# Founding Forward Deployed Engineer - Company: [Dryft]() - Location: San Francisco - Team: Product - Employment type: Full Time - Posted: August 1, 2025 ## Job description ## DRYFT **Dryft builds intelligent systems that automate complex human decisions in manufacturing operations** We’re a small, talent-dense team with modest roots and a love for the physical world - cars, machines, planes. Our team includes graduates from **Stanford, Berkeley, CDTM, TUM**, winners of **Stanford TreeHacks**, recipients of **Fulbright & Haniel scholarships**, and builders of everything from **robots and race cars to software with millions of downloads**. We’re backed by the founders and leaders behind Amazon, Facebook, Stripe, Applied Intuition, & others; General Catalyst & Neo, and board members of global industrial companies. Today, we’re already saving customers millions. But this is only the beginning. ERPs ran the physical world for half a century. Dryft is powering the next. ## THE ROLE This role is our most **entrepreneurial**. I no other role will you learn more about how to become a great founder, listener & builder. As **our Founding Forward Deployed Engineer**, you’ll operate at the intersection of product, engineering, and operations. 50% Engineering, 50% Customer interaction. * **Design the product backbone.** Work hands-on with users, translate their pain into product improvements, and prototype features yourself - ideally writing production code when needed. * **Turn operations into product.** Every deployment becomes a blueprint for scale — you’ll transform learnings into reusable product features, data models, and playbooks that move Dryft from bespoke to productized. * **Lead full-stack rollouts.** Own implementations end-to-end: from scoping and onboarding to integration and training. Align IT teams, engineers, and C-level execs across Germany, the EU, and the US (10–30% travel). * **Shape how Dryft scales.** Work directly with the CEO & CTO to define the product DNA, build the foundation for future teams, and grow into roles like CPO or COO. This is a **high-ownership, zero-handholding** role for someone who loves turning complexity into clarity and shipping solutions that just work. ## YOU * **Product architect at heart.** You turn ERP frustrations into intuitive features. You care deeply about UX, speed, and simplicity. * **Sharp mind:** You pick up new concepts extremely quickly. You listen. You remember the details - even of things you never heard about. * **Systems thinker.** You design processes that scale - in code, in operations, and in how people work. You think in data and automation. * **Quality-obsessed.** You hold yourself to a high bar, dive deep into problems, and care about getting it right - not just getting it done. * **Confident communicator.** You can calm an impatient exec, convince a skeptical IT leader, and still keep humor in the room. * **Down-to-earth & relatable.** You bond with shop-floor operators as easily as with boardroom execs. * **Fluent German & English speaker.** Our customers are global, and you’ll move between San Francisco, the US Midwest, Mexico and the heart of German manufacturing. ## **TECH STACK** * **FE (TypeScript):** React, Chakra UI v3, TanStack Router, TanStack Query, Vite * **BE (Python):** FastAPI with Pydantic v2, SQLModel, Postgres with pgvector, dagster * **AI:** Pydantic AI, Langfuse ## Apply [Apply on Dryft]() Canonical job page: