Head of Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE)
Posted about 2 months ago
Head of Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE)
Location: San Francisco
Reports To: VP of Revenue
OTE: $215,000 - $285,000
About Us
Rime builds voice AI for enterprises running customer experiences at scale. Our text-to-speech models are purpose-built for high-volume conversational deployments, engineered for the pronunciation accuracy, latency, and deployment flexibility that production environments actually demand.
We started from a different premise than the rest of the field: voice AI isn't bottlenecked by model architecture. It's bottlenecked by data. So before we trained a single model, we built our own corpus: full-duplex, studio-quality conversational speech, recorded and annotated by PhD linguists. That's our moat. It's also why enterprises pick Rime when pilots need to convert into production.
We're backed by top-tier investors including Unusual Ventures, and we've built a team at the intersection of product, research, and craft. Building voice models is an art. We intend to master it.
The Role
We’re looking for a Head of Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) to operate as a technical closer and rapid builder at the intersection of sales, product, and engineering. You'll own the full technical customer lifecycle: pre-sales, POC, implementation, and post-launch expansion.
This is not a traditional solutions engineer role. You’ll act as a skunkworks engineer, working directly with the sales team to design and build custom prototypes, integrations, and production-ready systems that unlock high-value enterprise and ISV deals.
You’ll move fast, operate with high autonomy, and turn ambiguous customer needs into working software - often in days, not weeks. The most impactful work will evolve into repeatable solutions and eventually productized features on our platform.
What You’ll Do
Be a technical closer. You're in the room for every strategic deal - not to present slides, but to build what it takes to win.
Deploy frontier models into production. Get your hands dirty with real integrations, real infrastructure, and real customer environments at some of the largest companies in the world.
Own the POC end-to-end. Design, build, and ship production-quality proof-of-concepts - frontend, backend, integrations - fast.
Own the customer relationship technically. Manage technical stakeholders from first demo through go-live and expansion. Pre-sales and post-sales are yours.
Turn what you build into product. Patterns you identify across deals go upstream - you're a direct input to the roadmap.
Build and lead the team. Hire and develop the CE function after proven success, shaping how technical pre-sales and post-sales coverage evolves as we scale.
Who You Are
A builder who wants to be customer-facing. You're most comfortable when you're writing code and in the room with the customer - not choosing between the two.
6+ years in software engineering, solutions engineering, or a hybrid role - you've shipped production code and worked directly with customers.
Full-stack capable. You can ship clean, production-quality systems quickly and aren't precious about the stack.
Deeply comfortable with APIs, SDKs, and cloud infrastructure in live customer environments.
Energized by ambiguity. You thrive when requirements are half-formed, the timeline is short, and the stakes are high.
A sharp communicator who goes deep with engineers and clearly frames business value for executives.
Done waiting on the sidelines. You want ownership, impact, and a seat at the table.
Nice to Have
Experience with voice AI, TTS, speech, or real-time systems
Background working with ISVs, platforms, or developer ecosystems
Familiarity with WebRTC, streaming, or low-latency systems
Why Join Rime
Rime is an AI lab - you're working alongside the researchers and engineers building frontier voice ai models.
Direct exposure to how frontier AI gets built and deployed at scale, across some of the most demanding industries in the world.
Competitive compensation with meaningful equity and real performance upside — we want to build a small, high-performing team that has real ownership.
At Rime, we...
Are outliers
Cut through the hype to focus on the craft
Move fast with agency and freedom
Maintain a growth mindset, finding joy in the struggle
Do the right things, knowing that it'll lead to making money
If that sounds like you too, you'll be a great fit for Rime!
Other open roles at Rime Labs(6)
Voice AI infrastructure for enterprise. Text-to-speech models that sound like a person and perform like infrastructure.
Key team members
Kumar Dandapani
Cailen DSa
Megan Dorcey
Patrick Coleman
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