A fast-growing, Y Combinator–backed AI startup in the industrial logistics space is hiring its first technical hire on the ground in the US. As a Founding Forward Deployed Engineer, you will own the full technical success of US customers end-to-end — sitting at the front line of every deployment and shaping how the product lands in the market.
The company builds AI agents targeting the short-haul trucking and waste management sector — a massive market still largely run on spreadsheets — and is scaling rapidly with strong month-over-month growth heading toward key ARR milestones.
Lead technical deployments and onboarding for US customers from kickoff through go-live
Serve as the primary technical point of contact for customers, diagnosing and resolving integration and operational issues
Integrate the platform with customers' existing job management systems and GPS/telematics infrastructure
Translate customer feedback and real-world deployment learnings into clear product insights for the engineering team
Build internal tooling, scripts, and processes to make deployments faster and more repeatable
Partner closely with founders to define the forward-deployed function as the US business scales
Act as a trusted technical advisor to logistics operations teams, often in industrial field environments
Required
3–10+ years of experience in a forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, or technical implementation role
Strong software engineering fundamentals — comfortable writing code to solve customer problems on the fly
Experience integrating SaaS platforms with third-party systems via APIs, webhooks, or data pipelines
Excellent communication skills — able to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical operations teams
Self-starter mentality; comfortable operating with significant autonomy in an early-stage environment
Willingness to be on-site in Austin, TX and travel to customer sites as needed
Nice to Have
Background in logistics, fleet management, waste management, or industrial operations
Experience at an early-stage startup or as a first technical hire in a market
Familiarity with route optimization, scheduling systems, or GPS/telematics platforms
Experience working with AI/ML-powered products in a deployment or customer-facing context
Salary: $110,000 – $135,000 USD annually
Founding-team equity opportunity
Visa sponsorship: Not available — candidates must be authorized to work in the US
Austin, Texas, US — on-site role
Travel to customer sites (primarily industrial/logistics environments) is expected
| Location | Austin, Texas |
| Website | https://www.getclera.com/ |