Forward Deployed Engineer
At a glance
Mid-level Software Engineering role at Chalk. New York · full-time · $170,000–$280,000 base.
techroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build and ship code across Chalk’s codebase to connect its technology with customer systems and workflows
- Learn each customer’s infrastructure, then choose and implement an integration that fits its environment
- Turn customer needs into features, including proving out missing capabilities and building their first platform version
- Serve as the technical contact through sales discussions, onboarding and ongoing customer support
- Work with engineering and sales, recommend products as customer needs change, and help interview and develop engineers
What you bring
- At least two years of professional backend software engineering experience
- A technical background in software development or building machine learning models
- Working proficiency in Python and SQL
- A computer science degree or equivalent experience
Who this fits
This role suits a mid-level engineer who wants to build software directly with customer data, machine learning and engineering teams. You’ll work from the New York office five days a week; customer-site travel is rare. The position includes customer-facing technical work before and after a sale, plus helping grow the engineering team.
From the employer
About Chalk
Chalk (chalk.ai) is the platform for production AI. Trusted by enterprises including Whatnot, Grindr, Mission Lane, Turo, and Apartment List, Chalk brings together context, runtime, and learning for agents and models. Chalk’s Context Engine delivers live context by querying data across warehouses, databases, streams, and APIs, straight from the source. Chalk’s runtime powers agents and models with infrastructure and governed access to LLMs and tools. Together, these capabilities help teams build AI that understands their business, continuously improves, and runs reliably in production. We've recently raised a $50 million Series A, led by Felicis. Learn more at chalk.ai.
About the role
You are an exceptional Software Engineer who wants to work directly alongside the people using what you build. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will be embedded with our customers' data engineering, data science, and machine learning teams and write code that connects Chalk to their unique infrastructure and use cases. As the subject matter expert in the room, you will work with these data teams to build efficient ML and AI systems. When a customer needs something that Chalk doesn't do yet, you will prove out that new capability and personally build the first version into our platform, where it becomes available to every customer.
Your work will power use cases like cancer detection, fraud prevention, and product recommendation. This is your opportunity to join us in-person as an early employee and make a significant impact at a high growth start-up.
We're in the office 5 days a week. When unavoidable conflicts come up, we’re flexible. This is not a hybrid role. Traveling to customer sites is rare since you support teams from multiple customers while working in our office.
What you will do
Write code across the entire code base to implement Chalk technology for Chalk customers and prospects. You will become familiar with Chalk infrastructure and find the best way to integrate and implement them in different environments
Discover customer's needs and then design, implement, and ship new features for customers
Work closely with our Engineering and Sales teams
Act as the primary technical point of contact pre-sales and post-sales (when we are onboarding a new customer or supporting an existing one)
Recommend new products to customers as their business evolves
Help interview and grow the Engineering team
What we’re looking for
Technical background including experience writing software or building ML models
2+ years experience of professional backend software engineering experience
Proficient in Python, SQL
Ability to collaborate effectively in teams of technical and non-technical individuals
Excellent written and verbal communication, problem-solving, storytelling, and analytical skills
Experience working closely with sales teams and customers is a plus.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent
Bonus points
Previous experience working with ML/data products or services
Understanding of Machine Learning Ops/Infrastructure
Previous experience as a forward-deployed engineer in a high-growth startup focusing on Machine Learning
Compensation
Chalk offers early team members a generous salary + equity package based on experience and competitive benefits.
Actual compensation awarded to successful candidates will be based on several factors, including but not limited to: market, location, scope of the position and individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process.
Our comprehensive total package plays a major role in how we recognize individuals for the impact they will have on Chalk’s growth and us achieving our goals.
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