Forward Deployed Engineer at Bland in San Francisco, CA

Summary: Bland is a series B startup focused on building AI voice agents for major companies. The Forward Deployed Engineer will work directly with customers to design and deploy AI solutions that automate business processes, while also ensuring the agents are tailored to meet unique customer needs. Responsibilities: - Design and deploy AI solutions. Work closely with customers to translate their challenges into functional agents, integrating APIs and data sources to automate real business processes - Prototype fast, iterate faster. Build the first version quickly, get it into production, and refine based on real-world feedback - Collaborate deeply. Partner with customer teams across engineering, product, and operations to ensure the agent performs, scales, and delivers measurable outcomes - Own end-to-end delivery. From discovery call to deployment, you’ll lead the technical build, testing, and iteration — ensuring the experience feels natural, human, and on-brand - Drive adoption and expansion. Share results, train teams, and embed yourself within the customer organization to uncover new opportunities for automation and scale - Be the face of Bland. You are the customer’s champion, their best employee, and you treat them with unreasonable hospitality. You travel on-site, get to know our customers on a human level, and develop real relationships with our champions and other stakeholders, going above and beyond to host training sessions and dinners Required Qualifications: - 0–10 years of experience in full-stack, AI, or solutions engineering roles where you owned builds from concept to production - Proven experience building and integrating AI or automation features into real-world applications - Hands-on experience integrating LLMs or AI SDKs into web applications - Strong comfort working with REST/JSON, scripting languages (Python or JavaScript), and modern dev tools (Git, NPM/PNPM) - Track record of ownership and grit — moments where you built something from scratch, solved hard problems, or exceeded expectations - Excellent communication skills — you can explain complex AI concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences - Thrives in a fast-moving, high-intensity environment — motivated by challenge, curiosity, and the pursuit of great work - Willingness to work in-person frequently (SF HQ and customer sites) to collaborate and accelerate learning Preferred Qualifications: - Hands-on experience experimenting with or deploying LLM-powered tools or agents - Prior startup or founder experience — you know what it takes to build without a playbook - Curiosity about AI agent design, orchestration, and automation systems - Experience working directly with customers to identify pain points and turn them into shipped solutions - A portfolio of personal or side projects that showcase creativity, technical depth, and persistence - Exceptional new grads with strong ownership and ambition are welcome to apply Required Skills: AI solutions design, Integrating APIs, Full-stack engineering Important Skills: LLMs integration, REST/JSON proficiency, Scripting languages Nice-to-Have Skills: grit, Curiosity about AI, communication, Ownership Benefits: Meaningful equity, Benefits