Forward Deployed Engineer, Enterprise Document AI (SF)

Location: San Francisco Workplace: Remote Lavendo partners with startups and high‑growth companies to help them hire top‑tier sales, GTM, and technical talent. This role is with one of our clients; we’ll share full details about the company and interview process as we get to know you and confirm mutual fit. ABOUT THE COMPANY Our client is a Series B enterprise AI startup that raised $108M from a16z, Benchmark, First Round, BoxGroup, and YC, building infrastructure that turns complex documents into structured, AI-ready data. Its API-based platform processes PDFs, images, spreadsheets, and other unstructured files, helping organizations build production AI applications and automate document-intensive workflows. Our client supports AI-native startups and large enterprises with demanding accuracy and deployment requirements. The team is founder-led and engineering-first, with engineers working directly with customers and using what they learn to improve the product. THE MISSION Make complex document data reliable enough to build on. Our client helps organizations unlock information inside unstructured files while preserving the detail and structure that downstream applications depend on. The goal is to deliver accurate, usable data that holds up in production, not simply extract text that looks convincing in a demo. THE OPPORTUNITY Own the technical work that turns an enterprise evaluation into a successful production deployment. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you’ll build applications, run evaluations, troubleshoot integrations, and stay close to customer results. You’ll partner with sales during technical evaluations, then own technical success for 1-3 enterprise accounts, helping customers resolve issues, deepen adoption, and expand into additional use cases. This is a founding role within our client’s developing FDE function. You’ll work directly with founders, product, and engineering to shape the platform and establish how future deployments are delivered. The role combines substantial engineering work with customer relationships and deployment responsibility. Both backend-leaning engineers and customer-facing FDEs are welcome, but independent coding and production deployment ownership are essential. This position requires full-time, in-person work in San Francisco, five days per week. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Turn customer requirements into working applications and integrations - Partner with AEs and SEs on evaluations, custom demos, and competitive benchmarking - Build custom applications, agents, evaluation tools, and product enhancements - Own technical success for 1-3 enterprise accounts, meeting weekly or biweekly - Resolve deployment and integration issues to deepen adoption - Build diagnostics, dashboards, and evaluation harnesses to measure performance and catch regressions - Explain technical decisions and trade-offs to customer stakeholders - Identify new use cases and expand deployments across teams - Translate customer insights into product improvements and engineering priorities WHAT YOU BRING - 3+ years of full-time production engineering experience shipping software for enterprise customers - Experience at a recognizable, high-growth startup with strong engineering standards - Independent ownership of building, deploying, and supporting production applications or AI pipelines - Strong production-level Python and engineering fundamentals - Solid understanding of AI, LLMs, and machine learning concepts - Use of Claude, Codex, or similar coding tools beyond autocomplete, guided by sound technical judgment - Enterprise deployment experience spanning integrations, troubleshooting, and customer-specific constraints - Clear communication and confidence leading technical customer conversations - A quantitative approach to debugging, experimentation, and performance measurement - Willingness to work on-site in San Francisco five days per week KEY SUCCESS DRIVERS - Ownership: You identify what needs doing and follow through until the issue is resolved and the deployment works - Technical judgment: You build solutions that fit the problem and validate them with evidence - Customer judgment: You understand the customer’s technical context and connect engineering work to useful outcomes - Quality: You move quickly without overlooking the details that determine production reliability - Communication: You explain trade-offs clearly and keep technical and business stakeholders aligned - Resourcefulness: You build the tools, diagnostics, or prototypes needed to unblock progress - Adaptability: You move comfortably between coding, evaluations, troubleshooting, and customer conversations WHY JOIN? - Compensation: 220,000-320,000 annual salary, plus competitive equity - Scope: Help build the FDE function while owning evaluations, implementation, and ongoing technical outcomes - Production impact: Solve document-processing and deployment challenges that directly affect enterprise AI applications - Product influence: Work directly with founders and engineering to turn customer needs into platform improvements - Team: Join a founder-led, engineering-first environment with close collaboration across product, sales, and customer success - Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision insurance; unlimited PTO; flexible parental leave; and up to $150/month in eligible health and wellness reimbursement - Office support: Free daily lunch and reimbursed transportation - Visa support: Open to visa transfers (e.g. OPT, H1B transfers) and sponsorship INTERVIEWING PROCESS 1. HR screening 2. Hiring manager screen and technical interview - 30 minutes: Live Python coding to assess engineering fundamentals and problem-solving. 3. On-site practical assessment: Build an application relevant to the role, with a focus on engineering depth or technical presentation and customer communication. 4. Offer extended. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, disability, genetic information, veteran or military status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law.