Forward Deployed Engineer
Productboard
Software Engineering
San Francisco, CA, USA
USD 91,875-122,500 / year + Equity
Posted on May 26, 2026
AI Is How We Work
Productboard is an AI-first company. Not as a tagline — but as a daily reality.
Everyone here, from GTM or People to Product and Engineering, and our CEO, uses AI every day to prototype, explore ideas, and ship faster. We are investing deeply to make AI part of our foundation.
What that looks like:
- Access from day one. Every employee and leader gets the best tools available — Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and more.
- AI Champions across teams. Dedicated experts embedded in teams to pair, unblock, and help you move faster with AI agents.
- Dedicated AI days. Every six weeks, all teams get focused time to ship real features using AI tools and push boundaries.
AI isn't something we experiment with occasionally. It's how we build.
The opportunity
Productboard is looking for an experienced Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join our Go-To-Market team. This is the evolution of our Sales Engineer function — reimagined for engineers who want to do more than demo software. As an FDE, you're embedded in the field, working alongside prospects and customers to solve real problems, then bringing those learnings back to shape the product itself.
You'll be the single most technical presence in a sales cycle and the person ultimately responsible for the customer's success — from first discovery call through to a live, value-generating deployment. You own the outcome: driving discovery, architecting solutions, running proofs-of-concept across both our core platform and Productboard Spark (our AI agent for product managers), and closing the loop between what customers need and what our Product team builds next.
This is a senior, high-visibility role at one of the most important functions at Productboard. You'll engage at the executive level, represent us on global stages, and be the person both customers and internal teams rely on when it matters most. If you want your work to directly influence revenue, customer success, and the future of our product, this role was built for you.
Why this matters for your career
The gap between professionals who are building with AI daily and those who are still watching is widening fast. At Productboard, you won't just use AI tools. You will shape the architecture that makes AI agents effective, define the workflows that make them reliable, and build the evaluation systems that make them trustworthy. You will work in an environment where AI first is not a future aspiration. It is the current standard.
The skills you build here, agent native design, multi-model orchestration, eval-driven development, AI-ready codebase architecture, are the skills that will define senior engineering for the next decade.
On a Typical Day, You Will...
Pre-Sales & Technical Validation (Primary Focus)
- Partner with Account Executives to drive complex, multi-stakeholder deal cycles - leading deep technical discovery, uncovering pain points, and aligning Productboard's core platform and Spark's AI-first capabilities to customer business objectives.
- Deliver high-impact presentations, demos, and solution briefings that tell Productboard's differentiated story and connect capabilities directly to the customer's strategic problems - not a feature walkthrough.
- Own all technical aspects of the sales cycle: scoping and running PoCs in live environments, wiring up integrations, responding to RFPs, validating API and architecture fit, and identifying expansion opportunities at existing accounts.
Product Feedback Loop (Primary Focus)
- Act as Productboard's eyes and ears in the field, synthesizing patterns across prospects and customers (recurring objections, missing capabilities, workflow gaps) into structured, actionable product intelligence.
- Serve as the primary liaison between Sales, Product, and Marketing, sharing field insights that shape the roadmap, integration strategy, and positioning, you're often the first to know when the narrative isn't landing.
- Build repeatable PoC frameworks, demo environments, and technical playbooks that scale your insights across the FDE team.
Field Marketing & Thought Leadership
- Represent Productboard at industry events, conferences, and roadshows as a credible technical voice - speaking on stage, running booth demos, and engaging prospects in meaningful conversations about AI-first product management.
- Host and lead high-touch executive dinners, Product Leader roundtables, and panels globally, building relationships with CPOs, VPs of Product, and senior practitioners. FDEs lead the room, not just attend it.
- Develop and deliver thought leadership content with Marketing - talks, live demos, and session formats that showcase the core platform and Spark in real-world contexts. Your ability to speak the language of product strategy, prioritization, and AI-driven PM workflows is what makes these engagements land.
Implementation & Activation
- Strategic accounts: Co-build the solution with the customer to secure the technical win — designing configurations, validating integrations, and proving value in their environment. Hand off cleanly to AI Success with full context so they can drive org-wide adoption without starting from scratch.
- Scale accounts: Own activation end-to-end. Configure integrations (Jira, Salesforce, Zendesk, Azure DevOps, Slack, and more), design workspace structures aligned to the customer's product operating model, and drive them to first value without a handoff.
- Build scalable activation assets — guided setup flows, integration templates, and self-serve onboarding resources — that make scale-motion delivery repeatable.
Our Tech Stack
Productboard, Slack, Salesforce, Google Suite, Zendesk, Claude, Zoom, Gong, Jira, Github, Loom.
