Senior Forward Deployed Engineer

Back to jobs Senior Forward Deployed Engineer San Francisco, CA Afresh, the AI platform for grocery, began by tackling the most complex problem in the industry: fresh, and has evolved into the core AI platform for grocers. By leveraging proprietary AI designed for high-volatility environments, we empower partners like Albertsons, Meijer, and Wakefern to drive smarter decisions across their entire enterprise. Following record-breaking 70% revenue growth in 2025, we have scaled to 6 enterprise-grade solutions, with solutions live in over 10% of the U.S. grocery market. Our platform now orchestrates billions of decisions from the store floor to the distribution center and prevented over 200 million pounds of food waste last year alone. If you're looking for a role where your work directly translates into massive scale and social good, and you want to be part of the team that defines how the world eats, there is no better time to join us. About The Role Most companies make you choose: build the platform, or go deploy it. Here you do both — and that's the point. As a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer, you're part of a single team that both delivers Afresh's AI into enterprise grocery customers and builds the platform that makes that delivery fast. You'll spend dedicated time in the field — embedded with a customer, integrating into their data, shipping AI systems on top of it — and dedicated time on the platform, turning what you just learned into reusable tooling the whole team deploys next. You build the house you live in. Afresh leads the customer relationship and direction; you and a small team bring the technical firepower — scope and architect the work with the customer, then build it. Because you also own the platform underneath, the rough edges you hit in the field become the things you fix at the root. This is senior, hands-on, 0-to-1 work in a space with no playbook. What You'll Do In the field (forward deployed) Partner with Afresh's account lead and the customer's technical teams to scope and architect the work — the data sources, the architecture, and the path to production. Embed with the customer's data and engineering teams (remote and on-site); integrate into their cloud and data platform; build production-grade pipelines and model messy enterprise data into trustworthy data products. Design and ship LLM- and agent-powered systems on that data — retrieval, agentic workflows, data-quality and analytics agents — reliable enough to run in production, not just to demo. On the platform (building the house you live in) Harden what works in the field into the shared platform: the knowledge and grounding layer (knowledge graph, ontology, and retrieval) that makes grocery data usable by LLMs, the agent frameworks, and the serving infrastructure. Build the evals, tracing, and tooling that let the team measure quality — accuracy, hallucination rate, latency, cost — and ship faster on the next customer. Build for leverage: clean interfaces and reusable building blocks, not one-off per-customer code. Across both Own the flywheel: field learnings flow straight into the platform, and platform improvements show up at the next customer. What Makes You a Great Fit We encourage all highly-qualified candidates to apply, even if they do not fulfill all the listed criteria. 3+ years building production software and data systems, with strong, production-grade code An architect's instinct: you can take an ambiguous problem and a messy data landscape, design a clean and workable solution, and then build it. Genuine AI/LLM depth — you've built real systems with LLMs and agents (retrieval/RAG, tool-use) and you evaluate quality rather than eyeball it. Real data-engineering depth: building and operating data pipelines, modeling messy enterprise data, and working in a modern cloud data platform (Databricks, BigQuery, Snowflake, or similar). Range across both modes — you genuinely like being in front of customers and going heads-down