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Forward Deployed Software Engineer

Salient

Salient

Software Engineering
San Francisco, CA, USA
USD 120k-300k / year + Equity
Posted on Aug 8, 2025

Location

SF Headquarters

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

On-site

Department

Engineering

Compensation

  • $120K – $300K • Offers Equity

Salient is one of the fastest-growing AI startups in consumer finance. In less than two years, we’ve achieved product-market fit, scaled to 8-figure ARR, and emerged as one of the undisputed leaders in financial voice AI.

A few fast facts:

  • Backed by YC and raised the largest Series A for a B2B startup from a16z

  • Reached product-market fit in <2 years and scaled to 8-digit ARR

  • 19-person team building a speech AI agent that handles millions of real customer calls per day, and fully deployed in production across major financial institutions (not just PoCs)

  • We’re on a mission to pass the Turing test for conversational speech in a telephony setting

  • In-person office culture in San Francisco, CA

About the Role

We're seeking a Forward Deployed Software Engineer to work directly with our customers to implement our technology and build any required customizations. In this role, you will apply your problem-solving ability, creativity, and technical skills to be a customer’s first resource for implementing AI agents in their company. This role is critical in helping us deliver reliable, compliant, and efficient customer service solutions to millions of borrowers.

Responsibilities

  • You will own the end-to-end implementation and execution of high-stakes customer engagements and projects, determining what the customer requirements are and how best to apply our Voice AI Agent solution

  • Implement and build new features with customers, and implement them in the core engineering product

Requirements

  • 3+ years of relevant, post-college work experience in a fast moving work environment

  • Strong coder with proven proficiency in programming languages such as Python and Java

  • Excellence in technical documentation and cross-team communication

  • Ability to collaborate with technical and non-technical customers, and comfortable working in a dynamic environment with evolving objectives and many iterations with customers

  • Ability to travel up to 25% (as needed) to customer sites

  • Ability to work 4 days a week from our San Francisco office (open to candidates willing to relocate)

Nice to Have

  • Experience with highly regulated industries or the consumer financial industry

#LI-SP1

As an early-stage company building at the frontier of AI, we work with high intensity and commitment. While schedules can vary by role/team, many weeks will demand extra focus, flexibility and time particularly during major launches and high impact sprints. We're seeking those who are aligned to and able to commit to that expectation which includes 4 days per week in our San Francisco Office.

Compensation Range: $120K - $300K