Founding Forward Deployed Engineer

About this role

Dryft seeks a founding forward-deployed engineer to bridge product and customer operations at an early-stage manufacturing automation startup. You'll spend half your time coding full-stack features and half embedded with customers, translating their needs into scalable product improvements while leading implementations across North America and Europe.

What you'll do

• Design and prototype product features based on direct customer feedback and operational learnings
• Own end-to-end implementation rollouts, including scoping, integration, training, and stakeholder alignment
• Convert bespoke customer deployments into reusable product features and data models
• Write production code across the full stack (React/TypeScript frontend, Python/FastAPI backend)
• Collaborate directly with CEO and CTO to define product strategy and scale foundations
• Travel 10-30% to customer sites across the US, Mexico, and Germany

What they're looking for

• Full-stack software development (TypeScript, React, Python, FastAPI)
• Product design and architecture thinking
• Systems thinking and process design for scale
• Fluent German and English communication
• ERP and manufacturing operations knowledge
• Stakeholder management across technical and executive teams
• Quick learning and detail retention
• Quality-focused problem solving

Benefits

• High ownership role with direct impact on product direction
• Close mentorship from CEO/CTO with potential to grow into CPO or COO
• Opportunity to shape a founding team and company scaling phase
• Work with modern tech stack (React, FastAPI, AI/Pydantic tools)
• Based in San Francisco with global customer engagement