Key skills
AI deploymentsPythoncustomer engagementLLMsAPI integrationfull-stack solutionstroubleshootingtraining materialscollaborationdocumentationTypeScriptSQLAIMLLLMReactCollaboration
About this role
Formant is a Series A startup focused on building the operating system for intelligent machines, aiming to enhance robotics management and operations. They are seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to implement AI capabilities in real-world environments, working directly with customers to solve operational challenges and deploy AI-driven solutions.
Responsibilities:
- Support and implement end-to-end AI deployments for customers, from discovery through production rollout
- Participate in on-site customer engagements (approximately 25–35% travel)
- Translate customer operational needs into technical requirements and working solutions
- Troubleshoot and resolve production issues in collaboration with engineering
- Help document best practices and implementation playbooks
- Build and iterate on LLM-powered workflows, RAG pipelines, and AI-assisted automation tools
- Prototype quickly while balancing reliability and performance
- Integrate with customer systems and APIs
- Navigate real-world physical constraints (latency, connectivity, hardware limitations)
- Contribute reusable components that accelerate future deployments
- Support existing customers and resolve their potential issues
- Partner with product engineering to relay field feedback and improve platform capabilities
- Support technical conversations during customer engagements
- Help enable customer teams through documentation and training materials
- Contribute insights that shape product roadmap and deployment strategy
Requirements:
- 2–4 years in a customer-facing technical role (Solutions Engineering, Implementation Engineering, Technical Support Engineering, or similar)
- Exposure to LLMs, prompt engineering, or AI/ML workflows (production experience a plus but not required) and appetite working with AI tools
- Experience deploying technical solutions into production environments
- Strong programming skills in Python or TypeScript
- Comfortable working in ambiguity and learning new domains quickly
- Willingness to travel for customer deployments (25–35%)
- Experience integrating APIs and building full-stack solutions
- Familiarity with React or SQL
- Exposure to robotics or physical systems (ROS, AMRs, industrial automation, etc.)
- Experience at a startup or in a fast-paced environment
- Background working with operational or industrial customers