# Forward Deployed Engineer - Applied AI

**Company:** [Wonderschool](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/wonderschool)
**Location:** Gallup, NM, Michigan, Missouri, San Francisco, CA
**Role:** ML Engineering
**Skills:** Python, JavaScript, AI, LLMs, Cursor, Windsurf, Widesurf
**Posted:** 2026-04-29

> Forward Deployed AI Engineer works directly with customers to identify pain points, builds and deploys AI-powered solutions and automations (50% coding), and drives business impact through rapid iteration. Requires Python/JavaScript proficiency, AI tool experience, and founder-like ownership in an in-person environment.

## Job Description

## What You’ll Do
- Work directly with users and internal teams to identify high-leverage problems and ship product solutions.
- Write production code (approximately 50% of your time) and ship weekly improvements across the customer journey.
- Use tools like **Widesurf**, **Cursor**, and other AI accelerators to increase your velocity and quality of output.
- Build and deploy **AI-powered tooling** that eliminates manual effort and improves the experience for providers, parents, and government partners.
- Automate onboarding flows, proposal generation, reporting processes, and other operational workflows.
- Own full loops: talk to users, design solutions, write code, test, deploy, and monitor adoption.
- Prioritize based on business impact and collaborate across teams to drive measurable results.

## What Success Looks Like
- Uncover user pain points faster than anyone else and consistently ship solutions that address them.
- Deploy **AI-infused internal tools** or product experiences that improve core metrics (conversion, retention, revenue).
- Fully own feedback loops, from discovery to deployment, and iterate rapidly.
- Internal teams rely on your tools to operate faster and with fewer resources.
- Moving fast, staying close to the customer, and operating with very little hand-holding.

## Who You Are
- A builder and founder at heart, you’ve started a company, built products that got users, or made revenue independently.
- Comfortable talking to users weekly and distilling insight into product decisions.
- Technical enough to ship production code on your own, experience with **Python**, **JavaScript**, or similar languages.
- Experienced using **AI/LLMs** and developer tools like **Windsurf** and **Cursor** to move faster and smarter.
- Business-minded, you’ve worked in consulting, managed a P&L, or attended business school and know how to prioritize based on ROI.
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity and energized by a high-trust, high-impact, **in-person environment**.

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