Founding Forward Deployed Engineer

This is the moment.

Puntt has customers. Real ones. Danone, Nestlé, Kenvue, and Indeed are live and expanding. We are past the "does this work" phase and into the "how fast can we go" phase.

The person who joins this role will help determine how big the future of this product gets.

The FDE role at Puntt sits at the center of everything: customer trust, deal velocity, and what gets built next.

The foundation is in place. The customers are here. The scaling work is just beginning.

About Puntt.ai

Puntt AI is the System of Record for enterprise marketing review. Our AI agents turn hours of manual, high-stakes review work into minutes of automated precision. The product works. Now we scale.

The Role

You'll go on-site with enterprise customers, run discovery, find what's actually broken, and build something that proves the fix. You're not writing a spec and handing it off. You are the one who ships it.

This is a builder's role with a customer-facing edge. The best person here is someone who gets genuinely curious in a customer conversation, can tell the difference between what someone says they need and what they actually need, and then goes and makes it real before the week is out.

You'll work directly alongside our CEO in live enterprise cycles, and what you learn shapes what we build next. This role is ideal for someone who wants to sit at the intersection of customers, product, and engineering, not just one of them.

What You'll Own

• Customer discovery. Go beyond what customers say they need to understand what's actually driving their pain. Ask the questions that surface unmet needs, not just stated ones. Know what's worth solving and what isn't.
• POC execution. Configure and ship against real workflows. Write code, build integrations, and help customers realize value quickly.
• Product signal. Bring what you learn in the field back to engineering in a way they can actually use. Identify patterns across customers, help prioritize opportunities, and know what to push for versus what to park. Translate feedback into actionable product requirements, and influence what gets built next.
• Stakeholder credibility. Build trust across engineering, design, sales, and customer leadership without needing direct authority. Go deep enough that their teams trust you. Stay clear enough that their CMO follows. Be the external face of the product for customers, keeping them informed and confident as things evolve.
• Product partnership. Work closely with founders, product, and engineering to shape roadmap decisions. Help bring structure to ambiguity and ensure what we're building aligns with real customer needs.

Who You Are

• You've helped build products from 0→1 and understand how customer feedback becomes product direction.
• You think critically about what should be built, not just how to build it.
• You're comfortable writing code and picking up whatever the job requires.
• You have strong instincts for customer workflows and user experience.
• You can balance customer requests with broader product strategy.
• You've worked at an early-stage startup.
• You get up to speed on new industries and workflows quickly.
• You're comfortable with metrics and using data to pressure-test assumptions, and you know when the data is incomplete or misleading.
• You make good calls under uncertainty with incomplete information. That judgment is the thing we're really hiring for.
• 7+ years of professional experience across all of the above.

Nice to Have

• You've worked directly with enterprise customers in a technical role
• Experience in CPG, pharma, financial services, or another regulated industry
• Familiarity with marketing ops, content review, or DAM systems
• You've been a technical or product founder

Candidate Requirements (from the hiring team)

• Must have 7+ years of professional experience
• Must have a minimum of 2 years average tenure across roles
• Must have a track record of promotions
• Must have startup experience — however, exceptionally strong candidates with CPG (consumer packaged goods) or regulated-industry backgrounds will also be considered

Why This Role

Small team. Real customers. Meaningful ownership.

You'll work on problems that matter, alongside customers who depend on what you build. You'll have a direct line into product decisions, a seat at important conversations, and the opportunity to help shape the future of the company.

Early enough to have an outsized impact. Focused enough to make it count.

Compensation

• Salary: $180k – $210k (base around $190k)
• Equity: 0.2% – 0.5% (meaningful early-stage grant)
• Benefits: Health coverage, unlimited PTO
• Location: San Francisco Bay Area — in office 3x/week (WFH flexibility)
• Visa sponsorship: Not available