to build reusable infrastructure, and you can switch between them without one suffering. This is the role's defining trait. Customer-facing comfort: you work well with a customer's engineers and data teams — running working sessions, explaining your thinking, and earning trust through what you deliver. A bias toward ownership and momentum, and comfort traveling to customer sites regularly (~10-20%). Nice to Have Experience in grocery, retail, or supply chain data domains. Knowledge graphs, ontologies, or semantic layers in production; graph and vector stores (pgvector, Pinecone, Weaviate) and hybrid search. MCP or similar tool/context protocols; agent frameworks (e.g., LangGraph); MLOps, model serving, and observability for LLM systems. Prior forward-deployed, solutions, or implementation engineering — or early-stage startup experience navigating rapid customer expansion. Why Afresh? We're a mission-driven company that eliminates hundreds of millions of pounds of food waste in grocery stores every year — your work has direct, visible impact. You'll do both halves of the job: deploy with customers and build the platform you deploy — never a body-shop consultant, never an ivory-tower platform engineer. Be part of an engineering culture that's genuinely AI-forward — we want to be on the bleeding edge of agentic development, not watching from the sidelines. Senior team, high trust, and real ownership at a pivotal inflection point for how Afresh scales. Collaborative, supportive environment & awesome people This is a hybrid role based in the San Francisco office (3 days/week) This Position Is Not Eligible For Company Sponsorship. Salary Range in U.S.: $156,060 - $211,140 + meaningful early-stage equity + benefits Why You’ll Love Working at Afresh At Afresh, our mission to eliminate food waste starts with investing in our people. We provide a comprehensive support system designed to help you do your best work while maintaining a healthy, balanced life. Comprehensive Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family, with the majority of premiums covered by Afresh. We also provide dedicated mental health support and counseling services. Invested in Your Future: Competitive base salary, meaningful equity (U.S. employees), and a 401(k) program with a generous company match. Flexible & Modern Workspace: Whether you work from home or a local office, we support your setup with a home office stipend and "Coworking Wallets" for flexible workspace access. Growth-Obsessed Culture: We believe in continuous learning. Every employee receives an annual professional development budget to master new skills and grow their career at Afresh. Holistic Monthly Stipends: Beyond your paycheck, we provide monthly stipends for "Betterment" (wellness/lifestyle) and telecommunications to ensure you have what you need to thrive. Time to Recharge: Flexible paid time off to take the time you need to recharge. Full-time U.S. employees are eligible for these benefits About Afresh Founded in 2017, Afresh is using AI to tackle the #1 solution to curb climate change: reducing food waste. By building AI specifically for the intricacies of grocery—from the fresh perimeter to the center store—we help grocers minimize waste and maximize sales. Afresh sits at an incredible intersection of positive social impact, rocket ship financial growth, and cutting-edge technology. Our best-in-class AI research has been published in top journals, including ICML, and our investors include Al Gore’s Just Climate, former Whole Foods Market CEO Walter Robb, and Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors. Grocery is the past, present, and future of our food system – the waste we create today will impact our planet for years to come. Join us as we continue to build a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive team that embodies our company’s values of proactivity, kindness, candor, and humility. Afresh provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, marital status, pregnancy or related condition, or any other basis protected by law. Here at Afresh, many of our employees work remotely provided that they reside in one of the following states: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, KY, MA, MI, MT, MO, NV, NJ, NY, NC, OR, PA, TX, WA, UT, VA, WI . Create a Job Alert Interested in building your career at Afresh? