[Hiring] Forward Deployed Software Engineer @Higher People

Role Description

As the company's first US-based Forward Deployed Engineer, you'll sit at the intersection of engineering, product, and customers. You'll work directly with customers to solve technical implementation challenges, build custom solutions, influence product direction, and help define what this function looks like as the company grows. This is a hands-on engineering role, not a traditional support position. We're looking for engineers who want ownership, just not tickets.

What You'll Do

• Partner directly with customers to understand technical workflows and implementation challenges.
• Contribute to a product roadmap focused on reducing manual data entry, parsing documents, and expanding into funding and post-funding features (including voice agents that interact directly with borrowers).
• Lead customer onboarding and integrations into customer environments.
• Prototype and build custom solutions using Python, React, APIs, and AI technologies.
• Debug production issues across infrastructure, data pipelines, APIs, and AI workflows.
• Translate customer feedback into shipped product improvements.
• Participate in customer Slack/Teams channels and technical discussions.
• Help shape engineering culture as the company's first US engineering hire.

Qualifications

• 2–5 years of software engineering experience.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals with the ability to quickly learn new technologies.
• Experience with Python, React, or similar modern languages/frameworks is valued, but curiosity, AI fluency, and problem-solving ability matter more than expertise in any specific language.
• Excellent problem-solving and systems thinking.
• Comfortable owning ambiguous problems from discovery through deployment.
• Enjoys working directly with customers – genuinely curious and highly empathetic to customer needs and their experience.
• Thrives in fast-moving startup environments with high autonomy.
• Understands how to build reliable AI products and uses LLMs thoughtfully.
• Experience with LLMs, RAG, AI agents, or production AI systems.
• Experience building integrations or customer-facing technical software.

Bonus Points If You Have

• Startup or early-stage company experience.
• Experience as an early engineering hire at a startup.
• Experience working with globally distributed engineering teams.

What Success Looks Like

• Become a trusted technical partner for customers.
• Successfully onboard enterprise customers.
• Ship meaningful product improvements informed by customer feedback.
• Help establish Forward Deployed Engineering as a core function at the company.

Compensation & Location

• Base Salary: $120,000–$160,000 (depending on experience)
• Performance Bonus: Eligible for annual performance-based bonus
• Equity: Strong seed-stage equity with the opportunity to share in the company's long-term success; based on current ARR, valuation, team size, and stage, this should become very meaningful.
• Location: Remote (U.S.)
• Work Authorization: Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future employer sponsorship. We are unable to provide visa sponsorship at this time.