AI-Native Forward Deployed Engineer

About the role

You will own the technical implementation and long-term success of a portfolio of mid-market construction logistics customers, working directly with dispatchers, scale operators, and back-office teams to translate messy field realities into shipped software. You will serve as the primary technical relationship for each account, leading API integrations, data mapping, and workflow configuration while debugging issues in real time on the same day they appear. You will turn customer pain points into production AI-powered workflows and product improvements within hours, using direct field observations to drive rapid prototyping and validation. You will automate repetitive implementation and operational tasks by building internal tooling and agents, freeing yourself to focus on high-impact customer problems and expansion opportunities. You will feed structured, prioritized insights back into product and engineering decisions, ensuring the codebase reflects how operations actually work in the field. You will own the technical health and expansion of your accounts, using data and roadmap alignment to uncover new value and drive renewals and growth. You will be the on-the-ground bridge that closes the gap between customer operations and software delivery, iterating in days instead of quarters.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Lead end-to-end technical implementation for new mid-market customers, including API integrations, data mapping, workflow configuration, and connectivity to scale house systems.
• Serve as the primary technical owner for assigned accounts, acting as their go-to person for troubleshooting, custom builds, and urgent production issues.
• Translate complex field operations into automated AI-powered workflows, shipping customer-specific solutions the same day they are validated.
• Build and maintain data pipelines and integrations that connect haulers, producers, contractors, and back-office platforms into a unified operations view.
• Rapidly prototype solutions in collaboration with customers, validate outcomes in production, and iterate based on real-world usage and feedback.
• Automate repetitive implementation and operational tasks across your portfolio, creating reusable tools and agents that scale with customer growth.
• Contribute directly to Tread's core codebase, writing and reviewing code for the Rails API, GraphQL services, and React interfaces used in the field.
• Own the technical relationship and health of your portfolio, identifying expansion opportunities and driving adoption of high-value platform features.
• Facilitate quarterly business reviews with strategic accounts, presenting data-driven insights, product updates, and future-state roadmaps.
• Establish repeatable implementation patterns that reduce time-to-value for new customers and create a scalable playbook for growth.
• Collaborate closely with Product and Engineering to prioritize field-derived requirements and ensure alignment between customer needs and platform roadmap.
• Embed with operations teams during peak periods to observe dispatch, scale weighing, and freight reconciliation workflows up close.
• Maintain a living view of technical debt and integration gaps across your book, prioritizing fixes that unlock the most value for the largest number of users.
• Measure the impact of each shipped improvement through usage data, customer feedback, and operational KPIs tied to load value and efficiency.
• Act as a company catalyst by documenting playbooks, training internal teams, and enabling other functions to scale field-driven product development.

Requirements

• You have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• You have 3+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a proven track record of shipping customer-facing features in production systems.
• You are highly proficient in modern web technologies, including JavaScript, TypeScript, React, and server-side development in Ruby or Rails.
• You have experience building and consuming RESTful and GraphQL APIs, with a strong understanding of data modeling, mapping, and integration patterns.
• You are comfortable working in fast-paced, ambiguous environments where requirements evolve based on direct customer feedback and operational reality.
• You have a demonstrated ability to debug complex production issues and resolve them quickly with minimal disruption to customer operations.
• You have experience working with data-intensive domains and systems that process high transaction volumes across distributed workflows.
• You are comfortable learning and extending systems that may be unfamiliar, relying on strong fundamentals and first-principles reasoning.

Nice to have

• Experience in construction, logistics, or field operations technology, or a strong track record of learning complex domains quickly.
• Familiarity with AI agents, automation frameworks, and tooling for autonomous code generation and task execution.
• Experience contributing to open source or building internal platforms that enable other engineering teams.
• Background in data analytics, data warehousing, or building self-service insights tools for operations teams.
• Exposure to SaaS product development in regulated or high-stakes environments where reliability and uptime are critical.

Practical notes

This role is full-time based in San Francisco, with a hybrid expectation for in-person collaboration during key implementation and customer visits. Travel may be required to customer sites across North America, with an expectation of up to 25% travel during peak operational periods. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship at this time. The role reports to the VP of Customer Operations and is expected to evolve significantly over the first 12 to 18 months as the company scales toward $XXM+ ARR.