Forward Deployed Engineer (Founding Customer Engineer)

About the company

Clera is a talent-matching platform that replaces traditional job applications by connecting candidates and hiring teams through curated introductions.

About this role

ABOUT THE ROLE This is a rare opportunity to be the first non-founder hire at a seed-stage B2B SaaS startup in the conversational AI and sales automation space. As a Founding Customer Engineer, you will own every customer relationship and build the playbook that takes the company from its first handful of customers to thousands. You'll work side-by-side with the founding team, directly influencing product direction and shaping the customer engineering function from the ground up. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable on a customer call as they are writing a script or configuring an automation workflow — someone who instinctively looks for ways to eliminate repetitive work and has a genuine interest in how AI agents can transform the B2B sales process. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Teach and coach AI sales agents on product tiers, buyer personas, and pricing conversations to improve their effectiveness. - Own customer relationships end-to-end — from onboarding through long-term success — and continuously improve demo performance and product adoption. - Serve as the voice of the customer by analyzing conversation logs and support interactions to surface patterns, insights, and unmet needs. - Build automation workflows and internal tooling (scripting, APIs, low-code/no-code tools) to help the customer engineering function scale efficiently. - Work directly with the CTO to translate customer feedback into prioritized, shipped product features. - Lead product demos and onboarding sessions with strong communication and a consultative approach. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Required: - 0–3 years of experience in a customer-facing technical role at a SaaS company (e.g., solutions engineer, customer engineer, technical account manager). - Strong written and verbal communication skills with demonstrated ability to lead product demos and customer onboarding. - Hands-on experience building automation workflows to scale customer engineering tasks (scripting, APIs, or low-code/no-code tools). - Experience analyzing customer feedback and conversation data to identify patterns and inform product decisions. - Ability to translate customer insights into clear, actionable product requirements and collaborate closely with engineering leadership. - Experience configuring or coaching AI agents for sales contexts, including defining personas, product tiers, and pricing narratives. - Authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship. - Able to work on-site in San Francisco, CA. Nice to Have: - Prior experience at an early-stage startup (2–10 person team). - Familiarity with the B2B sales tooling or demo automation space (e.g., interactive demo platforms, conversational AI, GTM tooling). - Background at high-growth SaaS companies or top-tier consulting/strategy firms. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS - Salary: $140,000 – $185,000 USD annually - Early equity opportunity as a founding team member - Direct impact on company trajectory from day one LOCATION This role is on-site in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be based in or willing to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area. Visa sponsorship is not available.