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email. Create alert Apply for this job indicates a required field First Name* Last Name* Preferred First Name Email* Phone Country Phone 244 results found No results found Afghanistan+93 Åland Islands+358 Albania+355 Algeria+213 American Samoa+1 Andorra+376 Angola+244 Anguilla+1 Antigua & Barbuda+1 Argentina+54 Armenia+374 Aruba+297 Ascension Island+247 Australia+61 Austria+43 Azerbaijan+994 Bahamas+1 Bahrain+973 Bangladesh+880 Barbados+1 Belarus+375 Belgium+32 Belize+501 Benin+229 Bermuda+1 Bhutan+975 Bolivia+591 Bosnia & Herzegovina+387 Botswana+267 Brazil+55 British Indian Ocean Territory+246 British Virgin Islands+1 Brunei+673 Bulgaria+359 Burkina Faso+226 Burundi+257 Cambodia+855 Cameroon+237 Canada+1 Cape Verde+238 Caribbean Netherlands+599 Cayman Islands+1 Central African Republic+236 Chad+235 Chile+56 China+86 Christmas Island+61 Cocos (Keeling) Islands+61 Colombia+57 Comoros+269 Congo - Brazzaville+242 Congo - Kinshasa+243 Cook Islands+682 Costa Rica+506 Côte d’Ivoire+225 Croatia+385 Cuba+53 Curaçao+599 Cyprus+357 Czechia+420 Denmark+45 Djibouti+253 Dominica+1 Dominican Republic+1 Ecuador+593 Egypt+20 El Salvador+503 Equatorial Guinea+240 Eritrea+291 Estonia+372 Eswatini+268 Ethiopia+251 Falkland Islands+500 Faroe Islands+298 Fiji+679 Finland+358 France+33 French Guiana+594 French Polynesia+689 Gabon+241 Gambia+220 Georgia+995 Germany+49 Ghana+233 Gibraltar+350 Greece+30 Greenland+299 Grenada+1 Guadeloupe+590 Guam+1 Guatemala+502 Guernsey+44 Guinea+224 Guinea-Bissau+245 Guyana+592 Haiti+509 Honduras+504 Hong Kong SAR China+852 Hungary+36 Iceland+354 India+91 Indonesia+62 Iran+98 Iraq+964 Ireland+353 Isle of Man+44 Israel+972 Italy+39 Jamaica+1 Japan+81 Jersey+44 Jordan+962 Kazakhstan+7 Kenya+254 Kiribati+686 Kosovo+383 Kuwait+965 Kyrgyzstan+996 Laos+856 Latvia+371 Lebanon+961 Lesotho+266 Liberia+231 Libya+218 Liechtenstein+423 Lithuania+370 Luxembourg+352 Macao SAR China+853 Madagascar+261 Malawi+265 Malaysia+60 Maldives+960 Mali+223 Malta+356 Marshall Islands+692 Martinique+596 Mauritania+222 Mauritius+230 Mayotte+262 Mexico+52 Micronesia+691 Moldova+373 Monaco+377 Mongolia+976 Montenegro+382 Montserrat+1 Morocco+212 Mozambique+258 Myanmar (Burma)+95 Namibia+264 Nauru+674 Nepal+977 Netherlands+31 New Caledonia+687 New Zealand+64 Nicaragua+505 Niger+227 Nigeria+234 Niue+683 Norfolk Island+672 North Korea+850 North Macedonia+389 Northern Mariana Islands+1 Norway+47 Oman+968 Pakistan+92 Palau+680 Palestinian Territories+970 Panama+507 Papua New Guinea+675 Paraguay+595 Peru+51 Philippines+63 Poland+48 Portugal+351 Puerto Rico+1 Qatar+974 Réunion+262 Romania+40 Russia+7 Rwanda+250 Samoa+685 San Marino+378 São Tomé & Príncipe+239 Saudi Arabia+966 Senegal+221 Serbia+381 Seychelles+248 Sierra Leone+232 Singapore+65 Sint Maarten+1 Slovakia+421 Slovenia+386 Solomon Islands+677 Somalia+252 South Africa+27 South Korea+82 South Sudan+211 Spain+34 Sri Lanka+94 St. Barthélemy+590 St. Helena+290 St. Kitts & Nevis+1 St. Lucia+1 St. Martin+590 St. Pierre & Miquelon+508 St. Vincent & Grenadines+1 Sudan+249 Suriname+597 Svalbard & Jan Mayen+47 Sweden+46 Switzerland+41 Syria+963 Taiwan+886 Tajikistan+992 Tanzania+255 Thailand+66 Timor-Leste+670 Togo+228 Tokelau+690 Tonga+676 Trinidad & Tobago+1 Tunisia+216 Turkey+90 Turkmenistan+993 Turks & Caicos Islands+1 Tuvalu+688 U.S. Virgin Islands+1 Uganda+256 Ukraine+380 United Arab Emirates+971 United Kingdom+44 United States+1 Uruguay+598 Uzbekistan+998 Vanuatu+678 Vatican City+39 Venezuela+58 Vietnam+84 Wallis & Futuna+681 Western Sahara+212 Yemen+967 Zambia+260 Zimbabwe+263 Resume/CV Attach Enter manually Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf Cover Letter Attach Enter manually Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf Do you have unrestricted work authorization in the United States? * Select... Will you now, or in the future, require immigration sponsorship for continued employment in the United States?