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Founding Forward Deployed Engineer

Atomic · Remote - US

remoteunknown$200,000–$250,000Posted Sep 16, 2026GPTClaudeGeminiRAGagentsfine-tuningdistillationopen models

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About this role

**Founding Forward Deployed Engineer** **About the Role** You'll be the AI engineer at a stealth holding company acquiring and operating software businesses in mission-critical industries. This is a build shop with real customers, real revenue, and real P&Ls—not a research lab. **Key Responsibilities** • Build industry-specific GPT systems encoding domain expertise for each vertical • Embed AI-native functionality directly into systems of record (core workflow replacement, not bolt-on chatbots) • Migrate legacy datasets into AI-native systems • Create repeatable playbooks, model stacks, eval harnesses, and infrastructure for portfolio companies • Serve as player-coach for AI engineers across operating companies • **Split: 90% building, 10% managing** **What You'll Do** • Ship a working domain-specific agent into a live customer environment within 30 days • Build eval infrastructure to measure whether agents actually replace human workflows • Fine-tune, distill, or route across frontier and open models based on vertical economics • Sit with customers, understand their workflows, and rebuild them • Write the AI engineering playbook for future portfolio companies **Who You Are** • A builder who ships things people actually use • A forward-deployed engineer comfortable flying to customer sites and understanding the business before coding • Strong opinions on fine-tuning vs. prompt vs. RAG vs. agent vs. harness—backed by numbers • Production experience with Claude, GPT, Gemini, and open models • Allergic to slide decks; comfortable with ambiguity, small teams, and unglamorous industries **What This Role Is Not** • A research role • A management role • A "Head of AI" title for LinkedIn • A place for those needing process, handed roadmaps, or large teams *We encourage applications from candidates excited about the role even if you don't meet 100% of qualifications. Equal Opportunity Employer.*

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