation through production rollout
Lead customer implementations of the Speakeasy AI Control Plane
Design integrations with APIs, MCP servers, SaaS platforms, identity providers, and internal systems
Build prototypes, proofs-of-concept, and deployment architectures
Troubleshoot complex technical issues across customer environments
Act as a trusted technical advisor to engineering, platform, security, and AI teams
Translate customer requirements into technical solutions
Guide customers through architecture decisions and implementation tradeoffs
Drive successful production rollouts and long-term adoption
Build strong relationships with engineering leaders, platform teams, security teams, and AI stakeholders
Identify patterns across customer deployments
Influence product roadmap and prioritization
Work directly with engineering to improve platform capabilities
Create reusable deployment patterns, documentation, and best practices
Write production-quality code when needed
Build internal tooling and deployment accelerators
Create reference implementations and demos
Prototype new product ideas alongside customers
Successful candidates often come from backgrounds such as:
Founding Engineer
Forward Deployed Engineer
Solutions Engineer
Platform Engineer
Infrastructure Engineer
Technical Founder
You are comfortable moving between code, architecture discussions, customer conversations, and product strategy.
Have 5+ years of software engineering experience
Have built or deployed APIs, developer platforms, infrastructure products, or security systems
Have experience working directly with customers in technical environments
Can quickly understand unfamiliar systems and navigate ambiguity
Enjoy solving open-ended problems with incomplete information
Have strong communication skills and can explain complex technical concepts clearly
Care deeply about customer outcomes
AI agent, MCP, or LLM application experience
Identity and access management experience
Security, governance, or compliance background
Experience with enterprise software deployments
Startup or founding-team experience
Within your first 6 months, you will:
Become a trusted technical advisor to both prospective and existing customers
Independently lead technical evaluations, pilots, and enterprise deployments
Help customers securely deploy AI agents, MCP servers, and internal tools at scale
Identify product gaps and influence the roadmap through direct customer engagement
Establish best practices for enterprise AI governance and agent infrastructure
Drive meaningful customer outcomes that directly impact company growth and adoption
We’re building infrastructure for one of the most important transitions happening in software.
As AI systems evolve from chat interfaces into operational agents, every company will need governance, visibility, identity, and control over how those systems interact with the world.
We believe the Enterprise AI Control Plane becomes a foundational layer of modern infrastructure.
Joining now means helping define that category from the beginning.
$180,000-$230,000 base salary + meaningful equity
Medical, dental, and vision coverage
401(k)
Flexible PTO
Regular company offsites
Offices in San Francisco and London
Small team, high ownership, significant impact