Zip Software Engineer, Forward Deployed at Zip writes and ships production code while partnering directly with critical customers. This role leads engineering on high-impact customer projects and shapes Zip's long-term platform and roadmap.
Responsibilities
You'll join Zip's Forward Deployed Software Engineering team as a software engineer on some of the highest-impact product work at the company. You'll write and ship production code, partner directly with our most critical customers, and own the engineering on the deals that matter most to Zip.
The team operates close to the customer, moves with urgency, and builds the features that determine whether the biggest deals close on time, whether our most demanding customers stay on the leading edge of the product, and what enterprise-grade looks like in our platform.
If you've done Forward Deployed work elsewhere, this is a place to keep doing it - on real product, at scale, for some of the most recognizable companies in the world.
Lead the engineering on critical customer projects. You'll own scope, sequencing, and delivery against the timelines that high-stakes deals demand, embedded in the implementation cadence alongside our Field PM and Solutions Consultants.
Ship high-impact features that move the most important strategic deals and renewals forward. The work this team takes on is what makes the platform enterprise-grade - net-new product capabilities, framework gaps (APIs, exports, notifications, etc), and targeted enhancements that ship in days or weeks.
Bring strong product sense to every decision. Partner with core product teams to decide what to build, what to push back on, and what to redirect. Strong opinions are welcome; strong opinions grounded in what you heard on a customer call are gold.
Shape Zip's long-term platform and roadmap. Features you ship land at our most critical customers first and compound into the platform, and the patterns you see first become next year's product investments.
Communicate directly with customers. You'll be on calls with procurement, finance, and IT teams, diagnose problems live against real deadlines, and translate trade-offs in language that lands with both engineers and executives.
Your qualifications
3+ years of experience in software engineering or similar field.
Strong software engineering skills. You've shipped non-trivial production systems and you can read and write code across the stack: Python on the backend and React/TypeScript on the frontend at Zip.
Product instincts and judgment. You're the engineer on your current team who pushes back on poorly scoped requirements, who notices when a feature is solving the wrong problem, and who's willing to say so.
Qualification
Experience with procurement
Required
3+ years of experience in software engineering
Preferred
Prior experience as a product engineer or full-stack engineer on a team that owned features end-to-end, shipped frequently, and worked closely with users or customers.
Prior founder or early-employee experience. Many of the best FDEs are people who want to start a company someday and are using this role to build empathy for what enterprises actually buy and why.
Experience with procurement, finance, ERP, or AP automation systems.
The base salary range for this role is $150,000 - $250,000. The salary for this position is determined based on a variety of job-related factors that may include location, relevant experience, education, or particular skills and expertise.