* Select... This role is hybrid and based in San Francisco, CA, with 3 days per week onsite in our headquarters. Are you currently based in or able to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area, and able to work on-site in a hybrid capacity?* Select... Do you have 3+ years of professional experience building data pipelines using SQL and Python on modern cloud data platforms (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, or similar)?* Select... Do you have direct, hands-on experience working directly with external clients or customers in a technical, consultative capacity (e.g., as a consultant, forward deployed engineer, implementation engineer, or technical solutions engineer)?* Select... Have you built or contributed to a production AI/LLM system (not just a demo or prototype)? Describe?* Briefly describe a project where you had to embed with a customer's technical team, understand their existing data/systems, and build something to move them forward.* This role involves traveling to customer sites roughly 10-20% of the time. Are you aligned?* Select... LinkedIn Profile Afresh, the AI platform for grocery, began by tackling the most complex problem in the industry: fresh, and has evolved into the core AI platform for grocers. By leveraging proprietary AI designed for high-volatility environments, we empower partners like Albertsons, Meijer, and Wakefern to drive smarter decisions across their entire enterprise. Following record-breaking 70% revenue growth in 2025, we have scaled to 6 enterprise-grade solutions, with solutions live in over 10% of the U.S. grocery market. Our platform now orchestrates billions of decisions from the store floor to the distribution center and prevented over 200 million pounds of food waste last year alone. If you're looking for a role where your work directly translates into massive scale and social good, and you want to be part of the team that defines how the world eats, there is no better time to join us. What You'll Do In the field (forward deployed) Partner with Afresh's account lead and the customer's technical teams to scope and architect the work — the data sources, the architecture, and the path to production. Embed with the customer's data and engineering teams (remote and on-site); integrate into their cloud and data platform; build production-grade pipelines and model messy enterprise data into trustworthy data products. Design and ship LLM- and agent-powered systems on that data — retrieval, agentic workflows, data-quality and analytics agents — reliable enough to run in production, not just to demo. On the platform (building the house you live in) Harden what works in the field into the shared platform: the knowledge and grounding layer (knowledge graph, ontology, and retrieval) that makes grocery data usable by LLMs, the agent frameworks, and the serving infrastructure. Build the evals, tracing, and tooling that let the team measure quality — accuracy, hallucination rate, latency, cost — and ship faster on the next customer. Build for leverage: clean interfaces and reusable building blocks, not one-off per-customer code. Across both Own the flywheel: field learnings flow straight into the platform, and platform improvements show up at the next customer. What Makes You a Great Fit We encourage all highly-qualified candidates to apply, even if they do not fulfill all the listed criteria. 