Forward Deployed Engineer
Bretton AI
San Francisco, CA · $150k–$200k a year · Posted March 10, 2026
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Where San Francisco, CA ranks
Where San Francisco, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for security jobs316 openings · of 20
- #1Best cities for technology jobs7,178 openings · of 100
- #1Best cities for financial services pay after cost of living$173k · of 33
- #1Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills35% · of 100
- #1Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills in the West Coast35% · of 54
- #1Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast902 jobs · of 47
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing pays about $175,000 a year. Across 131 open forward deployed engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $155,000 to $237,000 and the median is $195,000. That is inside the middle half of those listings, 10% below the median.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Forward Deployed Engineer salaries by state · Check your own pay
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among software developers, AI is already used for some of the tasks. Measured exposure for software developers: 29% (some).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
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About the job
ABOUT BRETTON AI
Bretton runs AI-native operations for the financial back office. OCC, Fed and FDIC regulated banks use Bretton AI to run compliance, risk, fraud, and operations on one platform, on their own data and policies, with every output traced, cited, and audit-ready.
We’ve raised over $95M from Greylock, Y Combinator, Thomson Reuters Ventures and other top tier investors. We’re based in downtown San Francisco and our team comes from world-class organizations like Google, Netflix, Stripe, Plaid, Brex, and more.
THE ROLE
We are looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to work directly with customers to deploy and integrate Bretton’s platform in real-world environments. This role sits at the intersection of engineering, customer deployments, and product discovery, helping customers implement Bretton’s technology in complex enterprise environments while uncovering insights that improve and scale the product.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Deploy Bretton's AI agents at banks, fintechs, and payments companies, navigating the security and compliance requirements that come with regulated environments.
- Travel onsite to work through last-mile connectivity challenges, from wiring up core banking integrations to resolving edge cases that only surface in live production.
- Partner with BSA officers, AML analysts, and risk teams to translate their workflows and regulatory requirements into agent behavior that reflects how their business actually works.
- Build the connectors, configuration tools, and internal frameworks that turn one-off customer solutions into repeatable platform capabilities.
- Guide customers from demo through go-live as a trusted technical advisor, helping them resolve issues quickly and expand the value they get from Bretton.
- Work cross-functionally with engineering, product, and GTM to remove blockers and do whatever it takes to make customers successful.
- Diagnose and resolve issues in real deployments by reproducing problems and collaborating with the engineering team to fix them.
- Translate customer usage into product insights by sharing customer needs with engineering and product teams and identifying opportunities to turn recurring solutions into product features.
TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS
- 2+ years of experience as a software engineer or similar
- Strong backend or data engineering background
- Experience with Python, APIs, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure
- Previous experience in a customer-facing technical role (e.g., solutions engineer, forward deployed engineer, or technical implementation role) is a plus.
- Actively building with LLMs and modern AI systems is a must
SOFT SKILLS
- Excellent communication skills
- Ability to explain AI systems to non-technical stakeholders
- Strong debugging and problem-solving mindset
- Comfort working with enterprise customers
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
- $150k - $200k base salary + meaningful equity
- Comprehensive healthcare, 401k matching, commuter benefits
- Flexible time off, unlimited sick days, and paid holidays
- Flexible leave options
- Working late? We cover DoorDash and Uber home