Forward Deployed Engineer | Pre-sales

About the role

This position supports Airtable customers as part of the pre-sales team based in New York City. The role works directly with sales and engineering partners to evaluate how Airtable can organize work for prospective customers and their specific workflows. The hire will analyze business needs and reshape aspects of the Airtable platform to better serve those workflows while documenting clear outcomes and success criteria for every prospective implementation. A core responsibility is to translate complex technical concepts into plain language so that non-technical stakeholders can understand the proposed solution fit. The position engages deeply with customer teams to validate alignment and ensure that the proposed approach addresses their unique requirements. This role owns the evaluation and design phases of the customer journey, ensuring that Airtable's low-code platform meets demanding organizational needs. The hire will document findings and proposed architectures so that engineering and sales teams have a clear path forward. Strong communication skills are valued as much as technical acumen in this position.

Key facts

What you'll do

Analyze prospective customer workflows to determine how Airtable can solve specific organizing problems within their operational context.

Conduct business needs analysis to identify gaps between current processes and the capabilities of the Airtable platform.

Collaborate with sales teams to refine solution architecture so that it aligns with the strategic objectives of the customer.

Reshape data models and interface structures to reflect the nuanced requirements discovered during customer discovery sessions.

Document outcomes, success criteria, and expected behaviors for every prospective implementation to ensure alignment.

Translate technical constraints and possibilities into language that resonates with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Guide customer teams through evaluation exercises that demonstrate how Airtable handles their unique use cases.

Work alongside engineering partners to validate technical feasibility and surface potential implementation challenges early.

Produce clear documentation that outlines the proposed solution architecture and the path to implementation.

Support the sales team in crafting compelling narratives that connect Airtable's capabilities to the customer's business goals.

Participate in discovery calls, workshops, and on-site sessions to gather detailed requirements and context.

Represent the voice of the customer within engineering discussions to influence product thinking where appropriate.

Develop a deep understanding of Airtable's feature set so that you can match features to specific prospect pain points.

Help build reusable artifacts that can be leveraged across similar customer scenarios to accelerate future engagements.

Requirements

Travel within your assigned region is required for customer meetings and on-site work in the field.

Must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship now or at any point during the duration of employment.

Must reside in or be willing to relocate to New York City, NY for the role.

Must have the right to work in New York City without sponsorship.

Must be able to commit to the full work schedule as outlined in the work details for this role.

Must pass standard employment eligibility verification as required by law.

Must be legally authorized to accept employment in the United States.

Practical notes

This role is based in New York City and requires domestic availability for in-person work alongside customers.

The position engages directly with prospects and internal teams to validate fit and solution alignment.

Typical interview steps

Hiring for engineering roles usually starts with a recruiter screen, followed by one or two technical rounds. Candidates often solve a coding problem, discuss past projects, and answer system design questions. Some loops include a take-home task. Final rounds typically cover team fit and give candidates a chance to ask questions. Interviewers look for how you break down an unfamiliar problem, not just whether you reach the answer. Practicing a few problems aloud and reviewing your own past projects are the best preparation.

Good to know

Pre-sales roles focus on understanding customer needs and demonstrating product fit for organizations. Professionals in this area often work closely with engineers and sales teams to refine solutions. Strong communication and problem framing are central to success in this field.

Questions to ask

Useful questions for the interview: what a typical week looks like, how work is assigned, what tools the team uses, and how feedback works. Asking how the role has changed recently and what the team wishes it had known when joining is also reasonable. Questions about the manager's priorities are especially valued.

Career growth

Engineering careers usually progress from individual contributor to senior, staff, and principal levels. Some engineers move into management and lead teams of five to twenty people. Others stay on the technical track. Growth follows demonstrated impact, not tenure alone. A typical engineering ladder has clear levels with defined expectations for scope, quality, and mentorship. Moving up usually requires owning outcomes end to end rather than completing assigned tickets.

About the company

Airtable is a low-code platform for building collaborative applications. Founded by Howie Liu, Andrew Ofstad, and Emmett Nicholas in 2012, Airtable combines the simplicity of a spreadsheet with the power of a database. The company was valued at $11.7 billion in its December 2021 Series F round.