About you
- 4+ years in a Sales Engineering, Solutions Engineering, or Forward Deployed Engineering role at a B2B SaaS company.
- A genuine builder's instinct — you don't just demo, you configure, integrate, and prototype live solutions in front of customers.
- Hands-on experience with REST APIs, webhooks, and SaaS integration patterns; comfortable getting into the technical weeds during an evaluation.
- Proven ability to drive complex, multi-stakeholder deal cycles — you can navigate technical buyers, IT, and the C-suite in the same engagement.
- Strong understanding of how product, engineering, and customer success teams operate — you can speak credibly to a CPO and a Staff Engineer in the same meeting.
- Exceptional communication and presentation skills; you translate complexity into clarity and make the technical feel accessible.
- A product-minded perspective — you naturally ask "why does this customer need this?" and connect the answer to something bigger.
- A bias for ownership — you follow through, take accountability, and don't wait to be asked.
Bonus:
- Familiarity with product management tools (Productboard, Jira Product Discovery, Aha!, etc.), AI assisted workflows, or customer feedback platforms. Hands-on experience with Productboard Spark or similar AI product agents is a strong plus.
- Experience scripting lightweight automations or integrations (Python, JavaScript) to accelerate PoC delivery.
- Comfort presenting to senior audiences — panels, executive dinners, or conference stages — and representing a company's technical vision publicly.
The expected base pay range for this position in the San Francisco area is $91,875-$122,500 In addition to the base pay, this role is eligible for competitive equity awards and benefits.
Productboard's pay ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, the successful candidate's starting base pay will be determined based on factors including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, relevant education or training, and market conditions. These ranges may be modified in the future.
You can look forward to the following benefits + More
💰Competitive compensation, stock options, company 401k
📚 Budget for online courses, books, and conferences
🏝️ Flexible PTO and paid sick days
🚆 Commuter Benefits
🫶 Volunteer Day for you to help causes close to your heart
🥕 Carrot Fertility Benefits
🥗 Free snacks, drinks, and yummy catered lunches
🏋️♂️ Company contribution to gym and wellness memberships
⏰ Flexible working hours and home office. Hybrid Schedule Mon/Tues/Thurs In Office
🍀 Mental Wellness Program to support your well-being and self-care
About Productboard
At Productboard, we’re on a mission to help product teams build exceptional products with clarity and confidence. As the leading intelligent product management platform, we empower over 6,000 companies, including Salesforce, SAP, Autodesk, and Kroger, to understand what customers need, prioritize what to build next, and align everyone around a shared roadmap.
Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Prague and Brno, Czechia, we’re backed by some of the world’s most respected investors, including Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Tiger Global, and Dragoneer.
We’re proud to be consistently recognized as one of the best places to work by BuiltIn and Comparably, and to count ourselves among the world’s leading unicorn companies. Well-funded and financially disciplined, we have the stability and runway to build boldly for the long term.
Over the past few years, we’ve rearchitected our platform from the ground up to serve enterprise scale and set the foundation for the next era of product management. Now we’re entering an exciting new phase with Productboard Spark, our AI-first, agentic experience that transforms how product teams work. Spark is a true collaborator that deeply understands your product context, company strategy, and customer needs, helping teams move faster and make smarter, more confident decisions.
Join us as we build the future of product management.
About our culture
Imagine working in a place where everything matters — most importantly, you. At Productboard, values aren’t just something we like to talk about, they’re something we live and breathe. We believe in creating a work environment where:
- People feel empowered, supported, and included
- Trust and transparency are built into the way we work
- Creativity, curiosity, and continuous improvement are encouraged and nurtured every day
Forming our company values was a group effort, with every employee allowed to contribute. From profit-sharing initiatives, like stock options, to open calendars and communication, we don’t waste time on politics or ego. We champion openness by sharing our goals, successes, and failures.
Join colleagues who are passionate about what they do. Team members who are invested in their work environment, and the future of Productboard. Help shape our company, culture, and product!
Check out our LinkedIn Life page, or listen to our People of Productboard podcast for a real feel of what life is like at Productboard.
Equal Opportunity Employer Statement
We are an equal opportunity employer and champion equity. We aim to help people from all backgrounds, cultures, and groups realize their full potential at Productboard. We do not tolerate any discrimination or harassment based on gender identity, race, color, religion, age, sexual orientation, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other bias covered by appropriate law. All aspects of employment, including hiring, training, promotion, and terminations, are based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We are committed to an inclusive hiring process and provide all candidates with equal opportunity to demonstrate their abilities. Togetherness is one of our core values, and our Diversity Council helps to ensure that we uphold the values of authenticity, humanity, and diversity to create an environment where every person matters. We are committed to leading by example to drive societal change.
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