Forward Deployed Engineer

ABOUT THE ROLE We're seeking a talented Forward Deployed Engineer to join our Enterprise Solutions team at Instacart. As a key member of our team, you will be responsible for embedding directly with enterprise retail and CPG partners to design, sell, and deliver AI-powered solutions at scale. This is a unique opportunity to be part of a small, senior, field-first pod that is defining the playbook as we go. WHAT YOU'LL DO As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will sit inside retailers' and partners' ecosystems, understanding their infrastructure and building agentic AI solutions on top of it. You will collaborate with partner technical leaders to brainstorm solution designs that deliver value while remaining compatible with existing environments and infrastructure. You will also work closely with Instacart's R&D team, informing platform evolution and serving as the bridge between what gets built internally and what actually works in the real world. Your responsibilities will include: - Embedding with enterprise retail customers and partners to understand their technical environments, data systems, and business workflows - Designing, building, and deploying AI and agentic solutions tailored to each customer's specific infrastructure and needs - Extending, adapting, and integrating Instacart's core AI capabilities to fit customer ecosystems - Maintaining a close working relationship with R&D, participating in product reviews, and proposing concrete changes to the platform - Collaborating with the AI Solutions Architect to translate domain requirements and architecture into working software - Serving as the primary technical point of contact for customers during implementation engagements WHAT YOU'LL NEED To be successful in this role, you will need: - 10+ years of software engineering experience with a demonstrated ability to write and ship production-quality code - Hands-on experience building with LLM APIs, function calling, tool use, agent frameworks, or RAG pipelines - Proficiency in Python or another scripting/backend language commonly used in data-intensive environments - Proven ability to integrate with messy, heterogeneous enterprise data environments - Direct experience with external enterprise customers or technical stakeholders in a consulting or customer-facing capacity - Strong working knowledge of retail and e-commerce system fundamentals - Strong communication skills to translate field learnings and technical findings into actionable input for R&D and product teams WHY REMOTE At Instacart, we are a Flex First team, which means we believe in flexibility and work-life balance. We offer the opportunity to work from anywhere, whether it's from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop, while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. BENEFITS Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits. This role is remote, and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role.