Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed

vapiยท Engineering, Product & Design
Apply Now โ†—
๐ŸŒ Remote๐Ÿ“ San FranciscoFullTime๐Ÿ’ฐ USD 200Kโ€“280K/yr

About this role

Voice AI that resolves, not transfers.

Most phone systems trap callers in menus and scripts. Vapi is the platform for deploying voice agents that know your business and can listen, adapt, and resolve in minutes.

  • The numbers: 1 billion calls. 1 million developers. 10x enterprise ARR growth

  • The customers: Amazon Ring, ServiceTitan, New York Life, Intuit, Kavak, and thousands more, from YC startups to the Fortune 500

  • The news: a $50M Series B led by Peak XV Partners, with Bessemer Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins, M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund), Y Combinator, and our earlier backers. Total raised: $72M

Why We're Hiring This Role

Our Enterprise ARR is growing ~5x YoY โ€” customers like NYLife and Intuit deploy in weeks and expand rapidly when we support them well. We're hiring an FDE to be the reason that flywheel spins faster. You won't just onboard customers; you'll identify the next use case, build the tooling that makes the next similar deployment trivial, and close the gap between what our product can do and what our customers actually need.

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What You'll Do

  • 30 Day: Deploy an Enterprise customer end-to-end

  • 60 Day: Ship internal tooling or product contributions that make the next similar deployment materially faster

  • 90 Day: Establish a process or infrastructure the team didn't know it needed

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Who You Are

  • You've worked in a technical role at an early-stage startup โ€” you know what it means to build without a playbook

  • You've been an FDE, Solutions Architect, or Solutions Engineer at a company we admire

  • You've driven process change proactively โ€” not because someone asked, but because you couldn't leave a broken system alone

  • You're comfortable operating in ambiguity and find structure by doing, not by waiting

  • You have a genuine bias toward action: you identify a gap, you fix it, you document it

  • Bonus: You've built your own startup or pursued your own projects, and iterated on them

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What We're Looking For

Requirements

  • 5+ years of professional engineering experience

  • Strong generalist: you can move between UI/UX implementation, API design, data modeling, and systems architecture

  • Has worked at a company with fewer than 50 people

  • Has shipped at least one product with real users โ€” at least one of the following should be easy to verify:

    • Product with 1,000+ active users

    • Product generating revenue from paying customers

    • Product a real company depended on to run part of their operations

  • 1+ year as a founding or early engineer (first 10) at a startup that raised Series A or beyond

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Hard Skills

  • Backend: Node.js, Express, FastAPI, Django, or Flask

  • Frontend: React, Next.js, Vue, or Tailwind

  • Language: TypeScript or Python

  • Database: SQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB, or Redis

  • Deployment: AWS, GCP, Azure, Vercel, or Railway

  • Coding Tools: Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or Windsurf

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Nice to Have

  • AI/ML: LLM APIs, RAG, vector databases (Pinecone, pgvector), self-hosted models

  • Infra: Docker, Kubernetes, IaC

  • Real-time: WebSockets, SSE, WebRTC, SIP

  • Led a project without a management title

  • Open source contributions

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Soft Skills (in priority order)

  1. Agency โ€” you move things forward without waiting for instructions

  2. Structured Thinking โ€” you break down complex, ambiguous problems into clear next steps

  3. Customer Communication โ€” you can explain hard things to both engineers and executives

  4. Cross-Functional Collaboration โ€” you work fluidly with Product, GTM, and Engineering

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Why Vapi

  • Generational impact: Build the human interface for every business

  • Ownership culture: 70% of the company are previous founders

  • Kind team: The founders, Jordan and Nikhil, are Canadians

  • Tier-1 Investors: YC, Kleiner Perkins seed, Bessemer Series A

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What We Offer

  • Real stake: Competitive salary and excellent equity ownership

  • Comprehensive health coverage: Medical, dental, and vision

  • Team love: We hang out โ€” quarterly off-sites included

  • Flexible time off: Take what you need

  • More: Catered meals, transportation, gym, and a $10k annual L&D budget

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the salary for the Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed role at vapi?
The listed salary for this Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed position at vapi is USD 200Kโ€“280K/yr. This is a remote FullTime role.
Is the Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed job at vapi remote?
Yes, this Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed position at vapi is remote, with team members based in San Francisco. You can work from home or anywhere in the supported regions.
Is the Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed role at vapi full-time or part-time?
This is listed as a FullTime position. It is posted as a Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed role in the Engineering, Product & Design department at vapi.
Which team or department does the Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed at vapi belong to?
This Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed position is part of the Engineering, Product & Design department at vapi. See the full job description for more information about the team structure and responsibilities.
How do I apply for the Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed position at vapi?
Click the "Apply Now" button on this page. You will be redirected to vapi's official application portal hosted on ashby where you can submit your application directly.
When was the Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed job at vapi posted?
This Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed position at vapi was posted on May 21, 2026. Apply as soon as possible โ€” early applications are often reviewed first.
Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed
vapi ยท ๐Ÿ’ฐ USD 200Kโ€“280K/yr
Apply for this role โ†—

You'll be redirected to vapi's official application page on Ashby ATS.