Forward Deployed Engineer

Forward Deployed Engineer | Recently-Funded Early-Stage Startup | Berlin We're working with a recently-funded early-stage startup building AI tools that need to actually work inside customers' real, messy environments, not just in a demo. They're hiring their first Forward Deployed Engineer in Germany, so there's no existing process to slot into. You'd be building it as you go.You'll be writing the code yourself, not scoping it for someone else to build. You'll also be in front of customers when it counts, working out what they actually need and staying on it until it's live and running without you.What you'll be doingTake a customer from first conversation through to fully live, owning the whole thing rather than handing pieces off along the wayWork inside a customer's existing systems, often a stack you didn't choose, and build on top of it without breaking what's already thereBe the person their engineers trust and come to directly, not through anyone elseBuild with the current AI stack day to day, RAG, agent frameworks, MCP or similar, evalsBring what you're seeing on the ground back to the team, it'll actually change what gets built next at this stageTalk comfortably with engineers and with founders or execs, sometimes in the same dayWhat we're looking forReal engineering experience, you've built and shipped production systems yourself, not just configured or customised someone else's platformSolid depth in Python and/or TypeScript, from things you've actually builtHands-on experience with RAG, an agent framework like LangChain or LangGraph, and ideally MCP, from building with these, not just plugging in a vendor's versionYou use AI coding tools day to day already, Claude Code, Cursor, or similarAt least one customer engagement or deployment you owned yourself, whatever it was called at the time. Technical founder, professional services, embedded delivery, solutions engineering, all fine, as long as you can talk through something specific you ownedMore comfortable without a fixed brief than with oneBerlin-based, or based elsewhere in Germany with regular presence in Berlin, plus willingness to travel to customer sites across DACHFluent English required, German a strong plus given the customer baseWhy this one's worth a lookCompetitive base plus equity, depending on experience, happy to discuss specifics on a callEarly employee equity, real upside if this landsTheir first FDE, so you're shaping how the role works