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Craft Ventures Portfolio Job Board

Forward Deployed Engineer (Senior)

Arist

Arist

United States
Posted on Jan 10, 2026
We’re hiring a Senior / Founding Forward Deployed Engineer to lead how Arist integrates into customer ecosystems and how those integrations power our AI-driven needs analysis and personalized learning experiences.

This role sits at the intersection of engineering, product, and customers. You’ll work directly with enterprise clients to deploy Arist in a way that feels native to their organization—while also shaping the technical foundations that make those deployments scalable and repeatable.

If you’ve been a principal or lead solutions engineer and are looking for a step up in scope, ownership, and impact, this role is designed for you.

What you’ll do

  • Own deep customer integrations
  • Design and implement integrations with core customer systems, including:
    • HCM, LMS, CRM, and other source systems
    • Current integrations are largely orchestrated through Workato
  • Ensure integrations are reliable, scalable, and easy for customers to adopt.
  • Act as the technical owner of complex, high-impact deployments.
  • Build and productize our integration surface
  • Expand, harden, and shape Arist’s API to support:
    • Template-based, repeatable integrations
    • Self-serve or partner-led integrations with minimal Arist involvement
  • Define patterns, tooling, documentation, and best practices that make integrations faster and more predictable over time.
  • Partner with product and core engineering to influence API and platform roadmap decisions.
  • Forward-deployed engineering for AI needs analysis
  • Work directly with customers to deploy Arist’s AI needs analysis in real-world organizational contexts.
  • Gather and map the right datasets so AI outputs are accurate, safe, and relevant.
  • Define and apply guardrails that balance flexibility with trust and data integrity.
  • Deliver experiences where customers say:
“This feels native to our organization—and it just works.”

You will report directly to the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer

How the role evolves

Phase 1: Learn, execute, and streamline (0–6 months)

  • Go hands-on with existing solutions engineering and integration work for a fast-growing customer base.
  • Identify bottlenecks and standardize workflows through:
    • Reusable templates
    • Integration patterns
    • Tooling and documentation
  • Help decide whether to:
    • Hire a tactical integration engineer, or
    • Shift more execution to core engineering
  • Begin defining the FDE playbook for AI needs analysis:
    • Required data by customer type
    • Guardrails and safety considerations
    • Recommended integration approaches
Phase 2: Own the motion and build the team (6–18 months)

  • Own the full solutions engineering / FDE motion from pre-sale through successful go-live for:
    • AI needs analysis deployments
    • Core Arist system integrations
  • Serve as the technical face of complex enterprise deals.
  • Build and lead a scalable solutions engineering / FDE team.
  • Create tight feedback loops with product and engineering to turn customer insights into platform improvements.
Why this role is different

  • This is not just an execution-heavy solutions engineering role.
  • You’ll define the strategy for:
    • Integrations
    • AI deployment
    • Forward-deployed engineering as a function
  • You’ll own cross-functional outcomes tied directly to:
    • Revenue
    • Retention
    • Product adoption
  • You’ll be a founding leader of the Solutions / FDE function, with the mandate to build both the team and the operating model.
What we’re looking for

  • Senior-level experience as a Solutions Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, or similar customer-facing technical role.
  • Strong background in APIs, integrations, and data pipelines.
  • Comfort working directly with customers on ambiguous, high-impact problems.
  • Ability to think both tactically (shipping integrations) and strategically (building systems that scale).
  • Experience collaborating closely with product, engineering, sales, and customer success.