Forward Deployed Engineer

What you'll do

• Embed with enterprise retail customers to understand their technical environments and data systems.
• Design and build AI solutions tailored to each customer's specific infrastructure and needs.
• Integrate Instacart’s core AI capabilities into customer ecosystems, even in non-standard situations.
• Maintain a close working relationship with R&D teams by flagging platform gaps encountered in the field.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for customers during implementation engagements.

What we're looking for

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of delivering production-quality code.
• Hands-on experience building AI and agentic solutions, including LLM APIs and RAG pipelines.
• Proficiency in Python or another scripting/backend language for data-intensive environments.
• Ability to integrate with complex enterprise data systems, handling undocumented APIs and legacy infrastructure.
• Direct experience working with external enterprise customers or technical stakeholders in a consulting role.
• Strong understanding of retail and e-commerce system fundamentals.
• Excellent communication skills to translate field insights into actionable input for R&D teams.