Forward Deployed Engineer

Sendbird is on a mission to build the AI workforce of tomorrow. Sendbird is the omnichannel AI agent platform enterprises choose to elevate the customer experience by initiating autonomous support & sales conversations, keeping humans in the loop for complex inquiries, and re-engaging customers with proactive business messages. We are the omnichannel AI agent platform enterprises choose to elevate customer experience. Trusted by 4,000+ of the world’s most popular apps—including industry leaders like Match Group, Rakuten, Yahoo, and Coupang—Sendbird powers over 7 billion messages every month.

We’re looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to contribute to Sendbird’s vision to connect businesses and individuals, empowering them to achieve more than ever before. As the FDE, you will play a critical role in building, integrating, and deploying production-grade AI agents tailored to each customer’s needs. You’ll operate at the front lines—engineering solutions alongside customers—while directly shaping the technical foundation of Sendbird’s AI Agent platform.

Who You Are

• You have 2–3 years of hands-on software engineering experience, preferably in full-stack or backend development.
• You enjoy working directly with customers and thrive at the edge of engineering, product, and delivery.
• You love fast-paced environments, ambiguous challenges, and high-stakes problem solving.
• You think like an AI—mapping inputs to outcomes, reasoning through system prompts, and anticipating where things can go wrong.
• You understand Python, web frameworks, and LLM APIs—or you’re hungry to dive in and learn by building.
• You’re a team player who thrives in cross-functional collaboration with engineers, PMs, and designers.

What You Will Do

• Collaborate with Forward Deployed PMs, core product teams, and designers to ship customer-centric solutions.
• Tune system prompts, configure toolchains, and iterate on agent behaviors to meet real-world use cases.
• Rapidly prototype and deploy AI agents using LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Claude).
• Build and extend agent interfaces and dashboards using modern web frameworks like Next.js and React.
• Integrate backend APIs that power RAG pipelines, knowledge bases, and custom tools.
• Own the technical implementation for customer deployments—from setup to monitoring.
• Document implementation decisions, maintain architecture diagrams, and lead technical demos.

What You Bring

• Strong proficiency in Python and ability to write clean, maintainable code.
• Hands-on experience with full-stack web development: React and modern JavaScript/TypeScript on the frontend, and backend frameworks such as Node.js, Django, or Express.
• Experience working with agent frameworks (e.g., LangChain) or LLM-based toolchains.
• Familiarity with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines and knowledge base integration.
• Understanding of CI/CD practices and observability (e.g., logging, metrics dashboards, uptime monitoring).
• Experience deploying applications to modern cloud platforms (e.g., AWS Lambda, Vercel, GCP Cloud Functions).
• Strong collaboration skills and comfort working in agile, cross-functional teams.
• High ownership and comfort with ambiguity—you move fast, adapt quickly, and drive progress without waiting for perfect plans.

Even Better If You Offer (optional)

• Prior experience with real-time agent performance tuning or debugging live deployments
• Experience working in 0→1 environments, customer-facing implementation, or technical consulting roles.

Our US benefits include (but are not limited to)

• 20 days PTO, 13 paid US company holidays, 5 sick days, 1 volunteer day, plus 2 rest/rejuvenation days and birthday day off
• Company subsidized medical, dental, vision insurance (100% for the employee, 80% for dependents)
• Flexible Spending Accounts or Health Savings Accounts, depending on your selected health insurance plan
• Equity program
• 401K program
• Parental leave 
• Life and disability insurance
• Be Your Best Self: An annual stipend of $3,500 (prorated by start date) for expenses ranging from professional development classes and training, to personality assessments, gym memberships, books, fitness classes, mental health services and massages

Pay Transparency

For cash compensation, we set standard ranges for all roles based on function, level, and geographic location.  To determine our ranges, we utilize a variety of compensation data benchmarked against similar-stage growth companies.   A reasonable estimate of the current salary range for this role is $175,000 - $215,000 .  This range is specific to the San Francisco Bay market.  We consider several factors when making final compensation decisions including, but not limited to, skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs which may cause your specific offer to vary from the amount listed above.

Flexible Work Policy

We offer a flexible work schedule at Sendbird.  We also value collaboration and relationship building.  With those values in mind, we require all employees within an hour's commute range of their local office to gather with their team in the office three days per week as a minimum.  Some of our roles require a more frequent in-office schedule.  Please work with your manager to understand the office time requirements for your position.

What diversity and inclusion mean to us

There is no such thing as a perfect candidate and the best employees come from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets. Sendbird is a place where everyone can learn and grow. We respect, promote, and encourage diversity for equal employment opportunities and encourage you to apply if this role excites you.

About Sendbird

Combining omnichannel AI and battle-tested, award-winning communication APIs, Sendbird enables businesses to build AI agents and meaningful customer connections at scale. Trusted by 4,000+ leading apps—including DoorDash, Match Group, Noom, and Yahoo Sports—Sendbird powers over 7 billion conversations every month, offering exceptional reliability, security, and compliance that meet enterprise-level demands. Headquartered in California, Sendbird is backed by ICONIQ, SoftBank, Tiger Global, Y Combinator, and other reputable investors.

 

 

Sendbird’s interview process for the Forward Deployed Engineer position looks like this:

30 minute call with one of our recruiters

30 minute job fit call with the hiring manager

60 minute technical skill call using CoderPad with our lead engineer

60 minute competency call with one of our FDEs

60 minute value interview with the Head of Product