---
title: 'Forward Deployed Engineer at Ascend'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-ascend-san-francisco-z1nbsmttrfvh'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-13'
---

# Forward Deployed Engineer at Ascend

- **Company:** Ascend
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-10-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-13
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/ascend21/jobs/5445856008

## Job description

## What We Do

Insurance is a $10T industry still running on PDFs, email threads, and manual reconciliation. Ascend is changing that. We built the first and only complete financial operations platform purpose-built for insurance — combining accounting automation, payments, and premium financing in a single vertically integrated solution. In five years, we've become the market leader: over 4,000 businesses, including more than half of the 50 largest brokers in the country, trust Ascend to bring clarity to complex accounting operations from collection to close.

## How We Do It

Ascend automates the financial operations that insurers, MGAs, and agencies run every day and embeds directly into the transactions where money actually moves. Point solutions are easy to build and even easier to copy. The companies that win won't just sell tools — they'll capture value where the money actually moves. Ascend is built for exactly that moment. Our customers don't just adopt software, they unlock measurable efficiency with a proven 5-7x return on investment.

Our team is onsite in San Francisco. We bring deep expertise in insurance, fintech, and financial infrastructure to build what the industry has never had.

## Why We Do It

The insurance industry intermediates trillions of dollars — and almost none of that infrastructure was built for the modern era. Legacy systems aren't just inefficient; they're a ceiling on what the industry can become.

Ascend's mission is to become the leading financial automation platform for insurance by 2030 — powering the financial operations of the entire industry and transforming the way trillions of dollars move. We're not building another point solution, we're building the financial backbone of insurance.

## Your Role

Ascend is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to join our team on-site in San Francisco to build custom integrations and own the technical delivery of customer implementations.

You will work directly with customers, Sales, Customer Success, and Engineering to understand customer workflows and turn ambiguous, high-stakes problems into practical solutions. You will write production code, build API integrations and custom features, and resolve technical blockers to launch and adoption. Your work will help unblock deals, reduce time to go-live, and embed Ascend in customers’ day-to-day operations.

## Responsibilities Will Include

Objective #1: In your first 30 days:

- Understand Ascend's platform, product, and customer workflows by collaborating with team members and engaging with customers
- Learn Ascend’s platform, APIs, account configurations, and connected third-party systems
- Deliver a technical plan for an active integration, including requirements, data flows, dependencies, and success criteria

Objective #2: In your first 60 days:

- Own the technical workstream for a customer implementation, partnering with Customer Success on launch timelines and adoption
- Build and deploy custom API integrations, webhooks, and data workflows that connect Ascend to customer systems
- Configure accounts, validate data flows, and lead technical testing with customers
- Partner with Sales and Customer Success to build demos, integrations, or features that remove blockers to a deal or renewal

Objective #3: In your first 90 days and beyond:

- Independently own account setup, configuration, and complex integrations for new customers from technical scoping through go-live
- Lead technical conversations with customers and drive technical delivery in partnership with Customer Success
- Build integrations, custom features, and internal tools that embed Ascend in enterprise customer workflows
- Help drive adoption by working with customers to put solutions into daily use and remove barriers to sustained usage
- Resolve most technical issues independently, bringing in Engineering when a broader product fix is needed
- Turn recurring customer needs and one-off builds into product features, reusable integrations, and implementation playbooks

Must Have

- 3+ years of experience in implementation, solutions, technical support, or forward deployed engineering
- Experience working at a growth-stage startup
- Experience with relational databases and strong SQL
- Hands-on experience with APIs, webhooks, and data integrations
- Strong debugging skills and clear communication with customers
- A strong desire to learn new skills and solve business problems

## Nice to Have

- Familiarity or interest in learning Ruby on Rails
- Familiarity with building external APIs and integrations with platforms such as Salesforce
- Experience with payments, fintech, or insurance products

Tech Stack & Processes

- Ruby on Rails API hosted on Heroku
- Next.js with TypeScript hosted on Vercel
- Postgres and Redis for storage
- Continuous integration and delivery

Base Salary Range: $170,000–$210,000

## Benefits

- Unlimited PTO 🌴
- Meaningful equity 🤑
- Dog friendly office 🐕
- Commuter benefits 🚌
- Free lunch in office everyday 🥡
- Health care for you and your dependents 🍎

## Equal Opportunity

We are committed to equal opportunity employment and embrace diversity within our organization. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We encourage candidates to apply even if their experience doesn't precisely match this opportunity. We value diversity and are dedicated to equal opportunity employment.

## About Ascend

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Ascend provides a complete financial operations platform purpose-built for the insurance industry, combining AI-powered accounting automation, payments, and premium financing in a single vertically integrated solution.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A) with $285.5M total funding
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Andrew Wynn (Co-Founder & Co-CEO) and Praveen Chekuri (Co-Founder & Co-CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Insurance financial technology (Insurtech) and accounting automation
- **Target customers**: B2B – insurance agencies, wholesalers, MGAs, and carriers (serves over 4,000 insurance businesses including 25 of the 50 largest brokers)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Build the systems insurance runs on” – rebuilding the financial and accounting infrastructure that the insurance industry runs on.

