---
title: 'Forward Deployed Engineer, Applied AI at Pika'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-applied-ai-pika-palo-alto-xzd7dyv18dk2'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-11'
---

# Forward Deployed Engineer, Applied AI at Pika

- **Company:** Pika
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-11-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/pika/3800dd06-4d34-4557-a038-b8cda5980b6c

## Job description

## About the role

At Pika, we're looking for a technically strong, client-facing AI researcher who can turn customer feedback into models and workflows that solve real business needs. You'll work directly with clients to understand what they want to achieve, identify where current model outputs fall short, and fine-tune or post-train models for their use cases. When the solution calls for more than model adaptation, you'll build the supporting workflow. This is a full-time, hands-on, revenue-driven applied research role. Clear communication, professional client service, reliable delivery, and independent execution matter as much as technical ability. You'll help clients get value quickly, build their confidence in working with Pika, and help turn successful technical work into closed engagements and ongoing business.

## What you'll do

- Understand the client's needs. Listen carefully, ask focused questions, and translate requests and feedback into a clear problem, practical scope, and agreed success criteria.
- Adapt models for real use cases. Fine-tune and post-train models to address client needs. Prepare relevant examples and evaluation criteria, diagnose gaps, and verify that each iteration improves the outcomes the client cares about.
- Build the complete solution. Create or adapt workflows around models when needed, connecting APIs, tools, and processing steps into a usable solution that fits the client's deployment needs.
- Iterate quickly with clients. Share working results early, gather specific feedback, and make focused improvements in short cycles. Balance quality, complexity, cost, and delivery speed to keep projects moving.
- Communicate professionally. Explain technical options and limitations clearly, set realistic expectations, respond thoughtfully to requests, and keep clients informed about progress and next steps. Build a relationship that makes them want to continue working with Pika.
- Own execution and coordinate with the team. Drive day-to-day work with independence while keeping teammates aligned on requirements, priorities, progress, and blockers. Ask for input or escalate risks early when needed.
- Deliver for deployment. Help move successful experiments into usable deployments, with clear evaluation results, reproducible workflows, and the documentation needed for handoff.
- Help close client engagements. Demonstrate the solution's value, address technical concerns, and work with the team to turn successful iterations into client commitments and revenue.

## What we're looking for

- Hands-on experience fine-tuning or post-training generative AI models, with the ability to diagnose model behavior and evaluate whether an adaptation solves the intended problem.
- Strong coding and practical ML skills: you can implement experiments, work with data, debug model pipelines, and build supporting workflows.
- Excellent listening and communication skills. You can understand an ambiguous request, clarify what matters, and explain technical work to clients with different levels of expertise.
- Professional judgment, reliability, and a service mindset. You handle feedback constructively, communicate limitations honestly, take ownership of commitments, and build trust through consistent follow-through.
- Independence and ownership, combined with strong communication and collaboration within the team.
- The ability to work in fast feedback cycles, prioritize the highest-impact improvements, and connect technical decisions to client value and commercial outcomes.

## Preferred experience

- Prior professional experience in a similar client-facing AI or ML role, with end-to-end delivery from requirements and model adaptation through evaluation, integration, and deployment. This experience is strongly preferred.
- Delivering reliable AI solutions for external clients or users and supporting them through feedback and iteration.
- LoRA fine-tuning, other parameter-efficient adaptation methods, or feedback-driven post-training.
- Building model evaluation pipelines, API integrations, or workflows used in a deployed product.
- Participating in customer demos, technical pilots, or the delivery of paid projects.

What success looks like Success is measured by how well you serve clients, how quickly you turn feedback into useful improvements, and how reliably your work meets their deployment needs. Strong performance builds client trust, helps close engagements, encourages continued collaboration, and contributes to revenue.

## About Pika

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Pika is an AI-native creative platform that enables users to generate, edit, and transform videos—and now "birth" persistent AI agents—from text, images, and voice.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States (also has an office in Mountain View, CA)
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Demi Guo (CEO), Chenlin Meng (CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Generative AI / AI Video & Agent Platform
- **Target customers**: B2C (creators, social media users, marketers) and B2B (developers via Pika API and MCP)
- **Mission or purpose**: To make video creation accessible to everyone, and now to give everyone a "creative partner" AI agent

