Forward Deployed Engineer

Updated October 25, 2026

$175,000–$250,000San Francisco, CAOn-site4w ago

Scope technical requirements and build proof-of-concepts for enterprise customers

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View posting at Conversion

At a glance

Posted base pay

$175K–$250KAbove the median

Median $190K

This job$175K–$250KTypical senior FDE payMiddle 50% of 1,789 postings$160K–$220K

The work

Builds what the customer runs

Balance

Mostly building
Mixed
Mostly pre-sales or support

Project stages

Pre-sales
Proof of concept
Implementation
Operations (not covered)

Coding: Writes production code
Builds for: External customers
Level: Senior
Role: Individual contributor

What they ask for

Tools

AI
data pipelines
proof-of-concepts
marketing automation
AI workflows

Less common in FDE jobs

Covers pre-sales25%
On-site37%
Covers proofs of concept40%
Individual contributor or manager: Individual contributor49%

Share of US FDE postings that state each fact.

The job description from Conversion

Posted by Conversion on Sep 23, 2026

About Us

Conversion is the agentic marketing automation platform for modern enterprises such as Plaid, ClickHouse, Webflow, and Productboard. Our platform lets growth teams run their entire go-to-market motion in one place, from acquisition through retention, with AI agents doing the work that legacy tools like Marketo, HubSpot, and Pardot can't.

We've raised $28M+ from Abstract Ventures, True Ventures, and HOF Capital. The team is based in San Francisco and includes engineers, designers, and operators from Airbnb, Palantir, Pinterest, IMC, Shopify, LinkedIn, and Microsoft.

About the Role

Hey there! James here 👋, co-founder at Conversion. Just wanted to share my thoughts on the perfect candidate we're looking for to be one our Founding Forward Deployed Engineers.

So what exactly is a Forward Deployed Engineer? At Conversion, they turn enterprise customer needs into working AI deployments. A $100k+ deal does not survive on a nice pitch or a self-serve onboarding flow. It survives if the customer sees value in the pilot. Forward Deployed Engineers partner with Deployment Strategists to build, integrate, and deploy the technology that makes that value real.

Technical sales enablement: Partnering with Deployment Strategists and the sales team to scope technical requirements, build proof-of-concepts, and demonstrate how Conversion can solve enterprise customers’ specific challenges.
Customer integration and deployment: Building the integrations, data pipelines, and custom functionality needed to connect a customer’s existing marketing infrastructure to Conversion and get them successfully into production.
Building for customer success: Working directly with customer teams and Deployment Strategists to translate marketing goals into deployed product features, AI workflows, and technical solutions that deliver measurable results.
Shaping product: Working closely with engineering and product to turn lessons from customer deployments into reusable capabilities, helping ensure that what we build for one customer makes Conversion better for many.

This role is in-person 5 days/week in San Francisco.

You Might Be a Good Fit If You

Have software engineering experience, and prefer staying close to customers while also shipping product
Thrive cross-functionally, working alongside engineering, growth, and product
Enjoy fast paced and dynamic environments