Forward Deployed Engineer, Singapore
At a glance
Mid-level Software Engineering role at Exa. Singapore · full-time · $150,000–$250,000 base.
techroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Lead technical discovery with customer engineers, then shape API solutions, demos and evaluations with your account executive
- Build customer-specific prototypes on Exa's API for agent, research, search or enrichment use cases
- Find expansion opportunities in current accounts and turn promising needs into technical evaluations
- Explain product capabilities to technical and product leaders, handle objections, and bring recurring customer feedback to product teams
- Create reusable demos and integration guides, support early onboarding, and represent the team at regional technical events
What you bring
- At least five years in customer-facing technical work, such as solutions engineering, architecture or customer-heavy engineering
- You can design API integrations, build and debug demos in Python or TypeScript, and use AI-assisted coding tools
- You understand LLMs, RAG and agents well enough to scope evaluations with clear success measures
- You can present to varied audiences and manage several evaluations while priorities shift
Who this fits
This suits a hands-on technical professional moving closer to customers, especially someone who has run evaluations or built for developer platforms. You'll be an early regional hire, shaping sales practices while supporting initial customer implementations. The role is based in person in Singapore and involves travel for customer engagements; international candidates can receive visa sponsorship.
From the employer
About Exa
We raised a $250M Series C to build the search engine for AIs. Led by a16z, with existing investors Benchmark, Lightspeed, and YC doubling down, the round brings Exa's valuation to $2.2 billion.
Exa is building a search engine for the AI era. Our Search API currently powers Agents, Fortune 500s, and AI labs as we transform an industry that hasn't been disrupted since the 90s. We're a largely SF-based team of ~100 from Harvard, MIT, Meta, Google Research, ex-founders, and dropouts alike. We are rapidly building the most intelligent search engine in history. We're high agency, low-ego, and united by the feeling that this is one of the last problems worth getting right.
About the role
Forward Deployed Engineers are the technical tip of the spear at Exa. Partnered with an Account Executive, you own the technical win: you run discovery with customer engineering teams, design solutions on Exa's API, build and deliver demos and POCs that prove value, and turn technical evaluations into closed deals. You'll be one of the first GTM engineers in your region — you'll help define how Exa sells there, not just execute a playbook.
In this role, you will:
Own the technical side of the sales cycle: discovery, solution design, demos, POCs/POVs, and technical objection handling, in partnership with your AE
Run the technical side of expansion: spot new use cases in existing accounts and turn them into evaluations, with your AE
Build working demos and prototypes on Exa's API tailored to each customer's use case — agents, research, search, enrichment
Tell the story: translate Exa's capabilities into use-case narratives that land with CTOs, engineers, and PMs alike
Be the trusted technical advisor: know Exa inside out — the product, the API, the problems it solves — answer hard questions honestly, run evaluations rigorously, and know when to pull in engineering
Feed the field back into product: identify patterns across customer evaluations and channel them to product and engineering
Scale yourself and the region: build reusable demos, integration patterns, and playbooks, and represent Exa at technical workshops, meetups, and conferences
As a founding regional hire, support early customers through onboarding and initial implementation while we build out dedicated post-sales
Requirements
5+ years in a customer-facing technical role (flexible for exceptional candidates) — solutions/sales engineering, solutions architecture, or an engineering role with heavy customer exposure (e.g., engineering lead, developer relations, technical consulting)
Technical depth with APIs and modern development (e.g. Python or TypeScript): you can design an integration, build a working demo, and debug it live — using AI-assisted tooling is expected, hand-crafted code is not the bar
Strong communication and presentation skills: you can command a room, adapt to your audience, and say "I don't know — I'll find out" when you don't
Comfort with ambiguity and early-stage intensity: you can run several evaluations in parallel, prioritize what moves deals, and your job description will change as the region grows
Familiarity with the modern AI stack — LLMs, RAG, agents — and how customers evaluate it; you can scope a POC with clear success criteria
Based in region with willingness to travel for customer engagements
You might excel if you…
Have owned technical evaluations at a developer-platform / API-first company — POCs/POVs you scoped and ran that ended in a customer going live
Have led engineers and want to move toward the customer, or are an SE who wants to be more hands-on than your last role allowed
Are genuinely curious about AI and have built things with LLMs — side projects count
Are energized by being the first: first hire, first deal, first playbook in a region
Have run enterprise evaluations end-to-end — POC success criteria, security questionnaires, RFP responses
Speak additional regional languages (a plus across APJ markets)
This is an in-person opportunity in Singapore. We're happy to sponsor international candidates. In addition to premium healthcare benefits (medical, dental, vision), we also offer fertility benefits and a monthly wellness stipend to all of our employees.
Exa is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related conditions, criminal histories consistent with applicable law, or any other basis protected by applicable law.
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