## Products & Services
- **Pika Video App**: The core product—an AI video generator that turns text prompts, images, and videos into new clips. Supports styles (3D animation, anime, cartoon, cinematic) and effects like "squish it, melt it, cake-ify it."
- **Pika Agent**: A persistent, portable AI agent that users "birth" and own. Multi-modal (text, voice, image, video) and lives across platforms. Users can train it to have personality, memory, and voice—essentially a creative co-pilot.
- **AI Trendmaker**: A feature that lets users hop on viral video trends with just a selfie and a sound.
- **Pika API**: Hosted API for developers to integrate Pika's video generation capabilities into their own apps and workflows.
- **Pika MCP**: Model Context Protocol for connecting agents to external tools and data.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (estimated at ~$470M post-money based on Series B terms)
- **Total Funding**: $135M across 4 rounds
  - Pre-Seed (Jan 2023): $15M led by Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross
  - Seed (May 2023): Amount undisclosed
  - Series A (Nov 2023): $35M led by Lightspeed Venture Partners
  - Series B (Jun 2024): $80M led by Spark Capital
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Spark Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount grew 27.4% YoY to 59 employees
  - Monthly website visits: ~1.87M (global rank #25,677)
  - Talent sourced from top AI labs (TikTok, Jane Street, Runway, Kling AI, Snap Inc.)
  - 1 active job posting (Head of Engineering) as of mid-2026
  - Launched Pika Agent and Pika API in 2025-2026, expanding beyond video generation into agentic AI

## Competitive Advantages
- **"Birth and own" agent model**: Pika is pioneering the concept of a user-owned, persistent AI agent that evolves with the user—different from one-off chatbot interactions.
- **Multi-modal creative platform**: Combines video generation, agent capabilities, and trend tools in one ecosystem.
- **Strong early traction and talent density**: Raised $135M quickly from top-tier investors; alumni from TikTok, Runway, Jane Street, and other elite tech firms.
- **Small, high-leverage team**: ~59 people operating globally with a "small, dynamic team" culture that values efficiency and ambition.

## Strategic Focus
- **Agent-first future**: Pika is shifting from "just a video tool" to an agent platform where users create and own their AI creative partner.
- **Platform expansion**: Opening up via API and MCP to integrate with external apps and workflows.
- **Global reach**: Operating in 19 countries with a distributed (but Palo Alto-centric) team.
- **Continued R&D in generative video**: Improving realism, style variety, and real-time generation.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Pika describes itself as "small, dynamic" and values "efficiency, collaboration, and creativity." They seek "intellect, work ethic, and ambition."
- **Remote/Hybrid**: Not explicitly stated, but the team is distributed across 19 countries (with the US hub in Palo Alto/Mountain View). Likely hybrid or flexible.
- **Notable perks**: The careers page emphasizes "career growth in a culture that fosters both individual and collective development." They also champion an inclusive culture.
- **Engineering culture**: Tech stack includes Python, TypeScript, Kubernetes, TensorFlow, React, and more. The team has strong representation from top AI labs and trading firms. The open role is Head of Engineering, suggesting they need a senior leader to scale.
- **Impact**: You'd be building the infrastructure for a new category of "owned AI agents" and state-of-the-art video generation—working on cutting-edge generative AI.

## Sources
1. [pika.art](https://pika.art/) – Official website
2. [pika.art/careers](https://pika.art/careers) – Careers page
3. [LinkedIn (Pika Labs)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/pika-labs) – Company data, headcount, funding, talent
4. [Craft.co](https://craft.co/pika-art) – Company summary, locations, sectors
5. [Apple App Store](https://apps.apple.com/pl/app/pika-ai-self-agent/id6758411447) – Pika Agent app details

## Other roles at Pika

- [Applied AI Engineer, Creative Experiences](https://feeny.ai/job/applied-ai-engineer-creative-experiences-pika-palo-alto-1sveavaqdjy0) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Research Scientist, Post-Training — Video Generation](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-post-training-video-generation-pika-united-states-7p60ewgn092p) — United States
- [Creator and Influencer Partnerships Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/creator-and-influencer-partnerships-manager-pika-palo-alto-fcyyn6t3ebrn) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Product Designer (AI Native)](https://feeny.ai/job/product-designer-ai-native-pika-united-states-5jmsmgqqc59k) — United States
- [Data Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/data-engineer-pika-united-states-z74nah1052dn) — United States
- [Growth Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/growth-engineer-pika-united-states-ve2g8v53yde2) — United States
- [Head of Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-engineer-product-pika-united-states-nze1qewm24g3) — United States
- [Principal Software Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-software-engineer-product-pika-united-states-5mj1z1a3yqdf) — United States
- [Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-software-engineer-product-pika-united-states-0m6ceye0wm3c) — United States
- [Head of Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-finance-pika-palo-alto-amgp22pfthqa) — Palo Alto, CA