Forward Deployed Engineer

Forward Deployed Engineer

Company: Serval
Location: San Francisco, CA (on-site 5 days per week)
Compensation: $200,000 - $325,000 + strong equity
Employment Type: Full-time
Visa Sponsorship: Not available (US citizens and green card holders)

About Serval

Serval is the AI platform for IT teams, replacing legacy systems like ServiceNow with automation that frees people to focus on meaningful work. Founded in early 2024, it is trusted by companies such as Perplexity, Together AI, Writer, Mercor and Verkada to automate more than 50% of their IT tickets.

Serval has raised a $127M Series A and has a team of about 25.

The Role

Serval is hiring Forward Deployed Engineers (1+ years) for its new Agent Deployment team: true customer-facing software engineers who turn messy, high-stakes operational workflows into reliable, production-grade AI systems. This is not a typical implementation role. You will be an engineer first, shipping real product and contributing to the core platform, and as a founding member of the team you will help define how it operates.

What You Will Do

• Architect and build production-grade systems for strategic pilots, turning complex requirements into scalable implementations.
• Design, build and maintain backend services, APIs and integrations that extend Serval's AI agent platform.
• Build secure, high-performance integrations with external systems, focused on reliability and observability.
• Turn customer pain points and edge cases into reusable product capabilities.
• Own the technical lifecycle of key deployments from architecture through launch and optimization.
• Partner with customers, sales and engineering to move quickly from idea to production.

What You Bring

• 1+ years of software engineering experience with strong backend skills
• Experience building APIs and integrations with external systems
• Comfort working directly with customers
• Ability to work on-site in San Francisco 5 days a week
• US work authorization without sponsorship

REVENUE: 17.5% of first-year salary. Est. fee per hire $35K-$57K; 5 seat(s) = up to $230K if all filled.

TARGET COMPANIES (suggested): ServiceNow, Okta, Rippling, Palantir, Zapier, Glean.

BEST-FIT CANDIDATE: 1+ yrs; backend/APIs/integrations; customer-facing eng; visa: NO sponsorship; location: SF 5 days.