Forward Deployed Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Canada.

📋 Description

• Collaborate closely with enterprise retail clients and partners to gain insights into their technical landscapes, data systems, and business processes.

• Design, develop, and implement AI and agentic solutions customized to each customer's unique infrastructure and requirements, utilizing Instacart's entire platform suite.

• Enhance, modify, and integrate Instacart's fundamental AI functionalities to align with customer ecosystems, including those that are undocumented or unconventional.

• Foster a strong collaborative relationship with R&D: engage in product evaluations, identify platform deficiencies encountered in the field, and suggest specific enhancements to improve the platform for enterprise clients.

• Work closely with the AI Solutions Architect to convert domain needs and architecture into functional software.

• Act as the main technical liaison for customers during the implementation phase.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 10 years of experience in software engineering with a proven track record of writing and delivering production-quality code.

• Practical experience in developing with LLM APIs, function calling, tool utilization, agent frameworks, or RAG pipelines—having delivered agentic solutions relied upon by real users.

• Expertise in Python or another scripting/backend language commonly used in data-driven environments.

• Established capability to navigate complex, heterogeneous enterprise data settings—handling undocumented APIs, schema inconsistencies, authentication challenges, and legacy systems that do not align with documentation.

• Direct experience engaging with external enterprise clients or technical stakeholders in a consulting or customer-facing role—building trust in interpersonal interactions is as crucial as coding skills.

• Solid understanding of retail and e-commerce system fundamentals.

• Excellent communication abilities—capable of translating field insights and technical discoveries into actionable feedback for R&D and product teams.

• Comfortable working in ambiguous, rapidly changing environments where processes may not be fully established.

• Prior experience in a forward-deployed, embedded engineering, or professional services role (preferred).

• Background in a startup or early-stage company where you took on multiple responsibilities (preferred).

🏝️ Benefits

• Highly competitive market compensation.

• Eligibility for a new hire equity grant.

• Annual refresh grants.