Forward Deployed Engineer

Workstream is a mission-driven company building the all-in-one HR, payroll, and hiring platform for managing the hourly workforce. There are 2.7 billion hourly workers, making up 80% of the global workforce, but this market has been heavily underserved by technology and deserves better. Workstream has been purpose-built for the hourly workforce from day one so that these businesses and their employees can thrive. Our customers include leading brands from multiple sectors, including Burger King, Carl's Jr./Hardee's, IHOP, KFC, and Culvers. We are a high growth series B company and quickly expanding our product portfolio to deliver on our vision. We are backed by legendary VCs and industry experts like Founders Fund, BOND, and Coatue. Grow With Us We are looking for a highly technical, customer-obsessed, and execution-driven Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to bridge the gap between Workstream’s product platform and our customers’ most complex operational challenges. In this role, you will operate at the intersection of engineering, product, and customer deployment—embedding deeply with strategic customers to design, build, and deploy high-impact technical solutions that drive measurable business outcomes. You will own end-to-end deployments from discovery and technical scoping through implementation, iteration, and scaled adoption. This is a high-ownership role for engineers who thrive in ambiguity, move quickly from prototype to production, and want to solve real-world business problems rather than just build in abstraction. You will work directly with customers, internal product and engineering teams, and executive stakeholders to shape deployment strategy while identifying reusable patterns that influence Workstream’s broader platform roadmap. This structure mirrors leading forward-deployed models where engineers embed closely with customers, ship quickly, and feed field insights back into core product development. This is a full-time, hybrid role requiring presence 3 days a week in our Menlo Park office to foster close collaboration with cross-functional teams. Why This Role Is Different This is not traditional software engineering, sales engineering, or implementation support. Forward Deployed Engineers at Workstream act more like startup operators or technical mini-GMs for strategic deployments—owning customer outcomes, shipping production systems quickly, and shaping the future product through execution. The best candidates are engineers who want to build, deploy, and influence product direction simultaneously. Day In The Life Own technical delivery across strategic customer deployments from initial discovery through production launch and long-term adoption Embed closely with enterprise customers to understand workflows, operational pain points, and technical requirements Scope, architect, and build custom solutions, integrations, workflows, and product extensions that deliver measurable customer value Write production-grade code across backend, frontend, APIs, integrations, or automation layers as needed to accelerate deployment Translate ambiguous customer problems into structured technical roadmaps and execution plans Partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Sales, Customer Success, and Leadership to align deployments with business priorities Make trade-offs between speed, scope, scalability, and productization while protecting customer outcomes Identify repeatable deployment patterns and convert one-off customer solutions into scalable product capabilities Serve as a strategic technical advisor to customers, helping shape adoption, implementation strategy, and long-term success Surface field learnings, customer pain points, and deployment insights back to Workstream’s core product roadmap Who You Are 4+ years of experience in robotics, computer vision, machine learning, data science or model building Strong full-stack technical capability (Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, APIs, SQL, integrations, or similar