Forward Deployed Engineer (New Grad)

Roadrunner
San Francisco, CA
On-site

Who this role is best for

Geared toward new graduates comfortable with customer-facing engineering work, this role emphasizes hands-on problem-solving and rapid iteration in a collaborative, in-person environment.

Best fit for

  • New graduates eager to take ownership of end-to-end engineering solutions for enterprise clients
    — “Own delivery end-to-end, in production.”
  • Candidates with a strong drive to build and iterate on AI-driven features in real-world scenarios
    — “Ship AI agents in the field.”
  • Individuals who thrive in close collaboration with non-technical stakeholders and customer teams
    — “Clear, direct communication - with engineers and with the non-technical people you'll be sitting across from.”

Things to consider

  • Occasional travel is required for onsite customer work, which may not suit remote-preference candidates
    — “Willingness to travel occasionally to be onsite with customers when it matters.”
  • The role requires working in-person in San Francisco, which may be a constraint for those not based there
    — “Based in SF or excited to relocate - we're an in-person team.”

How to stand out

  • Highlight personal projects or internships where you directly impacted user-facing systems
    — “You don't need a track record of shipping to production yet; you need to be able to build fast without cutting the corners that matter.”
  • Emphasize your ability to take initiative and solve problems without being handed a spec
    — “Comfort with ambiguity - from a hackathon, a research project, or an internship where nobody handed you a spec.”
  • Showcase experience in translating customer needs into technical solutions or features
    — “Turn their hardest pricing and approval problems into shipped features.”
  • Demonstrate your ability to quickly learn new languages, frameworks, or domains
    — “You've picked up a new language, framework, or domain fast because a project needed it.”
  • Include any experience where you built something independently, driven by your own interests
    — “You've built something on your own - an app, a tool, a research project - because you wanted it to exist.”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • embed with customers
  • own delivery end-to-end
  • turn one-off solutions into product
  • ship AI agents in the field
  • be the fastest feedback loop in the company
Typical background
engineering fundamentals from coursework, internships, or projects

Skills & requirements

Required

Strong Engineering FundamentalsReal CuriosityAmbitionComfort With AmbiguityClear, Direct CommunicationWillingness To Travel Occasionally

Preferred

Interned Somewhere And Shipped Code That Real Users TouchedBuilt Something On OwnSpent Time Close To Customers Or End UsersPicked Up A New Language, Framework, Or Domain FastHas A Side Project

Stack & domain

Strong Engineering FundamentalsReal CuriosityAmbitionComfort With AmbiguityClear, Direct CommunicationWillingness To Travel Occasionally

About the role

Original posting from Roadrunner via Ashby

ABOUT US

At Roadrunner, we’re replacing the broken CPQ software that Sales teams have complained about, worked around, and given up on for years. Not improving it - replacing it. We’re building a new agentic stack called PQA - Prompt, Quote, Approve, designed for the enterprise, on a data model built for how pricing actually works today.

We’re Kleiner Perkins’ first incubation since Glean, led by second-time founders with successful exits, and a team of engineers from Snowflake, Databricks, Citadel, Meta, Robinhood, Brex, and so on. We’re in-person in San Francisco, and we’re just getting started.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

  • Embed with our customers. You'll sit with the RevOps and Sales leaders who live inside Roadrunner every day, turn their hardest pricing and approval problems into shipped features, and stay on the hook until they're actually solved - not just handed off to support.
  • Own delivery end-to-end, in production. From technical discovery through go-live, you're the engineer who scopes it, builds it, and keeps it running.
  • Turn one-off solutions into product. Every customer-specific integration or workflow you build feeds back into Roadrunner's core platform. The pattern you build for customer #1 is the feature customer #10 gets out of the box.
  • Ship AI agents in the field. Deploy and tune proactive agents - quoting recommendations, deal modeling, multi-step approval workflows - against real customer data and real deal pressure, then iterate on what actually breaks.
  • Be the fastest feedback loop in the company. You're often the first to see where the product breaks under real enterprise complexity. You carry that back to the core team the same day, not next sprint.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

  • Strong engineering fundamentals - from coursework, internships, or projects. You don't need a track record of shipping to production yet; you need to be able to build fast without cutting the corners that matter.
  • Real curiosity. You want to know why something broke, not just that it broke - and you'll dig through an unfamiliar codebase or a customer's system until you find the actual answer.
  • Ambition. You want real ownership fast, not a backlog of tickets, and you're ready to earn it.
  • Comfort with ambiguity - from a hackathon, a research project, or an internship where nobody handed you a spec.
  • Clear, direct communication - with engineers and with the non-technical people you'll be sitting across from.
  • Willingness to travel occasionally to be onsite with customers when it matters.
  • Based in SF or excited to relocate - we're an in-person team.

BONUS POINTS IF…

  • You've interned somewhere and shipped code that real users touched.
  • You've built something on your own - an app, a tool, a research project - because you wanted it to exist, not because a class required it.
  • You've spent time close to customers or end users, even outside of engineering (support, tutoring, ops), and know what it's like to translate someone's problem into something you build.
  • You've picked up a new language, framework, or domain fast because a project needed it.
  • You have a side project. Tell us what it is and why you built it.

WHAT WE OFFER

  • Medical, dental, and vision benefits for you and your family.
  • Lunch and dinner, as well as snacks and coffee to keep you energized.
  • Take what you need vacation policy.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

We value our differences, and we encourage all to apply — especially those whose identities are traditionally underrepresented in tech organizations. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, political belief, or any other characteristic protected by law. Roadrunner is an equal opportunity employer.

Source: Roadrunner careers (Ashby)

Similar roles