AI Engineer - Forward Deployed

Edison Scientific • Full-time • San Francisco, California, United States • $200k - $350k / year • 1h ago

About

Edison Scientific builds and commercializes AI agents for science. Scientific discovery moves too slowly, and autonomous AI agents are how we intend to fix that. We're assembling a team of top researchers and engineers across AI and biology to build an AI scientist.

Role

As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you'll be embedded directly with one of the world's leading science R&D organizations – taking full ownership of how Edison's AI agents create value in their environment. You'll need to deeply understand their science, their workflows, and their pain points, then determine where our platform can have the most impact.

This isn't remote support or implementation consulting. You'll be on-site, building relationships with scientists and research leaders, identifying the highest-leverage problems, and shipping solutions in fast cycles – often end-to-end. You'll operate with a high degree of independence and serve as the bridge between what our platform can do and what the customer needs it to do, feeding insights back to our product and engineering teams to shape the roadmap.

Responsibilities

Be embedded at a client site, understand their research workflows deeply, and take responsibility for maximizing the value Edison delivers to that organization.
Map the customer's scientific and operational landscape to identify where AI agents can have the most impact – not just where they ask for help, but where the real leverage is.
Design, implement, and iterate on production-ready integrations in fast cycles, often owning features end-to-end from architecture to rollout.
Troubleshoot issues in real time, ensure reliability and adoption, and be the go-to technical contact for AI within the client organization.
Capture pain points, unmet needs, and product gaps and work with our internal Applied AI and engineering teams to shape future capabilities.

Qualifications

4+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of shipping production-grade software in fast-paced or ambiguous environments.
Comfortable operating independently, making decisions with incomplete information, and driving outcomes without close oversight.
Strong problem-solving skills and comfort navigating complex systems, debugging issues in real time, and owning features end-to-end.
Proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript/JavaScript.
Strong communication and relationship-building skills – able to earn trust with scientists, executives, and engineering teams.
Willingness to learn new scientific domains quickly and adapt to rapidly evolving priorities.

Bonus points for:

Experience in life sciences, pharma, biotech, or scientific R&D – either as a researcher, consultant, or engineer working in these environments.
Experience working with AI/ML systems, LLM-powered applications, or agent architectures.
Background as a technical founder, forward-deployed engineer, or management consultant.
A science degree or research experience alongside your engineering skills.

Compensation

$200,000 - $350,000 • Offers equity

Why join us?

Competitive salary and equity
Full healthcare coverage — we pay 100% of premiums for you and your dependents
Support for growing families, including a yearly new parent stipend and fertility coverage through Carrot
401(k) company matching
$300 health and wellness benefit
Lunch is on us every day you're in the office, and dinner is on us when you're working late
Regular team offsites and company events
A fast-moving, mission-driven culture where smart people do their best work and actually enjoy doing it