3+ years building production software and data systems, with strong, production-grade code An architect's instinct: you can take an ambiguous problem and a messy data landscape, design a clean and workable solution, and then build it. Genuine AI/LLM depth — you've built real systems with LLMs and agents (retrieval/RAG, tool-use) and you evaluate quality rather than eyeball it. Real data-engineering depth: building and operating data pipelines, modeling messy enterprise data, and working in a modern cloud data platform (Databricks, BigQuery, Snowflake, or similar). Range across both modes — you genuinely like being in front of customers and going heads-down to build reusable infrastructure, and you can switch between them without one suffering. This is the role's defining trait. Customer-facing comfort: you work well with a customer's engineers and data teams — running working sessions, explaining your thinking, and earning trust through what you deliver. A bias toward ownership and momentum, and comfort traveling to customer sites regularly (~10-20%). Nice to Have Experience in grocery, retail, or supply chain data domains. Knowledge graphs, ontologies, or semantic layers in production; graph and vector stores (pgvector, Pinecone, Weaviate) and hybrid search. MCP or similar tool/context protocols; agent frameworks (e.g., LangGraph); MLOps, model serving, and observability for LLM systems. Prior forward-deployed, solutions, or implementation engineering — or early-stage startup experience navigating rapid customer expansion. Why Afresh? We're a mission-driven company that eliminates hundreds of millions of pounds of food waste in grocery stores every year — your work has direct, visible impact. You'll do both halves of the job: deploy with customers and build the platform you deploy — never a body-shop consultant, never an ivory-tower platform engineer. Be part of an engineering culture that's genuinely AI-forward — we want to be on the bleeding edge of agentic development, not watching from the sidelines. Senior team, high trust, and real ownership at a pivotal inflection point for how Afresh scales. Collaborative, supportive environment & awesome people This is a hybrid role based in the San Francisco office (3 days/week) This Position Is Not Eligible For Company Sponsorship. Salary Range in U.S.: $156,060 - $211,140 + meaningful early-stage equity + benefits Why You’ll Love Working at Afresh At Afresh, our mission to eliminate food waste starts with investing in our people. We provide a comprehensive support system designed to help you do your best work while maintaining a healthy, balanced life. Comprehensive Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family, with the majority of premiums covered by Afresh. We also provide dedicated mental health support and counseling services. Invested in Your Future: Competitive base salary, meaningful equity (U.S. employees), and a 401(k) program with a generous company match. Flexible & Modern Workspace: Whether you work from home or a local office, we support your setup with a home office stipend and "Coworking Wallets" for flexible workspace access. Growth-Obsessed Culture: We believe in continuous learning. Every employee receives an annual professional development budget to master new skills and grow their career at Afresh. Holistic Monthly Stipends: Beyond your paycheck, we provide monthly stipends for "Betterment" (wellness/lifestyle) and telecommunications to ensure you have what you need to thrive. Time to Recharge: Flexible paid time off to take the time you need to recharge. Full-time U.S. employees are eligible for these benefits About Afresh Founded in 2017, Afresh is using AI to tackle the #1 solution to curb climate change: reducing food waste. By building AI specifically for the intricacies of grocery—from the fresh perimeter to the center store—we help grocers minimize waste and maximize sales. Afresh sits at an incredible intersection of positive social impact, rocket ship financial growth, and cutting-edge technology. Our best-in-class AI research has been published in top journals, including ICML, and our investors include Al Gore’s Just Climate, former Whole Foods Market CEO Walter Robb, and Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors. Grocery is the past, present, and future of our food system – the waste we create today will impact our planet for years to come. Join us as we continue to build a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive team that embodies our company’s values of proactivity, kindness, candor, and humility. Afresh provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, marital status, pregnancy or related condition, or any other basis protected by law. Here at Afresh, many of our employees work remotely provided that they reside in one of the following states: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, KY, MA, MI, MT, MO, NV, NJ, NY, NC, OR, PA, TX, WA, UT, VA, WI . 