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 Carls Jr./Hardees 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 Workstreams product platform and our customers most complex operational challenges.

In this role you will operate at the intersection of engineering product and customer deploymentembedding 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 Workstreams 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.

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 deploymentsowning 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 Workstreams 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)
• Proven ability to own and deliver complex technical projects in ambiguous fast-moving environments
• Experience working directly with customers or external stakeholders on technical implementations
• Exceptional problem-solving skills with a bias toward action and first-principles thinking
• Ability to move quickly from prototype to production while maintaining quality
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills across technical and non-technical audiences
• High ownership mindset with pride in end-to-end accountability
• Comfort balancing immediate customer needs with long-term scalable product thinking

• Experience in HR tech SaaS payroll hiring or workforce management platforms
• Background in forward deployed engineering solutions architecture implementation engineering or technical consulting
• Experience building integrations workflow automation or AI-powered operational tools
• Familiarity with enterprise deployments APIs data pipelines or systems architecture
• Previous experience at high-growth startups Palantir-style deployment teams or customer-facing product engineering organizations

What We Offer

• A mission-driven and value-based company dedicated to empower deskless workers and local businesses
• An early employee opportunity at a Series B hyper-growth startup; work with the founding team and industry veterans to accelerate your career
• Competitive salary and equity
• Comprehensive health coverage: medical dental and vision. We pay 95% of your premiums for our employees and 85% for dependents
• In office amenities and stocked kitchen
• 401K Plan
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• Flexible PTO

Salary Range

In compliance with the California Pay Transparency Law the base salary range for this role is between $150000 to $180000 base in Menlo Park. This range is not inclusive of our discretionary bonus or equity package. When determining a candidates compensation we consider a number of factors including skillset experience job scope and current market data.

Know More About Workstream

• Information

  Workstream provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race color religion age sex national origin disability status genetics protected veteran status sexual orientation gender identity or expression or any other characteristic protected by federal state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment including recruiting hiring placement promotion termination layoff recall transfer leaves of absence compensation and training.

  We are committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals.