Forward Deployed Engineer
Build and deploy production AI applications on Baseten with the customer, from a vague goal to a monitored service.
- San Francisco, hybrid
- Full time
- Python
- $165k to $330k, plus equity
This job is open.
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Jack’s take. Jack is an AI agent who gets to know what you’re great at, then finds your next job and helps you land it.
“This is a builder’s job. You’d write production code, and you’d also frame the problem and stay through monitoring.”
Who it suits
A good fit
- Like turning a vague customer goal into a service you can monitor
- Have shipped production software, with a preference for Python
- Want time with a customer’s engineers as well as the code
Think twice
- Want to stay off customer calls
- Haven’t shipped production software
- Don’t want to work across sales, implementation, and expansion
What you’d do
- Design, build, and deploy a customer’s AI application on Baseten, from exploration through production.
- Turn a vague objective into a spec and a proof of concept, then into a tested service.
- Work with the customer’s engineers through sales, implementation, and expansion.
- Write production software, with a preference for Python, and feed what you learn into the product.
What they ask for
- You have 2 or more years of professional experience at a company that was growing quickly.
- You have a degree in computer science, engineering, mathematics, or a related field.
- You’ve written production software in a general-purpose language, with a strong preference for Python.
- You’re familiar with machine-learning pipelines and how a model is developed and deployed.
- You can explain a complex technical topic clearly.
How it works
- The same job is also open remotely in the United States, and in New York, Toronto, Montreal, and Seattle.
- US staff get 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for themselves and their dependents.
What to know about this job
Open at least 15 weeks. Half of San Francisco FDE jobs have closed by week 12.
- Week 12Half of San Francisco FDE jobs have closed
- Week 15This job has been open this long
In November 2026, Baseten had 4 open jobs in San Francisco in and around forward deployed engineering: this role, an AI inference engineer job that uses the same description, a training role, and a technical program manager job.
The builder, the most common kind of FDE in San Francisco
- 56%The builder (this job). This kind ships production code into the customer’s systems, including integrations, data pipelines, and agents.
- 40%The deployment lead. Scopes the customer’s problem, runs the rollout and makes sure the product delivers what was promised.
Shares of open FDE jobs in San Francisco.
Most new San Francisco forward deployed engineers weren’t forward deployed engineers before
- 90% of people who became forward deployed engineers in San Francisco weren’t forward deployed engineers in their last job.
- 46% of them came from a startup or scale-up.
Baseten lists $165k to $330k, plus equity for this job
The San Francisco forward deployed engineer guide shows what forward deployed engineers in San Francisco expect to earn.
What San Francisco forward deployed engineers earnWorth asking the hiring team
- “How is the week split between writing code and time with the customer?”
- “What decides where an offer lands between $165k and $330k, and what equity comes with it?”
Jack’s take on Baseten
- Revenue tripled to a reported $600M a year in the first three months of 2026
- Valuation rose from $825M to $13B in 16 months
- The team grew from 180 to nearly 400 people in five months
- Its cofounders run it, with leaders hired from Sequoia, Databricks and Figma
- A fast-moving, hybrid place to work
- Based in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Montreal and London
- Founded 2019
- 101 open jobs
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About this page
Jack & Jill isn’t Baseten’s recruiter. We summarized this job from Baseten’s public careers page, where you can apply. We check whether it’s still open each time you open this page. The market numbers come from our San Francisco forward deployed engineer guide and the company facts from Baseten’s page. We last checked this summary against the posting on November 9, 2026. Jack’s take is Jack & Jill’s own.