Forward Deployed Engineer

About the role

ABOUT RUNLAYER

AI is transforming how every company operates, but most enterprises are stuck. They want to move fast with AI Agents, tools, and workflows, but they can't do it safely. We're fixing that.

Our team built AI Actions for OpenAI, shipped Zapier Agents to millions of users, and launched the first remote MCP server with Anthropic. We helped establish the protocol, and now we're building the platform enterprises need to actually put AI to work.

Runlayer is one platform for MCPs, Skills, and Agents: purpose-built security, fine-grained governance, and complete observability so organizations can go all-in on AI across the entire company without the risk. We just raised a $30M Series A led by Felicis, with participation from Khosla Ventures, bringing our total raised to $42M. Already trusted by Gusto, Instacart, Opendoor, dbt Labs, and Decagon.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As our Forward-Deployed Engineer, you'll own the technical side of customer GTM at Runlayer. You'll run POCs, troubleshoot integrations, and work closely with enterprise customers to get them live.

WHY YOU'LL THRIVE HERE

- Impact: if a POC ships, you made it happen. You're directly responsible for turning prospects into customers.

- Excellence: work alongside experienced engineers at the intersection of enterprise sales and deep technical work.

- Ownership: own customer outcomes end-to-end, from first technical deep dive through full deployment.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Own POC outcomes for enterprise customers.

- Run pre-sales technical deep dives, demos, and architecture discussions.

- Troubleshoot integrations across customer environments (identity, security, networking).

- Build custom configurations and one-off solutions when the standard path doesn't fit.

- Run technical onboarding sessions and adoption workshops.

- Be the technical expert in the room during sales cycles, handling stump questions from senior engineers.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

- 5+ years of FDE / SA / SE experience with a CS background

- Background in solutions engineering, pre-sales, or consulting with real technical depth. You can write and debug production code independently, not just run demos.

- Hands-on experience building AI agents. You can talk through architecture, memory, and tool design.

- Depth in at least one area relevant to our space: identity and auth, MCP, agent frameworks, security, deployment, networking, observability, etc

- AI-native workflow. You use AI to build, not just to prompt.

- Executive presence. You can walk into a room of senior technical executives and hold the conversation.

- High agency. You solve problems with high ownership and the drive to make sure a solution is delivered.

BONUS QUALIFICATIONS

- Prior solutions, pre-sales, or forward-deployed role at a high-growth B2B startup.