---
title: 'Forward Deployed AI Engineer at TENEX.AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-ai-engineer-tenex-ai-kansas-city-bhkx09gg0qt8'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-10'
---

# Forward Deployed AI Engineer at TENEX.AI

- **Company:** TENEX.AI
- **Location:** Kansas City, MO
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-06-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tenex/98bbb579-2007-48e4-b1cb-c6e39727505d

## Job description

Company Overview: TENEX is an AI-native, automation-first, built-for-scale Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider. We are a force multiplier for defenders, helping organizations enhance their cybersecurity posture through advanced threat detection, rapid response, and continuous protection. Our team is composed of industry experts with deep experience in cybersecurity, automation and AI-driven solutions. Backed by leading investors, we are rapidly growing and seeking top talent to join our mission of revolutionizing the AI-Native MDR landscape. We’re a fast growing startup backed by industry experts and top tier investors led by Crosspoint Capital Partners and also backed by Shield Capital, DTCP (formerly Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners), Deepwork Capital, and the Florida Opportunity Fund. Seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). As an early employee, you’ll play a meaningful role in defining and building our culture. Get in on the ground floor. We’re a small but well-funded team that just raised a substantial round – joining now comes with limited risk and unlimited upside. Culture is one of the most important things at [TENEX.AI](http://TENEX.AI)—explore our culture deck at [culture.tenex.ai](http://culture.tenex.ai) to witness how we embody it, prioritizing the irreplaceable collaboration and community of in-person work.

## About the Role

As a Forward Deployed Engineer at TENEX, you are a customer-embedded problem solver. You live inside strategic customer accounts, discover what is broken or missing, and build solutions — combining AI, data, and security expertise to ship things that matter. Your work doesn't stay in one customer's environment; it feeds back into what TENEX builds for everyone.

Job Responsibilities

- Embed directly within assigned customer accounts to deeply understand their environment, workflows, and security challenges
- Follow the FDE engagement loop: Discover, Ideate, Document, Build, Ship — moving from problem identification to working solution with a bias toward action
- Build custom solutions tailored to customer needs — including automations, integrations, AI-assisted workflows, data pipelines, and security tooling extensions
- Apply combined expertise across AI, data, and security to solve problems that off-the-shelf tools cannot address
- Document solutions thoroughly so they can be reviewed, refined, and offered to other customers across the platform
- Continuously identify and surface new problem areas, data opportunities, and intelligence gaps encountered during customer engagements — feeding these discoveries into the AI & DS function for evaluation and development
- Collaborate closely with the AI & Data Science function — surfacing cross-customer intelligence needs directly from customer engagements
- Maintain a strong working relationship with customer technical stakeholders throughout the engagement
- Manage multiple active customer accounts concurrently, maintaining deep focus and high-quality output across each engagement
- Escalate blockers or account risks to the Director or Staff-level engineers when appropriate

Required Skills & Qualifications Technical & Industry Expertise

- 3+ years in software engineering, security engineering, or a technical customer-facing role
- Strong programming skills in Python and/or another general-purpose language (Go, TypeScript, etc.)
- Experience working directly with customers to solve complex technical problems
- Familiarity with AI/ML tooling, data pipelines, or data engineering concepts
- Knowledge of security operations, SIEM/SOAR, cloud security, or endpoint security
- Ability to rapidly prototype and ship working solutions in ambiguous, fast-changing environments
- Strong technical documentation skills — you write things down so they can scale

Soft Skills

- Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills with a bias toward action
- Excellent customer-facing communication and collaboration abilities
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-performance startup environment
- Passion for cybersecurity, automation, and continuous improvement

Education & Certifications

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
- Relevant certifications such as CISSP, CISM, GIAC certifications, Google Cloud Professional, Microsoft SC-200/AZ-500, or AWS Certified Solutions Architect are a plus

Why Join Us?

- Opportunity to work with cutting-edge AI-driven cybersecurity technologies and next-generation security platforms
- Collaborate with a talented and innovative team focused on continuously improving security operations
- Competitive salary and benefits package
- A culture of growth and development, with opportunities to expand your expertise in AI, cybersecurity, and engineering
- Be part of building something new — TENEX's Forward Deployed Engineering organization is a greenfield opportunity to define how enterprise security is delivered at scale

## About TENEX.AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: TENEX.AI is the first AI-native, human-led Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider, built from the ground up to deliver 10x faster threat detection and response.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, $277M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Sarasota, FL, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Eric Foster (CEO), Venkata Koppaka (Co-Founder & CTO), Jan Grzymala-Busse (CISO & Head of Security Operations), Elias “Lou” Manousos (Chairman), Ryan Shreve (Co-Founder & CRO), Edwin Solis (Co-Founder & CFO/COO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Cybersecurity – Managed Detection and Response (MDR), threat intelligence, security automation, and incident response.
- **Target customers**: Mid-market to global enterprises (B2B), also SMBs with flexible pricing.
- **Mission**: “Deliver 10x better security outcomes, faster and more cost-effectively than legacy providers.”