244 results found No results found Afghanistan+93 Åland Islands+358 Albania+355 Algeria+213 American Samoa+1 Andorra+376 Angola+244 Anguilla+1 Antigua & Barbuda+1 Argentina+54 Armenia+374 Aruba+297 Ascension Island+247 Australia+61 Austria+43 Azerbaijan+994 Bahamas+1 Bahrain+973 Bangladesh+880 Barbados+1 Belarus+375 Belgium+32 Belize+501 Benin+229 Bermuda+1 Bhutan+975 Bolivia+591 Bosnia & Herzegovina+387 Botswana+267 Brazil+55 British Indian Ocean Territory+246 British Virgin Islands+1 Brunei+673 Bulgaria+359 Burkina Faso+226 Burundi+257 Cambodia+855 Cameroon+237 Canada+1 Cape Verde+238 Caribbean Netherlands+599 Cayman Islands+1 Central African Republic+236 Chad+235 Chile+56 China+86 Christmas Island+61 Cocos (Keeling) Islands+61 Colombia+57 Comoros+269 Congo - Brazzaville+242 Congo - Kinshasa+243 Cook Islands+682 Costa Rica+506 Côte d’Ivoire+225 Croatia+385 Cuba+53 Curaçao+599 Cyprus+357 Czechia+420 Denmark+45 Djibouti+253 Dominica+1 Dominican Republic+1 Ecuador+593 Egypt+20 El Salvador+503 Equatorial Guinea+240 Eritrea+291 Estonia+372 Eswatini+268 Ethiopia+251 Falkland Islands+500 Faroe Islands+298 Fiji+679 Finland+358 France+33 French Guiana+594 French Polynesia+689 Gabon+241 Gambia+220 Georgia+995 Germany+49 Ghana+233 Gibraltar+350 Greece+30 Greenland+299 Grenada+1 Guadeloupe+590 Guam+1 Guatemala+502 Guernsey+44 Guinea+224 Guinea-Bissau+245 Guyana+592 Haiti+509 Honduras+504 Hong Kong SAR China+852 Hungary+36 Iceland+354 India+91 Indonesia+62 Iran+98 Iraq+964 Ireland+353 Isle of Man+44 Israel+972 Italy+39 Jamaica+1 Japan+81 Jersey+44 Jordan+962 Kazakhstan+7 Kenya+254 Kiribati+686 Kosovo+383 Kuwait+965 Kyrgyzstan+996 Laos+856 Latvia+371 Lebanon+961 Lesotho+266 Liberia+231 Libya+218 Liechtenstein+423 Lithuania+370 Luxembourg+352 Macao SAR China+853 Madagascar+261 Malawi+265 Malaysia+60 Maldives+960 Mali+223 Malta+356 Marshall Islands+692 Martinique+596 Mauritania+222 Mauritius+230 Mayotte+262 Mexico+52 Micronesia+691 Moldova+373 Monaco+377 Mongolia+976 Montenegro+382 Montserrat+1 Morocco+212 Mozambique+258 Myanmar (Burma)+95 Namibia+264 Nauru+674 Nepal+977 Netherlands+31 New Caledonia+687 New Zealand+64 Nicaragua+505 Niger+227 Nigeria+234 Niue+683 Norfolk Island+672 North Korea+850 North Macedonia+389 Northern Mariana Islands+1 Norway+47 Oman+968 Pakistan+92 Palau+680 Palestinian Territories+970 Panama+507 Papua New Guinea+675 Paraguay+595 Peru+51 Philippines+63 Poland+48 Portugal+351 Puerto Rico+1 Qatar+974 Réunion+262 Romania+40 Russia+7 Rwanda+250 Samoa+685 San Marino+378 São Tomé & Príncipe+239 Saudi Arabia+966 Senegal+221 Serbia+381 Seychelles+248 Sierra Leone+232 Singapore+65 Sint Maarten+1 Slovakia+421 Slovenia+386 Solomon Islands+677 Somalia+252 South Africa+27 South Korea+82 South Sudan+211 Spain+34 Sri Lanka+94 St. Barthélemy+590 St. Helena+290 St. Kitts & Nevis+1 St. Lucia+1 St. Martin+590 St. Pierre & Miquelon+508 St. Vincent & Grenadines+1 Sudan+249 Suriname+597 Svalbard & Jan Mayen+47 Sweden+46 Switzerland+41 Syria+963 Taiwan+886 Tajikistan+992 Tanzania+255 Thailand+66 Timor-Leste+670 Togo+228 Tokelau+690 Tonga+676 Trinidad & Tobago+1 Tunisia+216 Turkey+90 Turkmenistan+993 Turks & Caicos Islands+1 Tuvalu+688 U.S. Virgin Islands+1 Uganda+256 Ukraine+380 United Arab Emirates+971 United Kingdom+44 United States+1 Uruguay+598 Uzbekistan+998 Vanuatu+678 Vatican City+39 Venezuela+58 Vietnam+84 Wallis & Futuna+681 Western Sahara+212 Yemen+967 Zambia+260 Zimbabwe+263 Show more Show less