Founding Forward Deployed Engineer
Circle — "Circle picks up calls, sends emails, and fills portals while you close."
Why Circle?
Insurance runs on people doing heroic amounts of manual work. We're changing that.
At Circle, we're bringing the world's most advanced AI into insurance brokerages and automating 90% of the manual work that insurance brokers do—from the mind‑numbing, error‑prone steps to the multi‑system swivel‑chair tasks that slow everything down. The result: quotes go out faster, renewals run themselves, and producers get their day back.
We're a small, product‑obsessed team shipping fast with real customers. You'll work directly with the founders, own outcomes, and see your code move the industry forward in weeks—not quarters.
The Role
As our Founding Forward Deployed Engineer, you are the technical face of Circle with customers. You'll sit with users, map messy workflows, and turn them into production‑grade automations. Think rapid prototyping → first demo in days → hardening into reliable, observable systems. You'll thrive if you love ambiguity, enjoy hopping between product and code, and measure success by what's running in the wild.
What You'll Do
Own customer outcomes end‑to‑end: scope → build → deploy → iterate with real users
Ship high‑leverage automations: orchestrate LLM‑powered agents, integrate phones/email, and drive browser‑based flows for web portals—without needing perfect APIs
Integrate systems pragmatically: connect to CRMs/AMSs, document stores, and queues; design for retries, idempotency, and observability
Prove value fast: stand up pilots, instrument success (cycle time, accuracy, reliability), and turn wins into repeatable playbooks
Partner on GTM: help run workshops, demos, and proof‑of‑value with prospects and early customers
In Your First 30 Days, You Might
Shadow producers and account managers, capture a high‑friction workflow, and ship a first pass that cuts cycle time by 30–50%
Build a resilient headless‑browser task with robust auth/session handling and structured logging
Stand up metrics that let customers see time saved and errors avoided
What Will Make You Successful
Builder's bias: you've shipped production systems in scrappy environments and can demo progress early and often
Customer fluency: you like sitting with users and turning fuzzy requests into running code
Technical range: Fluency across key domains: TypeScript/Next.js, Node.js, Python, APIs & queues, headless browser automation, LLM/AI agent orchestration, cloud/CI/CD, and observability with logs/metrics/traces
Sound engineering judgment: failure modes, retries, data hygiene, and security are second nature
Nice‑to‑Have
Experience in B2B workflow automation
Voice/email integrations experience
Working around imperfect third‑party systems
How We Work
Small team, big ownership
You'll make architectural calls and set quality bars.
Ship fast, then harden
First demo in days, then productionize with reliability and observability.
In-Person in SF
We work 6 days a week in our SF office.
Compensation & Benefits
Base salary: $165k–$185k (up to $200k for exceptional fit)
Competitive equity package
Benefits: Medical/Dental/Vision (employee‑friendly coverage) + latest MacBook Pro
Phone/data stipend, learning budget, and travel as needed for customer work
Small team, big ownership: You'll make architectural calls and set quality bars
Ship fast, then harden: First demo in days, then productionize with reliability and observability
In-Person in SF: We work 6 days a week in our SF office with coffee, snacks, and a great community.
Our Process
Founder intro
(45m)Mission, your story, mutual fit
Technical deep dive
(60m)Systems you've built, tradeoffs, failure modes
Co-working session
(2–3h)Build a small automation against a mock portal
Ready to Build?
If you want to see your code create visible time back for real people—and you like the idea of being the person who makes AI actually work in the field—let's talk.
Circle is an equal‑opportunity employer. We value ownership, candor, and a bias to action.
Apply for This Position