Forward Deployed Engineer
- Location
- San Francisco
- Workplace
- On-site
- Compensation
- $170k – $250k + equity
About this role
We are looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer with 2–5 years of experience to serve as the first line of defense for our highest-value customers — owning the full cycle from triaging bugs and shipping fixes to building technical rapport and championing the customer experience. You'll join a small, high-caliber team at a YC W24 cybersecurity startup that's scaling fast and needs talented, customer-facing engineers to maintain a premium product experience as the business grows.
What will you be doing?
Be the primary point of contact for our largest accounts — absorbing every inbound question, bug report, and feature request
Turn around bug fixes and incremental product improvements quickly while embedded with high-value customers
Sit with the engineering team to deeply understand detection, the product backend, and hard vs. soft constraints so you can interface credibly with customers
Lead initial product discovery for new features based on real customer pain points, then roll improvements back into the codebase
Represent Petra's technical capabilities externally — including trade shows and technical demos — in collaboration with the go-to-market team
What happens next
Skip the application pile. I get you in front of the people who decide.
Confirm the fit
A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.
I pitch you to the company
I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.
A meeting lands on your calendar
When the company wants to meet, I get the call on your calendar. You just show up.
Culture & values
Feedback-first culture: people are direct, give feedback constantly, and expect the same in return.
Collaborative environment with youthful energy, with the team mostly in their early-to-mid 20s.
People take their work seriously but don't take themselves too seriously.
High-output, fast-moving startup where everyone contributes to building from zero to one.
In-office energy: Bay Area team members are in the San Francisco office five days a week, fostering tight collaboration.
Small, high-performing team building something extraordinary.
Zero-to-one building: you'll be shaping processes, tools, and strategy alongside the founding team, not inheriting a rigid playbook.
Know someone who'd be great for this?
