Forward Deployed Engineer, Partnerships (US)

Forward Deployed Engineer, Partnerships (US)

Function: Technology Partner Management & Partner Engineering

Dotted-line partnership: Commercial Enablement / Ecosystem

Position: Remote, East or Central USA

About Napster:

Founded on the principle of democratizing access, first to music in 1999, now to expertise in the AI era, Napster has consistently remained at the forefront of technological shifts that empower users. Today, the company builds embodied, multimodal AI agents that engage employees and customers where they already work: through video presence, voice, and text. Designed to work alongside people rather than replace them, Napster’s agents carry institutional knowledge into every interaction, elevating the user’s experience and improving business outcomes. For more information, visit napster.com.

Role Overview

We are looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer to join our Technology Partner Management function.

This role is the hands-on technical enablement counterpart to our Technical Partner Managers. While Technical Partner Managers own the broader technical partner relationship, strategy, positioning, and coordination across pre-sales and post-sales, the Forward Deployed Engineer is focused on helping turn those strategies and opportunities into tangible partner and customer experiences.

The Forward Deployed Engineer will work across partner pursuits, ecosystem development, onboarding, demos, and partner program design. The role sits within Technology Partner Management but works closely with Commercial Enablement and Ecosystem teams through a dotted-line relationship.

The purpose of the role is to help partners understand, demonstrate, position, and build with our technology, while also creating reusable enablement assets and scalable partner programs that improve effectiveness across the broader ecosystem.

How This Role Complements Technical Partner Managers

The Forward Deployed Engineer and Technical Partner Manager roles are complementary.

Technical Partner Manager

The Technical Partner Manager primarily owns:

The technical partner relationship and engagement strategy.

Technical positioning across the partner lifecycle.

Pre-sales and post-sales technical orchestration.

Partner readiness, adoption, and technical planning.

Alignment across partner, sales, product, and technical stakeholders.

Helping partners understand how to position and present our technology.

Identifying technical opportunities, gaps, and partner development priorities.

Forward Deployed Engineer

The Forward Deployed Engineer primarily owns:

Hands-on demo development and technical execution.

Technical enablement for partners.

Pursuit-specific demos, prototypes, and solution assets.

Technical workshops and partner build sessions.

Developing reusable enablement assets and frameworks.

Supporting partner onboarding from a practical and hands-on perspective.

Building scalable components that strengthen partner programs and ecosystem readiness.

Core Responsibilities

Commercial Enablement and Pursuit Support

Support partner-led and joint customer pursuits by building compelling demos, prototypes, proofs of concept, and technical solution experiences.

Work with Technical Partner Managers, sales teams, and partners to translate commercial and customer use cases into practical demonstrations.

Help partners understand how to position, present, and demonstrate our technology in customer conversations.

Adapt technical assets and demos to support specific industries, partner propositions, and customer scenarios.

Participate in customer and partner workshops where hands-on technical depth can help advance an opportunity.

Support commercial teams with the technical assets and demonstrations required to increase partner confidence and improve pursuit quality.

Partner Enablement

Provide hands-on technical enablement to partners across the US.

Walk partners through our APIs, platform capabilities, integrations, solution patterns, and relevant technology stack.

Deliver workshops, demo sessions, technical onboarding, build sessions, and partner enablement activities.

Help partner teams move from understanding the proposition to being able to demonstrate and use the technology themselves.

Support partners in developing their own demos, solution propositions, and customer-facing technical stories.

Create reusable content and assets that allow partner teams to become more self-sufficient.

Partner Programs and Ecosystem Development

Work closely with the Commercial Enablement and Ecosystem teams to build scalable partner programs.

Translate recurring partner needs into structured enablement frameworks, technical journeys, and reusable program components.

Help define practical onboarding and readiness experiences for different partner types.

Build demo kits, solution patterns, technical playbooks, workshop content, reference implementations, and other reusable assets.

Contribute to partner certification, accreditation, onboarding, and solution-readiness programs where appropriate.

Help scale successful approaches from individual partner engagements across the wider ecosystem.

Demo and Solution Development

Build, maintain, and improve reusable technical demos and showcase environments.

Develop prototypes and proofs of concept that demonstrate partner and customer use cases.

Work with APIs, SDKs, integrations, and relevant technology stacks to create working examples.

Identify opportunities to standardize and automate frequently used demo and enablement assets.

Collaborate with Product and Engineering teams where deeper technical support or product feedback is required.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Partner closely with Technical Partner Managers to support their strategic partner engagements.

Maintain a strong dotted-line relationship with the VP of Commercial Enablement and Ecosystem teams to build and maintain solution books, as well as programs built to drive activation, onboarding, and adoption.

Work with Partner Management, Product, Engineering, Solutions, and GTM teams.

Share patterns from partner engagements to improve enablement, product experience, and partner programs.

Provide structured feedback on areas where partners need additional tooling, content, demos, or technical guidance.

What We’re Looking For

Strong hands-on technical experience working with APIs, SDKs, integrations, and modern application technologies.

Ability to build and troubleshoot demos, prototypes, and proof-of-concept solutions.

Experience in Solutions Engineering, Partner Engineering, Developer Enablement, Technical Enablement, or a similar hands-on customer- or partner-facing role.

Ability to combine technical depth with strong commercial awareness.

Comfortable working directly with partners, sales teams, and customers during active pursuits.

Strong ability to explain technical concepts in a way that supports a commercial conversation.

Experience developing reusable technical enablement, demo a