Senior Forward Deployed Engineer

Gradial•Seattle, WA

49d•$165,000 - $210,000

About The Position

Gradial is a Seattle-based startup enabling digital experiences at the speed of thought. We empower marketers and creatives to implement their ideas directly, with software that adapts over time. Our platform automates website and design system updates, large-scale migrations to new design systems, and continuous content optimization while adhering to company and product brands. Backed by world class investors, we’re looking to scale our platform and expand our team. At Gradial, we operate with extreme ownership, bias towards action and critical path planning. We tackle problems from first principles, question assumptions, and find creative solutions. If you want to take risks, work on groundbreaking technology, and see the direct impact of your work, Gradial is where you belong. Role Overview We’re hiring a Senior 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 Senior 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.

Requirements

5+ 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 technical ecosystems (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.
Prior consulting, technical solution engineering or internal tools engineering experience.
Willingness to travel occasionally (<10%) for customer discovery, deployment and relationship building.

Responsibilities

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.