Staff Forward Deployed Engineer

Posted 2 Days Ago
Be an Early Applicant
Seattle, WA, USA
In-Office
155K-225K Annually
Senior level
Artificial Intelligence • Software • Generative AI
The Role
Lead customer-facing enterprise implementations of an AI platform. Build, deploy, and optimize full-stack integrations, reusable adapters, configuration layers, and generative AI solutions. Translate complex customer workflows into scalable systems, collaborate with technical and non-technical stakeholders, and improve product reliability, performance, and maintainability. Contribute field insights, documentation, and implementation playbooks while supporting discovery, prototyping, deployment, and post-launch optimization. Occasional travel under 10% is required.
Summary Generated by Built In

Gradial is building the AI-native system of work for enterprise marketing. Our agents turn ideas into live campaigns by executing across the tools, teams, and workflows enterprises already use—from content authoring and campaign assembly to quality assurance and brand compliance. We give marketers and creatives more time to shape brands, understand customers, and create work that moves people.
We’re tackling some of the hardest problems in applied AI: building agent harnesses, sandboxed execution environments, and orchestration that enable agents to plan, act, and verify their work reliably at enterprise scale. We’re growing rapidly, winning Fortune 500 and enterprise customers including AWS, T-Mobile, and Prudential. Our $65 million Series C led by Insight Partners is accelerating that momentum.
Join us to help define how people and AI agents work together. We move with urgency, reason from first principles, and take ownership from idea to customer impact. You’ll shape the product, own consequential problems, and build systems that some of the world’s leading brands depend on every day.

The Role 

We’re hiring a Staff Forward Deployed Engineer to lead implementations of our AI platform directly with customers. This role is ideal for an experienced technically fluent builder who thrives at the intersection of engineering and problem solving; someone who wants to be hands-on with code while shaping how some of the world’s most recognizable brands modernize their content operations.

As a Staff FDE, you’ll own full-stack development for enterprise deployments, working side-by-side with customers to map complex workflows into scalable generative systems. You’ll move between discovery, prototyping, implementation, and post-launch optimization - translating real-world pain points into elegant technical solutions.

What You'll Own

  • Lead technical discovery and implementation for new enterprise customers, translating nuanced business processes into robust AI-native solutions.
  • Build, deploy and optimize features that integrate customer systems with Gradial’s LLM driven platform.
  • Develop reusable tools, adapters and configuration layers to support scalable enterprise onboarding.
  • Collaborate with customer stakeholders (mainly within marketing, operations and engineering) to define requirements, surface edge cases and iterate in real time.
  • Work closely with Gradial’s product and engineer teams to incorporate learnings from the field into our core roadmap.
  • Contribute to internal technical documentation and implementation playbooks that accelerate future deployments.
  • Own performance, reliability and maintainability for the solutions you ship, from backend architecture to customer UX.

What We're Looking For

  • 8+ years of software engineering or technical implementation experience, ideally in customer-facing contexts.
  • Experienced in programming languages such as TypeScript or similar, with a strong understanding of APIs and systems integration.
  • Ability to rapidly understand unfamiliar enterprise software architectures (CMS, DAM, workflow tools) and build integration paths.
  • Excellent communication skills. Confident translating for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • High ownership mindset with comfort operating independently, navigating ambiguity.
  • Demonstrated experience working with enterprise customers; particularly in content, marketing or digital operations.
  • Experience with LLMs, generative AI pipelines and agent-style automation frameworks.
  • Willingness to travel occasionally (<10%) for customer discovery, deployment and relationship building.

Compensation 

The salary range for this position is $155,000 – $225,000 annually. Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as experience, skills, and qualifications. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for performance-based bonuses and equity awards. Gradial offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental & vision insurance, 401K retirement plan, paid time off, paid sick leave and other employee wellness programs. 

What we offer
  • Performance-based annual bonus
  • Meaningful equity awards
  • Medical, dental & vision (fully covered for employees with 75% for dependents)
  • Fertility & family-planning support
  • 401k plan
  • Unlimited PTO
  • A beautiful Seattle office with a gym, sauna, and bike parking
  • Free lunch three days a week in our HQ
  • A front-row seat to building category-defining AI infrastructure
You'll thrive here if you
  • Learn quickly, actively seek out new challenges, and regularly reconsider “how it’s always been done.”
  • Want to have real impact with zero bureaucracy.
  • Have an innate drive for being 1% better than the day before, building towards greatness.
  • Embrace AI as a core tool for problem-solving, innovation, and scale.
  • Show customer-obsession (internal or external), high ownership/accountability, and bias for action.
  • Communicate clearly, directly, with curiosity, and assuming good intentions.
  • Thrive in fast-paced, hyper-growth environments where building better > maintaining status quo.
AI Literacy & Interviewing Tools

As an AI-first company, we prioritize AI literacy as a core competency in our hiring decisions. We’re excited by candidates who thoughtfully apply AI tools in their work, but during interviews we’re focused on you. This is your opportunity to show how you think, communicate, and solve problems. Over-reliance on AI-generated responses during the interview process (especially when it obscures your own voice) will result in disqualification. We want to understand your unique perspective and how you approach challenges, both with and without AI.

Gradial is dedicated to creating an environment where diverse perspectives are valued and all team members can grow. We offer competitive compensation, equity, flexible work hours, comprehensive benefits, and a collaborative culture focused on learning and impact.

Skills Required

  • 8+ years of software engineering or technical implementation experience
  • Experience with TypeScript or a similar programming language
  • Strong understanding of APIs and systems integration
  • Ability to understand enterprise software architectures, including CMS, DAM, and workflow tools
  • Excellent communication skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • Ability to work independently and navigate ambiguity
  • Experience working with enterprise customers, particularly in content, marketing, or digital operations
  • Experience with LLMs, generative AI pipelines, and agent-style automation frameworks
  • Willingness to travel occasionally, under 10%
Am I A Good Fit?
beta
Get Personalized Job Insights.
Our AI-powered fit analysis compares your resume with a job listing so you know if your skills & experience align.

The Company
HQ: Seattle, WA
6 Employees
Year Founded: 2023

What We Do

Gradial is the enterprise generative AI platform for transforming content management and customer journey intelligence. Gradial leverages frontier generative image and text models to enable personalized digital experiences at scale. We empower creative teams to bring their vision to life using words and truly differentiate their brand's voice in a sea of content.

Similar Jobs

Anthropic Logo Anthropic

Staff Forward Deployed Engineer

Artificial Intelligence • Natural Language Processing • Generative AI
In-Office
3 Locations
2500 Employees
280K-320K Annually

SoFi Logo SoFi

Sr Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, Enterprise AI

Fintech • Mobile • Software • Financial Services
Easy Apply
Hybrid
3 Locations
4500 Employees
173K-297K Annually
Hybrid
Seattle, WA, USA
3661 Employees
160K-200K Annually

Gas City Logo Gas City

Staff Forward Deployed Engineer

Artificial Intelligence • Software
In-Office or Remote
2 Locations
6 Employees
180K-240K Annually

Similar Companies Hiring

Revel Thumbnail
Aerospace • Hardware • Robotics • Software
Marina Del Rey, California
70 Employees
Blee Thumbnail
Artificial Intelligence • Marketing Tech • Software
New York, New York
33 Employees
Vega Thumbnail
Artificial Intelligence • Automotive • Insurance • Transportation
US
65 Employees

Sign up now Access later

Create Free Account

Please log in or sign up to report this job.

Create Free Account