## Products & Services
- **AI-Native MDR (Managed Detection & Response)**: Core service that uses domain-specific AI to triage every alert in under a minute, then empowers human analysts to investigate and respond. Includes 24/7 U.S.-based analysts with 8+ years average experience.  
- **Essential AI-Native MDR**: A standardized, lower-cost tier for smaller organizations (pricing from $99,000/year).  
- **Bespoke MDR**: Customized service for complex, mission-critical environments with dedicated engineering team, flexible contract, and quarterly executive briefings.  
- **Google Cloud Security Operations**: Implementation, management, and optimization of Google Security Operations platform (TENEX is a leading Google Cloud partner).  
- **Platform Training & Education**: Customer training on the TENEX platform and security operations best practices.  
- **Dashboards & Reports**: Continuous visibility and reporting for security posture.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Total Funding**: $277M across three rounds:  
  - Seed (Jan 2025): Led by **Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)**  
  - Series A (Oct 2025): $27M led by **Crosspoint Capital Partners**  
  - Series B (Mar 2026): $250M led by **Crosspoint Capital Partners** (also a16z, Shield Capital participated)
- **Key Metric**: 505.9% year-over-year headcount growth (74 employees as of early 2026); 108 active job postings.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Crosspoint Capital Partners, Shield Capital; Google Cloud (strategic partner).
- **Growth Signals**: Scaling from 1 to 3 offices (Sarasota, Overland Park, San Jose); rapid hiring across engineering, sales, and threat detection; leadership team includes former Google Security executives and founders of RiskIQ and Cyderes.

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI-native architecture**: Built from the ground up for AI, not retrofitted. Domain-specific models understand attacker behavior, not just patterns.
- **Human-led, AI-powered**: AI handles 100% of alerts at machine speed; human experts focus on complex threats. 95% fewer false positives, <1-minute mean time to triage (MTTX).
- **Elite founding team**: Veterans from Google Cloud Security (original Chronicle team), RiskIQ, Cyderes, Fishtech Group, and national security.
- **Deep Google Cloud expertise**: TENEX is the go-to partner for Google Security Operations, managing over 75% of Google’s security business at peak.
- **Flexible, scalable pricing**: From $99K/year Essential tier to fully bespoke enterprise solutions, making premium MDR accessible to a wide range of budgets.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale through AI, not headcount**: Use automation to multiply analyst efficiency rather than linearly adding people.
- **In-person collaboration**: All three offices are on-site-first; the company believes “bold innovations emerge from in-person collaboration.”
- **Continuous learning and adaptation**: The AI platform learns from every environment and analyst feedback, staying ahead of emerging threats.
- **Expansion into mid-market**: The Essential tier targets smaller organizations that previously couldn’t afford premium MDR.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “AI-native, human-led” – the company values elite human expertise alongside advanced AI. “We’re AI-native, born AI, built AI, think AI, and actively searching for the best human minds in cybersecurity.”
- **Work model**: On-site-first in three locations: Sarasota, FL (HQ); Overland Park, KS; San Jose, CA. Aggressive relocation packages including moving expense reimbursement, temporary housing, family transition support.
- **Benefits**: Comprehensive health (Medical, Dental, Vision); 100% 401k match up to 6%; long-term incentives; professional development opportunities; continuous learning culture.
- **Growth trajectory**: Rapidly scaling (505% YoY headcount growth) with 108 open positions across engineering, product, sales, and security operations. Opportunity to shape the future of AI-driven security.
- **Team**: 72% of employees in the US, with a strong technical base (39% in technical roles). Executives hail from Google, Microsoft, Cyderes, ReliaQuest, and other top security firms.

## Sources
1. [tenex.ai](https://tenex.ai/)  
2. [tenex.ai/about-us](https://tenex.ai/about-us/)  
3. [linkedin.com/company/tenex-ai](https://www.linkedin.com/company/tenex-ai)  
4. [tenex.ai/careers](https://tenex.ai/careers/)  
5. [tenex.ai/careers/open-positions](https://tenex.ai/careers/open-positions/)

## Other roles at TENEX.AI

- [Senior Data Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-scientist-tenex-ai-san-jose-nakx17xgp35g) — San Jose, CA
- [Senior Technical Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-program-manager-tenex-ai-san-jose-1nc6s4kfnkqk) — San Jose, CA
- [Territory Account Manager-EMEA](https://feeny.ai/job/territory-account-manager-emea-tenex-ai-france-mztd9k1je6y2) — France
- [Director, IT](https://feeny.ai/job/director-it-tenex-ai-kansas-city-ft6qceav8a0r) — Kansas City, MO
- [Senior Security Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-security-analyst-tenex-ai-kansas-city-8ex1yc4xv7h6) — Kansas City, MO
- [Software Engineer II (REMOTE)](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-ii-remote-tenex-ai-united-states-r4ef8rcb853e) — United States
- [Senior Software Engineer - REMOTE](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-remote-tenex-ai-united-states-xhze3t718mdj) — United States
- [Platform Engineer, AI & Security](https://feeny.ai/job/platform-engineer-ai-security-tenex-ai-san-jose-bnj6807akza8) — San Jose, CA
- [Director of Forward Deployed Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-forward-deployed-engineering-tenex-ai-kansas-city-qymr6qpgxw07) — Kansas City, MO
- [Regional Sales Director](https://feeny.ai/job/regional-sales-director-tenex-ai-united-states-t3p1x1myng7d) — United States