Forward Deployed Engineer
US$215,000 – US$275,000 / yr base salary
Posted 23 Sep 2026
Advertised as “Staff Forward Deployed Engineer”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 8+ yrs
- Management level
- Individual contributor
- Employment
- On-Site
- Contract
- Full-time
| Base salary | US$215,000 – US$275,000 / yr |
|---|
About Standard Bots
Standard Bot's mission is to significantly lower the barrier to entry to real-world automation, bringing the power of bits to the world of atoms and unlocking productivity for entire new industries and users. Our user-facing applications and APIs directly empower individuals and developers to jump directly into solving their challenges without the need for a background in robotics or automation. A relentless focus on simplicity and ease of use brings this revolutionary potential to new users and industries.
The Opportunity: Forward Deployed With a Large Robotics API Customer
We are looking for an exceptional Staff Software Engineer to work on site with one of our largest customers. That customer is an AI robotics company that drives our arms from its own models through our streaming APIs and SDK. You join our SDK and external APIs team and build on our platform. For the first nine to twelve months, you spend most of your week at the customer's facility in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Your impact will be measured not just by fixing their problem but building production level fixes that make it into our product. It will also be measured by how much of what you learn on site shapes the platform for all developers who build on our APIs.
What You'll Do
Strategic Architecture & Long-Term Vision
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Define the Future: Own the technical vision for how advanced customers drive our robots programmatically: realtime streaming control, the Python SDK, ROS 2 integration, and the safety limits that make streamed motion trustworthy across a fleet.
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Decouple and Scale: Generalize what you learn on site into product capabilities with clear, stable interfaces. Each fix and feature you ship should be brought back to the team to bring into the product for all developers. You keep that standard through all one-off solutions.
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Standard Setter: Set the bar for the reliability, safety, and observability of our external control surface. Failure modes found in the field then become tested guarantees in the platform.
Complex Project Leadership & Execution
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Represent the Customer Inside Engineering: Be the customer's technical point of contact and the team's eyes on their floor. Convert what you see into prioritized, testable requirements. Hold the line when a request takes the product somewhere unsafe or off the roadmap.
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Pragmatic Trade-Offs: Decide clearly between the fast fix the customer needs this week and the durable change the platform needs. Put those decisions in writing for both sides.