> 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. # Forward Deployed Engineer Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/26541051b96604cb Risely AI posts a FDE role to build what the customer runs in San Francisco, CA, at $120,000–$180,000 base, below the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,864 postings with pay. Own end-to-end deployments of AI agents and software inside higher-education institutions, from discovery and integrations through launch, training, and early usage. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [Risely AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/risely-ai) Posted May 11, 2026 by Risely AI · open on Gem as of Nov 8, 2026 **$120,000–$180,000** *annualized* San Francisco, CA On-site Full-time Own end-to-end deployments of AI agents and software inside higher-education institutions, from discovery and integrations through launch, training, and early usage. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2F26541051b96604cb&placement=top) - [View posting at Risely AI](https://jobs.gem.com/risely-ai/am9icG9zdDryZrOoIHxUMFcTmWCxKDwP) 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 $120K–$180K Below the median Midpoint $150K · median $190K This job $120K to $180K. 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 **Required, amount not stated** - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: External customers - **Level**: Senior - **Role**: Individual contributor ### What they ask for Experience - **1+ years** building full-stack production systems - **5+ years** building full-stack production systems Background - **Software engineering** ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting asks for 1+ 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. Could you work there? 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 - **Work arrangement**: On-site - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Travel**: Travel required, amount not stated ## More like this [Netic](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/netic) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - New Grad - 2026-2027](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/8f5951871c970317) San Francisco, CA On-site 3mo ago $138,000–$160,000 [AiPrise](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/aiprise) ### [Bilingual Forward Deployed Engineer (English/Spanish)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/7ea1eef0aa28380f) San Jose, CA On-site 1mo ago $115,000–$130,000 [Hive](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/hive) ### [Forward Deployed Software Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/d280fa23305a2516) San Francisco, CA On-site 3w ago $120,000–$200,000 ## The job description from Risely AI Posted by Risely AI on May 11, 2026 ### Forward Deployed Engineer **Location:** Downtown San Francisco, in-person 5 days a week, with travel to customers **Comp:** $120-180K total cash (incl. variable) plus founding-level equity Risely is the AI workforce for higher education. We're growing rapidly amidst massive customer demnad. We're hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer to own customer deployments end to end. ### The role You own the customer from the moment a contract is signed to the day the product is working inside their institution. Every layer of the stack that has to come together for that to happen is yours. Every university is different. Their systems are messy, their data is partial, their workflows live in people's heads. The job is to walk into that environment, figure out what is actually true, and ship working software against it. Sometimes that means a Salesforce integration. Sometimes it means a custom React dashboard for a dean. Sometimes it means rewriting an agent's workflow at 11pm because tomorrow's launch needs it. You do all of it. The pace is hours and days. A deployment that takes a quarter elsewhere takes us weeks here, and you are the reason that's true. ### What you'll own - **Customer deployments end to end.** You own the kickoff, the discovery, the technical design, the build, the launch, and the first weeks of usage. A deployment is yours from week one to working product. - **Data engineering.** Map the customer's data, build the pipelines, normalize messy schemas across SIS, LMS, CRM, advancement, and finance systems. You handle missing fields, deduping, write-backs, syncs, and the long tail of edge cases that always show up in real institutions. - **Backend services.** Build the APIs and integrations that sit between the customer's systems and our agents. Production code that runs reliably inside real institutions. - **Frontend work.** Ship the dashboard the dean actually opens. Build the interfaces the advisors actually use. Customer-facing UI is part of the deployment, and you build it. - **Last-mile agents and workflows.** Configure and customize agents for each customer's actual workflow. Tune prompts, define tools, set guardrails, wire up the workflows that match how this specific institution operates. Generic agents lose; customer-specific agents win. - **Launching with the customer.** You run the go-live. Cutover plans, dry runs, rollback plans, sitting next to the customer on launch day. When something breaks at 7am, you diagnose, prototype, and ship. Sometimes within hours. - **Training the customer.