Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) — AI & Solutions
We are looking for an elite hybrid of software engineering and strategic consulting to join our Technical Presales team. In this role you will design, build, and deliver production‑grade AI solutions for our enterprise customers.
Responsibilities
- Lead end‑to‑end technical delivery of AI agent and LLM‑powered solutions, including discovery, scoping, system design, PoC, production rollout, and operational handoff.
- Build production‑grade integrations and custom connectors (APIs, data pipelines, RAG systems) to surface high‑quality signals into Zendesk AI workflows.
- Troubleshoot and resolve escalated technical blockers across data, infrastructure, and model behaviour, acting as the field’s final line of defense for complex issues.
- Collaborate closely with Sales Engineering and Product teams to map undocumented systems, define integration patterns, and implement solutions.
- Translate customer learnings into product feedback and prioritised roadmap items, partnering with Zendesk Product and Engineering to reduce future deployment friction.
Basic Qualifications
- 5+ years of software engineering experience delivering production systems.
- Prior experience as a Forward Deployed Engineer, Professional Services, Solutions Engineering, or Technical Account Manager delivering enterprise AI or SaaS deployments.
- Proficiency in Python and JavaScript/TypeScript; experience with at least one backend language (Java, Ruby, or Go) preferred.
- Hands‑on experience deploying or integrating LLM‑based solutions in production (RAG, vector databases, model evaluation).
- Practical experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and containerised deployments (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Comfortable working onsite with customers and travelling up to 50% as required.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with LLM tooling and frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, Haystack, or similar.
- Familiarity with Zendesk products and APIs, or experience integrating customer support/contact‑center platforms.
- Background in observability and operationalisation of ML/AI (monitoring, SLOs, cost controls, retraining pipelines).
- Experience with data governance, PII handling, and enterprise security/compliance constraints.
Desired Attributes
- Founder mindset: navigates ambiguity and delivers results without a predefined playbook.
- Engineering rigor: strong software fundamentals and focus on quality.
- Full‑stack fluency across frontend (React/TypeScript), backend (Python, Node, Java, Ruby), REST/GraphQL APIs, and cloud infrastructure.
- AI/LLM expertise: prompt engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation, vector stores, and safety/ reliability guardrails.
- Systems integration skills: secure data ingestion, ETL/data pipelines, and diverse data stores.
- Excellent communicator: presents trade‑offs to executives and documents runbooks.
- Travel readiness: willing to travel to customer sites as needed (typical range 25–50%).
Equal Employment Opportunity
Zendesk is an equal‑opportunity employer. We are committed to diversity and inclusion. All applicants and employees are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights, please click here. Zendesk endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities.
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