Forward Deployed Engineer

Job description

FORWARD DEPLOYED ENGINEER Location: San Francisco Reports To: Head of Forward Deployed Engineering OTE: $185,000 - $235,000 ABOUT US Rime builds voice AI for enterprises running customer experiences at scale. Our text-to-speech models are purpose-built for high-volume conversational deployments, engineered for the pronunciation accuracy, latency, and deployment flexibility that production environments actually demand. We started from a different premise than the rest of the field: voice AI isn't bottlenecked by model architecture. It's bottlenecked by data. So before we trained a single model, we built our own corpus: full-duplex, studio-quality conversational speech, recorded and annotated by PhD linguists. That's our moat. It's also why enterprises pick Rime when pilots need to convert into production. We're backed by top-tier investors including Unusual Ventures, and we've built a team at the intersection of product, research, and craft. Building voice models is an art. We intend to master it. THE ROLE We’re looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer to operate at the intersection of sales, product, and engineering - helping enterprise customers bring frontier voice AI into production. This is not a traditional solutions engineer role. You’ll work directly with customers and internal teams to design prototypes, build integrations, solve technical blockers, and deploy production-ready systems in live environments. You’ll own technical execution across the customer lifecycle: from early technical discovery and POCs to implementation and expansion. The work is highly hands-on and fast-moving. The best candidates are strong builders who enjoy working directly with customers and thrive in ambiguous environments. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Be a technical closer. You're in the room for every strategic deal - not to present slides, but to build what it takes to win. - Deploy frontier models into production. Get your hands dirty with real integrations, real infrastructure, and real customer environments at some of the largest companies in the world. - Own the POC end-to-end. Design, build, and ship production-quality proof-of-concepts - frontend, backend, integrations - fast. - Own the customer relationship technically. Manage technical stakeholders from first demo through go-live and expansion. Pre-sales and post-sales are yours. - Turn what you build into product. Patterns you identify across deals go upstream - you're a direct input to the roadmap. WHO YOU ARE - A builder who wants to be customer-facing. You're most comfortable when you're writing code and in the room with the customer - not choosing between the two. - Full-stack capable. You can ship clean, production-quality systems quickly and aren't precious about the stack. - Deeply comfortable with APIs, SDKs, and cloud infrastructure in live customer environments. - Energized by ambiguity. You thrive when requirements are half-formed, the timeline is short, and the stakes are high. - A sharp communicator who goes deep with engineers and clearly frames business value for executives. - Done waiting on the sidelines. You want ownership, impact, and a seat at the table. NICE TO HAVE - Experience with voice AI, TTS, speech, or real-time systems - Background working with ISVs, platforms, or developer ecosystems - Familiarity with WebRTC, streaming, or low-latency systems WHY JOIN RIME - Rime is an AI lab - you're working alongside the researchers and engineers building frontier voice ai models. - Direct exposure to how frontier AI gets built and deployed at scale, across some of the most demanding industries in the world. - Competitive compensation with meaningful equity and real performance upside — we want to build a small, high-performing team that has real ownership. AT RIME, WE... - Are outliers - Cut through the hype to focus on the craft - Move fast with agency and freedom - Maintain a growth mindset, finding joy in the struggle - Do the right things, knowing that it'll lead to making money If that sounds like you too, you'll be a great fit for Rime!