** Build the runbooks, train the end users, walk advisors and admins through the product, capture feedback in real time. A deployment is only successful when the customer can use it without you in the room. - **Feeding the platform.** When you see the same customer-specific problem twice, you push it back to the platform team with the right framing so the third customer never has to wait. ### Who we're looking for A full-stack builder who actually likes customers. The kind of engineer who can sit in a working session with a dean and walk out knowing exactly what to ship by Friday. - **Strong across the stack.** TypeScript, Python, React, Node, SQL. You debug a data pipeline, ship a frontend tweak, and design an API in the same day. - **Fluent with data.** Real institutional data is messy, partial, and inconsistent. You map it, clean it, reconcile it, and turn it into something the agents can use. - **A shipper.** A working version this week beats a perfect version next month. You move at the pace of the customer conversation and close loops fast. - **Customer-fluent.** You translate institutional pain into code, and code back into something the customer trusts. - **AI-native.** You orchestrate Claude Code agents alongside your own work. You have a real point of view on where agents add leverage and where humans still have to drive. 1-5 years of building full-stack production systems. You're joining the founding team and the upside reflects that. ### What it's like to work here Risely is a startup in the truest sense. We are all in. The pace is intense and the work is demanding, and the impact is real. - **In-person commitment.** We're in the office together. Building at this stage takes full presence and full focus, and that often means evenings and the occasional Saturday. - **Speed and impact.** Your work ships fast and reaches students and staff in days, not quarters. - **Mission clarity.** Every line of code, every late night, every customer trip ties back to one purpose: helping students stay enrolled and helping colleges survive a generational shift. - **Ownership from week one.** You'll make critical decisions and drive real outcomes from the start. - **Deep, meaningful work.** You'll wrestle with data complexity, privacy regulations, and decades-old legacy systems. The problems are hard, and solving them changes how universities run. If this excites you, join us at the ground floor. The work will stretch you and demand your best. It will also be the most meaningful work of your career. ### About Risely Colleges are in trouble. One in three students drops out today, even after schools spend millions to recruit them. Overburdened staff comb through fragmented data by hand and miss the warning signs until it's too late. We founded Risely to back the mission of higher education through the biggest systemic and technological shift the industry has ever faced. We build AI digital workers that handle the real operational work universities are drowning in: enrollment, advising, advancement, student services. We deploy them inside the systems institutions already use, and we make them work. We're live and growing fast. Our customers include R1 research universities and various private colleges around the US. We're a small team, YC-backed, well-funded, and building like the future of higher ed depends on us. ### How to apply Apply here and if you're really interested, email shahryar@risely.ai with a paragraph on why this role and a link to something you've built. [View posting at Risely AI](https://jobs.gem.com/risely-ai/am9icG9zdDryZrOoIHxUMFcTmWCxKDwP) ## About Risely AI AI agents connect to university systems and help staff handle enrollment, advising, and advancement workflows. Seed · 1–10 people ## Similar jobs [Uare.ai](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/uare-ai) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (U.S. Government / IL5)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/b4730e997dcec701) San Francisco, CA · Los Altos, CA On-site 2w ago $130,000–$170,000 [Sift](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/sift) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/ad72b237f4fa55ef) San Francisco, CA · Los Angeles, CA Hybrid 3mo ago $125,000–$175,000 [Accordion](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/accordion) ### [Senior Software Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/72a07d97973bb794) Boston, MA · Charlotte, NC · +4 more Hybrid 1mo ago $110,000–$200,000 [Tread](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/tread) ### [AI-Native Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/b6274401bfc0df20) San Francisco, CA On-site 3mo ago $120,000–$160,000 [SalesPatriot](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/salespatriot) ### [Lead Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/e269756eb6cb8219) San Francisco, CA · New York, NY · +2 more On-site 4w ago $150,000–$220,000 - [Compare senior FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/senior) - [Similar jobs in SF Bay Area](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?region=sf-bay-area) - [Similar jobs that build what the customer runs](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?role=builds-for-customers) Hiring at Risely AI and want this page changed or removed? Email info@nextmove.md and we take it down. Employer postings · [How we read postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/method)