## Products & Services
- **Billing & Invoicing**: Automate invoice creation, delivery, and collections to accelerate payment cycles.
- **Cash Application**: Turn bank deposits into clean, matched accounting entries inside the ledger, eliminating suspense items.
- **Premium Financing & Payments**: Finance and collect premiums in a single, seamless workflow to keep policies in force.
- **Carrier Payables**: Reconcile and disburse carrier payables without manual spreadsheets.
- **Direct Bill Automation**: Fetch, reconcile, and post commission statements to close books faster.
- **Automation & AI**: AI models that learn and parse financial documents to improve accuracy of billing and reconciliation over time, with human-in-the-loop control.

All products form a unified “collection to close” platform that connects to existing Agency Management Systems (AMS) and Policy Administration Systems (PAS) without a rip-and-replace migration.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metrics**:
  - Annual Revenue (estimated): $1.2M (LinkedIn estimate)
  - Total Funding: $285.5M (Seed $5.5M in Sept 2021, Series A $30M in Jan 2022, and Debt Financing of $250M in Jan 2022)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: The Series A round had 19 investors; the seed round involved 17 investors. Specific investor names are not listed in provided sources, but the company has attracted backing from multiple venture and debt investors.
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount: 68 employees (+55.4% YoY)
  - LinkedIn followers: 10,288 (+21.3% yearly)
  - Active job postings: 6 (as of mid-2026)
  - Trusted by over half of the 50 largest insurance brokers in the U.S.
  - Expanded presence to Hong Kong, Poland, and Philippines.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Purpose-built for insurance**: Unlike generic accounting software, Ascend is designed specifically for insurance workflows (billing, carrier payables, premium financing).
- **End-to-end automation**: Covers the full financial operations stack from billing to reconciliation to payables in one platform.
- **Seamless integration**: Connects to existing AMS and PAS systems, avoiding the cost and disruption of core system replacement.
- **AI that improves over time**: Machine learning models parse carrier statements and financial documents, increasing accuracy continuously while keeping humans in control.
- **Single pane of glass**: All accounts receivable and payable resolve into a shared accounting layer for consistent balances and explainable reports.

## Strategic Focus
- **Rebuilding insurance financial infrastructure**: The company positions itself as the infrastructure layer for insurance finance, addressing fragmented manual processes that cause silent failures.
- **Scaling across the insurance ecosystem**: Targeting agencies, wholesalers, MGAs, and carriers with a unified platform.
- **Investing in AI and automation**: Continuing to refine AI models to handle edge cases and complex carrier statements.
- **Growing headcount deliberately**: Hiring across go-to-market, engineering, product, and customer success to support rapid customer adoption.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture and values**: Emphasis on “deep work, clear communication, and long-term growth — not performative hustle.” Values include “Own it,” “Choose velocity,” “Inspire with humility,” “Know your customer,” and “Stability.”
- **Work environment**: San Francisco-based office; roles are listed as San Francisco location. Remote/hybrid policy not explicitly stated but likely office-centric for collaborative roles.
- **Benefits and perks**:
  - Competitive salary and equity with 401k employer match
  - 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employee and dependents
  - 14 weeks parental leave for primary caregivers, 8 weeks for secondary caregivers
- **Engineering culture**: Building systems that handle complex financial transactions at scale; team includes engineers from companies like Instacart, Looker, and Epic Games. The tech stack and specific engineering practices are not detailed but the work involves AI, data pipelines, and high-volume financial data processing.
- **Growth trajectory**: 55% YoY headcount growth and active hiring signal upward momentum, offering career advancement opportunities.

## Sources
1. [useascend.com](https://useascend.com/)
2. [useascend.com/careers](https://useascend.com/careers)
3. [LinkedIn (useascend)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/useascend)
4. [Greenhouse careers page](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/ascend21)
5. [Built In (useascend)](https://builtin.com/company/useascend)

## Other roles at Ascend

- [Brand Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/brand-designer-ascend-san-francisco-ry87vvtm50dz) — San Francisco, CA
- [Solutions Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/solutions-engineer-ascend-san-francisco-2h9fa0hf53r5) — San Francisco, CA
- [Lead Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-product-manager-ascend-san-francisco-k7hy0bqwncm3) — San Francisco, CA
- [Data Scientist, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/data-scientist-product-ascend-san-francisco-1wk27c1jery6) — San Francisco, CA
- [Customer Success Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-success-manager-ascend-san-francisco-q9p180zn9s7t) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-ascend-san-francisco-jjnkehrhbkxf) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-ascend-san-francisco-cx40ttvrbce5) — San Francisco, CA
- [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-foxglove-south-korea-m840bbetsxe0) — South Korea
- [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-foxglove-hong-kong-tzj8c9vnpwmk) — Hong Kong, China
- [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-66degrees-bengaluru-04afaam55rw4) — Bengaluru, India