Forward Deployed Engineer (Founding Customer Engineer)

About the role

About the Role This is a rare opportunity to be the first non-founder hire at a seed-stage B2B SaaS startup in the conversational AI and sales automation space. As a Founding Customer Engineer, you will own every customer relationship and build the playbook that takes the company from its first handful of customers to thousands. You'll work side-by-side with the founding team, directly influencing product direction and shaping the customer engineering function from the ground up. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable on a customer call as they are writing a script or configuring an automation workflow — someone who instinctively looks for ways to eliminate repetitive work and has a genuine interest in how AI agents can transform the B2B sales process. What You'll Do Teach and coach AI sales agents on product tiers, buyer personas, and pricing conversations to improve their effectiveness. Own customer relationships end-to-end — from onboarding through long-term success — and continuously improve demo performance and product adoption. Serve as the voice of the customer by analyzing conversation logs and support interactions to surface patterns, insights, and unmet needs. Build automation workflows and internal tooling (scripting, APIs, low-code/no-code tools) to help the customer engineering function scale efficiently. Work directly with the CTO to translate customer feedback into prioritized, shipped product features. Lead product demos and onboarding sessions with strong communication and a consultative approach. What We're Looking For Required: 0–3 years of experience in a customer-facing technical role at a SaaS company (e.g., solutions engineer, customer engineer, technical account manager). Strong written and verbal communication skills with demonstrated ability to lead product demos and customer onboarding. Hands-on experience building automation workflows to scale customer engineering tasks (scripting, APIs, or low-code/no-code tools). Experience analyzing customer feedback and conversation data to identify patterns and inform product decisions. Ability to translate customer insights into clear, actionable product requirements and collaborate closely with engineering leadership. Experience configuring or coaching AI agents for sales contexts, including defining personas, product tiers, and pricing narratives. Authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship . Able to work on-site in San Francisco, CA . Nice to Have: Prior experience at an early-stage startup (2–10 person team). Familiarity with the B2B sales tooling or demo automation space (e.g., interactive demo platforms, conversational AI, GTM tooling). Background at high-growth SaaS companies or top-tier consulting/strategy firms. Compensation & Benefits Salary: $140,000 – $185,000 USD annually Early equity opportunity as a founding team member Direct impact on company trajectory from day one Location This role is on-site in San Francisco, CA . Candidates must be based in or willing to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area. Visa sponsorship is not available.