> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt. # AI Engineer Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/2625d8a6aa23c2b2 Distyl AI posts a FDE role to build what the customer runs in San Francisco, CA and 1 more, at $180,000–$250,000 base, above the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,864 postings with pay. AI Engineers build, deploy, and operate end-to-end AI systems in customer environments, translating ambiguous operational needs into reliable production workflows. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [Distyl AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/distyl-ai) Posted Jun 18, 2026 by Distyl AI · open on Ashby as of Nov 8, 2026 **$180,000–$250,000** + equity San Francisco, CA +1 Hybrid, Tue–Thu in office Full-time AI Engineers build, deploy, and operate end-to-end AI systems in customer environments, translating ambiguous operational needs into reliable production workflows. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2F2625d8a6aa23c2b2&placement=top) - [View posting at Distyl AI](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/Distyl/46728319-c47a-48c8-bbfb-af0d9bff2ea2/application) Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so. ## At a glance ### Posted base pay $180K–$250K Above the median Midpoint $215K · median $190K This job $180K to $250K. Senior FDE postings, 1,864 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $160K to $220K, median $190K. ### The work Builds what the customer runs Balance **Mostly building** Project stages 1. Pre-sales (not covered) 2. Proof of concept (not covered) 3. Implementation 4. Operations Travel **Up to 30%** - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: External customers - **Level**: Senior - **Role**: Individual contributor ### What they ask for Experience - **5+ years** software engineering experience Background - **Software engineering** ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting asks for 5+ years. How many do you have? The posting reads as a senior role. What level are you at now? The job is in San Francisco, CA · New York, NY. Could you work in one of these? Which of these have you used in production? Answer each one. Nothing is saved or sent. [What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths) ## Conditions - **Location**: San Francisco, CA · New York, NY - **Work arrangement**: Hybrid, Tue–Thu in office - **Remote work restrictions**: 3+ days per week in office, Tuesday–Thursday, at the San Francisco or New York office - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Travel**: Up to 30% - **Pay**: ## More like this [Joyful Health](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/joyful-health) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/22795913cd1c6605) New York, NY Hybrid 4d ago $150,000–$275,000 [Decagon](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/decagon) ### [Agent Deployment Engineer - Spanish Speaking](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/3a43d393a714090b) San Francisco, CA On-site 3mo ago $175,000–$230,000 [jeffreym-consulting](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/jeffreym-consulting) ### [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/160095c9c45ee8af) San Francisco, CA On-site 2d ago $180,000–$250,000 - [Other jobs at Distyl AI (6)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/distyl-ai) ## The job description from Distyl AI Posted by Distyl AI on Jun 18, 2026 ### About Distyl AI Distyl is an applied AI technology company partnering with the world’s most ambitious institutions to rearchitect critical operations for the frontier of AI. Our customers include the largest companies in telecom, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, consumer goods, and global social organizations. We research and deploy technologies that power AI-native operations — both for our partners and for Distyl itself. Our work spans research into self-constructing systems, the development of the most reliable execution of AI systems, and products that transform mission-critical workflows. As a result, Distyl's technologies affect some of the world's largest operations — from hundreds of millions of consumer interactions to tens of millions of supply chain transactions and millions of patient journeys. Distyl is backed by leading investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Coatue, DST Global, and the board-members of 20+ F500s. ### What We Are Looking For AI Engineers build and operate production AI systems that deliver business value inside customer environments. This role is for engineers who thrive in ambiguous problem spaces, take ownership of outcomes, and want to work directly on AI systems that must perform reliably under enterprise constraints. AI Engineers are hands-on builders. They design, implement, deploy, and iterate on end-to-end AI systems in close partnership with customers, subject matter experts, and other Distyl engineers. They translate messy operational needs into concrete system behavior, build the software and AI workflows required to support that behavior, and continuously improve systems through evaluation, feedback, integration, and production iteration. This is not a demo-building role. AI Engineers are expected to make AI systems work in practice: with users, data, constraints, and accountability for production outcomes. ### Key Responsibilities - Build and operate AI systems deployed in customer environments, taking ownership of system behavior, reliability, and usefulness in production - Design and implement compound AI workflows that combine models, prompts, agents, tools, retrieval, evaluation, feedback loops, and execution into coherent production systems aligned with user and SME needs - Develop clean, maintainable Python services and application logic that integrate AI capabilities into customer workflows, data platforms, APIs, and existing applications - Operate on live systems by measuring behavior, identifying failure modes, debugging issues, and iterating rapidly to improve quality, reliability, and user value - Build evaluation frameworks, test cases, feedback mechanisms, and observability patterns that help teams understand and improve AI system performance over time - Work directly with customer stakeholders and subject matter experts to understand workflows, clarify requirements, reason about tradeoffs, and adapt systems as needs evolve - Use AI-native engineering tools to accelerate implementation, debugging, experimentation, data analysis, and system improvement - Collaborate with other AI Engineers, AI Strategists, and other Distillers to make pragmatic system design decisions that balance speed, robustness, maintainability, and customer impact - Take accountability for the production outcomes of the components, workflows, and systems you build ### What We Require ### 5+ years of software engineering experience - **Ownership mentality for AI systems.** You take responsibility for whether the systems you build deliver their intended value in production. You are comfortable making technical decisions, learning from system behavior, and owning the results of your work - **Experience building AI systems.** You have built applications powered by LLMs or other AI models and are comfortable composing multiple components — prompts, agents, tools, retrieval, evaluators, workflows, and integrations — into end-to-end systems. You reason about system behavior holistically rather than treating models as black boxes - **Strong engineering fundamentals.** You write clean, maintainable Python and are comfortable building production software systems. You understand core engineering concepts like versioning, debugging, testing, performance, code review, and production readiness - **AI-native working style.** You use AI tools daily to write and debug code, explore designs, analyze data, and automate repetitive work. You are curious about new model capabilities and techniques, and actively incorporate them into how you build and iterate on systems - **Comfort in customer environments.** You are able to work directly with customer teams, ask good questions, and adapt quickly to new domains. You communicate clearly about system behavior, limitations, and tradeoffs, and can operate effectively in high-trust, high-visibility situations - **Pragmatic delivery mindset.** You can navigate ambiguity, make progress with incomplete information, and balance speed with robustness when building systems that need to work for production users - **Willingness to travel.** Travel is typically 10–30%, depending on the project, customer needs, and your role on the engagement ### What We Offer - The base salary range for this role is $180K – $250K, depending on experience, location, and level. In addition to base compensation, this role is eligible for meaningful equity, along with a comprehensive benefits package - 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents - Flexible time off - Retirement and financial planning benefits, including access to pre-tax HSA, FSA, and commuter accounts, 401(k), and financial coaching resources - Comprehensive wellness benefits, including physical fitness, mental well-being, and fertility and family-building benefits through Carrot - Complimentary in-office lunches and snacks provided - Access to state-of-the-art AI models, generous usage of modern AI tools, and real-world business problems - Ownership of high-impact projects across top enterprises - A mission-driven, fast-moving culture that values curiosity, pragmatism, and excellence Distyl has offices in San Francisco and New York. This role follows a hybrid collaboration model with 3+ days per week (Tuesday–Thursday) in‑office. We believe diverse perspectives make our work stronger and more impactful. We are an equal opportunity employer and evaluate all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply. [View posting at Distyl AI](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/Distyl/46728319-c47a-48c8-bbfb-af0d9bff2ea2/application) ## About Distyl AI Builds AI-native enterprise systems for Fortune 500 operators, combining forward-deployed teams with Distillery to turn domain knowledge into auditable production workflows. Series B · 100–200 people ## Similar jobs [Take2 AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/take2-ai) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/e0949ce27e16bca8) New York, NY Hybrid 3mo ago $150,000–$200,000 [Transformworks](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/transformworks) ### [Forward Deployed AI Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/01bf224091b6acdf) New York, NY Hybrid 2mo ago $165,000–$350,000 [Amplitude](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amplitude) ### [Senior Software Engineer ](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/aef2257b5e0e7b37) San Francisco, CA Hybrid 2mo ago $183,000–$276,000 [Google](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/google) ### [AI Customer and Partner Solutions Engineer, Cloud Applied AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/7c6b3d59186ae60b) Kirkland, WA · Sunnyvale, CA 2w ago $183,000–$265,000 [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) ### [Applied AI Engineer, Enterprise - EDU](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/4b0baa0ee913def4) New York, NY · San Francisco, CA Remote New · Yesterday $251,000–$278,000 - [Compare senior FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/senior) - [Similar jobs in New York metro](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?region=nyc-metro) - [Similar jobs that build what the customer runs](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?role=builds-for-customers) Hiring at Distyl AI and want this page changed or removed? 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