Forward Deployed Engineer

Company: Wonderful.AI

Website: Visit Website

LinkedIn: Visit LinkedIn

Business Type: Startup

Company Type: Product & Service

Business Model: B2B

Funding Stage: Series B

Industry: Information Technology

Salary Range: ₹ 40-80 Lacs PA

Job Description Forward Deployed Engineer – AI & Solutions Engineering Location: Bengaluru / Mumbai

We are looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) who can operate at the intersection of software engineering, AI, customer problem-solving and product delivery .

This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who can understand complex customer problems, translate them into technical solutions, build and integrate those solutions, and take ownership through production.

The ideal candidate should have strong core software engineering experience , combined with exposure to AI/LLM systems, APIs, integrations and cloud infrastructure . Experience working in startups and building products or solutions from 0→1 is highly valued.

Key Responsibilities

• Work directly with customers and internal stakeholders to understand business and technical requirements.
• Convert ambiguous customer problems into practical, scalable technical solutions.
• Design, develop and deploy production-grade software, APIs and integrations.
• Build solutions involving LLMs, RAG, AI agents and AI-powered workflows where applicable.
• Integrate AI solutions with enterprise applications, APIs, databases and third-party platforms.
• Own solutions end-to-end — from discovery and prototyping through deployment, production support and continuous improvement.
• Work closely with Product, Engineering and leadership teams to prioritize and execute solutions.
• Debug complex production issues and ensure reliability, performance and scalability.
• Rapidly prototype and iterate on solutions in a fast-moving startup environment.
• Contribute to reusable architectures, engineering standards and best practices.

Must-Have Skills & Experience Core Software Engineering / Development 5+ years Backend Development & APIs : 4+ years Production-grade software development 4+ years Cloud – AWS / Azure / GCP: 2+ years API / System Integrations: 2+ years AI / LLM / Generative AI applications: 1+ year RAG / AI Agents / AI workflows: 1+ year Startup / 0→1 product or solution development 1+ year preferred Technical Expectations Strong Hands-on Experience With

• Backend programming using Python, Node.js, Java, Go or similar
• REST APIs, webhooks, microservices and system integrations
• Databases and data handling
• Cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure or GCP
• Docker and modern deployment practices
• LLM APIs and AI application development
• RAG, vector databases, agentic workflows and prompt/tool orchestration
• Authentication, security and production reliability
• Git, CI/CD and modern engineering practices

Candidate Profile We Are Looking For An Engineer Who

• Has 6+ years of overall professional experience, with substantial experience in core software development.
• Is comfortable moving between customer discussions and hands-on coding.
• Can independently take a problem from requirements → architecture → development → deployment → production.
• Has worked in a startup or high-growth environment, preferably on 0→1 initiatives.
• Is comfortable with ambiguity, rapid iteration and changing priorities.
• Demonstrates strong ownership, communication and problem-solving ability.
• Has experience working closely with customers, business teams or solution stakeholders.

Important Screening Criteria

• 6+ years overall experience is mandatory for sourcing.
• Candidates must have substantial core software engineering/development experience; profiles primarily focused on AI/ML, Data Science or Product Management without strong software development experience should not be considered.
• Startup experience is required/preferred, particularly experience building or scaling products/solutions.
• Candidates should demonstrate reasonable employment stability. Avoid profiles with less than 2-year stints at more than one company since 2020.
• Candidates who are currently working as freelancers/independent consultants should not be considered.
• Strong preference for candidates who have owned solutions through production, rather than only prototypes or POCs.

What Success Looks Like The successful candidate will be able to take an unclear customer/business problem, understand the underlying requirement, design the right technical approach, build the solution hands-on, deploy it into production and own the outcome .

This is therefore not a conventional software developer role and not a pure AI/ML research role. It is a high-ownership engineering position combining software development + AI + integrations + customer-facing solution delivery .