Senior Forward Deployed Engineer/Architect
Posted 2 days ago
The role in short
Lead technical discovery and hands-on development of end-to-end AI-native solutions and agentic workflows for enterprise customers.
About Zetta2 (ZettaSquared)
At Zetta², we’re on a mission to help enterprises realize the value of AI for their business. We’re a pure-play, agnostic AI-native firm that provides a full range of AI infrastructure and software products, solutions, agentic workflows and services, alongside leading AI technologies and best-in-class partnerships, helping enterprises drive measurable business outcomes, quickly taking AI solutions from idea to production.
ZETTA² integrates leading AI models, hyperscale platforms, and AI technologies to deliver secure, production-ready AI-native solutions. Our vendor-neutral approach enables us to recommend the best technology or ground-up approach for each customer — not just a preferred platform. We continually vet partners from the fast-moving AI world and have strategic partnerships with many of the industry’s leaders. We work with Google, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, IBM, OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Cursor, Grok by X, Typesafe AI, Thinking Machines, Apache Iceberg, Databrinks, WorkOS, Zapier, Unsloth, Snowflake, Ping Identity, Pinecone, ServiceNow, Microsoft, Salesforce and many more AI stack industry leaders.
ZETTA² raised a substantial seed round in August of 2026, led by Smith/Newberg Road Partners, L.P./Bekman 514, Ltd. Smith, with sales in excess of $12B, is one of the world's largest independent electronic-component distributors, offering supply chain services on a global scale.
About the Role – Senior Forward Deployed Engineer/Architect
We're looking for several Senior Forward Deployed Engineers/Architects. Think of it as being the technical leader of the account: often starting as the first engineer on a new engagement, shaping the AI solution from the ground up, and building and leading the team around you to deliver it.
This is not a demo-building role. Senior Forward Deployed Engineer/Architects are hands-on builders. They design, implement, deploy, and iterate on end-to-end AI systems in close partnership with customers, subject matter experts, and other ZETTA² engineers.
Key Responsibilities:
Technical Leadership
· Work closely with the ZETTA² leadership team to drive technical discovery with clients, understand environments, constraints, and the realities of dynamic enterprises.
· Work closely with the ZETTA² leadership team to design and deliver AI-native solutions that balance speed, reliability, scalability and cost.
· Work closely with the ZETTA² leadership team to design and deploy proprietary AI products, solutions, agentic workflows and services.
Team Leadership
· Lead and coach the engineers on the account — set technical direction for people and project outcomes.
· Partner with ZETTA² leadership team to support team’s growth as well as figure out team composition according to account needs.
Client Engagement
· Act as the forward-deployed face of technical leadership, tailoring communication from engineers to business leaders and project sponsors.
· Influence decision-making by helping make smart technical choices that help clients realize AI success.
Delivery & Enablement
· Guide and mentor engineers from design through delivery.
· Partner with ZETTA² leadership team to translate client-specific solutions into reusable proprietary AI products, solutions, agentic workflows and services.
· Share insights across the company and team, raising the bar for future deployments.
About You
· Academic excellence - Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related technical field.
· 2+ years’ experience designing and delivering enterprise AI-native solutions. You have built applications powered by LLMs or other AI models and are comfortable composing multiple components — prompts, agents, tools, retrieval, evaluators, workflows, and integrations — into end-to-end systems.
· 5+ years’ software engineering experience, designing and delivering enterprise software systems, with strong AI/ML depth.
· Experience with AI stack technologies (Google, AWS, Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok AI, Cursor, Bloc, Typesafe AI, Thinking Machines, WorkOS, Databricks, Apache Iceberg, Snowflake, Zapier, Ping Identity and others).
· Track record of partnering with clients to grow the account over numerous weeks, months and years.
· Track record of leading and coaching AI engineers over multiple years.
· Proven experience as a hands-on technical lead — building and shipping AI-native solutions.
· Mastery of the AI development lifecycle: from data lakes to model deployment and monitoring.
· Ability to engage credibly across audiences – from engineers to executives.
· Ability to travel - typically 10–50%, depending on the project, customer needs, and your role on the engagement.
· Background in consulting or client-facing engineering roles.
What We Offer
The base salary range for this role is $150K – $250K, total salary for role expected to be $200K – $400K, depending on experience, location, and level. In addition to base compensation, this role is eligible for meaningful early-stage equity, quarterly and year-end bonuses, along with a comprehensive benefits package:
· 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents.
· Ongoing training across our strategic AI partners.
· Access to state-of-the-art AI models, generous usage of modern AI tools, and exciting customers with real-world business problems.
· Complementary in-office lunches and snacks provided.
· Ownership of high-impact projects across some of the world’s best companies.
· Flexible time off.
· Relocation assistance.
· Enjoy a fast-moving culture that values the desire and ability to learn AI technologies while having fun.
ZETTA² has offices in Houston, Los Angeles (2027) & Boston (2027).
We believe diverse perspectives make our work stronger and more impactful. We are an equal opportunity employer and evaluate all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.
Prep for this interview
5 questions likely to come up at Zetta2, each matched to a line in this posting.
- 1Discovery and scoping
They wrote: “Work closely with the ZETTA² leadership team to drive technical discovery with clients, understand environments, constraints, and the realities of dynamic enterprises.”
A customer says “we want AI in our claims process.” What do you ask in the first meeting?
How to answer
Why they ask: Most FDE work starts this vague. They want to hear you find the real problem before you pick a tool.
- Map the current process: who touches a claim, in what order, with which systems
- Find the slowest or most error-prone step and ask what it costs them
- Agree on one measurable goal (for example time per claim, or error rate)
- Ask what data you can access, and who signs off on security
Tip: Ask about the work, not the technology. Who does it today, how long it takes, what a mistake costs, and how they'd know it got better.
- 2LLMs, RAG and agents
They wrote: “Work closely with the ZETTA² leadership team to design and deploy proprietary AI products, solutions, agentic workflows and services.”
When would you use an agent that takes actions, and how do you keep it safe?
How to answer
Why they ask: Agent work is growing fast in FDE postings. Senior candidates are expected to know where agents fail.
- Use agents for multi-step tasks with clear success checks; avoid them where one wrong action is costly
- Give the agent narrow tools and permissions, not broad access
- Require human approval for risky actions
- Log every step so the customer can audit it
Tip: Start from the cost of a wrong action. Limit what the agent can do, and log everything.
- 3Cloud, deployment and security
They wrote: “Experience with AI stack technologies (Google, AWS, Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok AI, Cursor, Bloc, Typesafe AI, Thinking Machines, WorkOS, Databricks, Apache Iceberg, Snowflake, Zapier, Ping Identity and others).”
How would you debug a deployment that works in staging but fails at the customer's site?
How to answer
Why they ask: Customer environments differ in ways you can't see. This tests method under pressure.
- Compare versions, config and environment variables
- Check network rules, proxies and certificates (common in enterprise)
- Look at resource limits and permissions
- Add the missing check to your install steps afterwards
Tip: List the usual suspects and how you'd check each without full access.
- 4Ownership and working with customers
They wrote: “Ownership of high-impact projects across some of the world’s best companies.”
Tell me about something you shipped that broke in production.
How to answer
Why they ask: Everyone has broken production. They want to hear you own it and change something afterwards.
- What broke and who it affected
- How you found out and what you did in the first hour
- The root cause, said plainly
- What you changed so it can't happen the same way again
Tip: Pick a real one with a cost. Spend most of the answer on what you changed.
- 5Travel
They wrote: “Ability to travel - typically 10–50%, depending on the project, customer needs, and your role on the engagement.”
How do you handle being on the road with customers for weeks at a time?
How to answer
Why they ask: Many FDE roles involve regular travel. They check you know what you're signing up for.
- Your past travel or on-site experience
- How you stay productive away from the team
- What travel level works for you, said plainly
Tip: Be honest about what works for you. A mismatch here hurts both sides later.
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