--- title: 'Forward Deployed Engineer - Germany at Dryft' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-germany-dryft-munich-qxvhz59amr00' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-13' --- # Forward Deployed Engineer - Germany at Dryft - **Company:** Dryft - **Location:** Munich, Germany - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-10-07 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-13 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/dryft/76c36c29-47bc-4c39-8e39-799a40881ac4 ## Job description ## DRYFT Ideas only change the world when you build them at scale. That’s what Dryft is here for. Dryft builds models that automate complex human decisions in manufacturing operations. We capture the knowledge of experienced operators across supply chain, production planning, engineering and more, simulate the consequences of their decisions, and use this understanding to help run their business. Our customers include some of the largest robotics, machine and component manufacturers in the world. We’re a small, talent-dense team with modest roots and a love for the physical world: cars, machines, planes. Our team includes graduates from Stanford, Berkeley, CDTM and TUM, winners of Stanford TreeHacks, recipients of Fulbright & Haniel scholarships, and people who have built everything from robots and race cars to software with millions of downloads. What matters more to us than credentials is how people work: humility, hard work, speed, kindness, deep customer care, and a willingness to take on problems others avoid. Working at Dryft is hard. You get unusual ownership early on, with real responsibility. But that’s also what makes it one of the biggest learning experiences of your life. We’re backed by founders and operators behind some of the most legendary tech companies of our time, Tier-1 U.S. venture firms, and board members of global industrial companies. ERPs ran the physical world for half a century. Dryft is building the intelligence layer that will power the next. ​ ## THE ROLE As our Forward Deployed Engineer, you split your time 50/50 between engineering and customer interaction. No role will teach you more about becoming a great founder, listener & builder. One day you're integrating a legacy ERP, the next you're on a flight to a shop floor in Mexico, and in between you ship the fix. You'll navigate stakeholders from IT to the C-level, all at once, and nothing really prepares you for it. - Lead full-stack rollouts – own implementations end-to-end, from scoping and onboarding to integration and training, and align IT teams, engineers and C-level execs across Germany, the EU and the US - Design the product backbone – work hands-on with users, translate their pain into product improvements, and prototype features yourself, ideally writing production code when needed - Turn operations into product – every deployment becomes a blueprint for scale: you turn what you learned into reusable product features, data models and playbooks, and grow into roles like CPO or COO This is a high-ownership, zero-handholding role, and only for someone who loves turning complexity into clarity and ships working solutions under pressure. ​ YOU - Fast-paced experience – 2+ years in a top-tier role (e.g., consulting), as a founder, or as an early employee in a high-growth startup, with a technical degree or background - Engineer first – you write production code, understand systems end-to-end, and when something breaks at a customer, you find the root cause - Industrial background – experience in manufacturing, industrial software, procurement, supply chain or another industrial domain is a plus - Product-minded – you listen to rants about ERP, nod wisely, and somehow turn them into product features that feel like magic - Quality-obsessed – you hold yourself to a high bar, dive deep into problems, and care about getting it right, not just getting it done - Ultra-professional & detail-obsessed – you earn trust with structure, polish, and docs so clean even a CTO stops asking questions - Crisis communicator – when things get hard, people look to you; you calm an impatient exec, win over a skeptical IT leader, and still crack a joke in the middle of it - Down-to-earth & relatable – you bond with shop-floor operators as easily as with boardroom execs, and you'll put on the safety shoes without being asked - Language – you're fully fluent in German and English - Relocation – you're ready to work onsite in Munich (we support visa), with 10 to 30% travel ​ ## TECH STACK - FE (TypeScript): React, Chakra UI v3, TanStack Router, TanStack Query, Vite - BE (Python): FastAPI with Pydantic v2, Temporal, Postgres with pgvector, dagster - AI: Pydantic AI, Langfuse ## About Dryft ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Dryft builds artificial intelligence that mimics, optimizes, and automates complex human decisions in manufacturing operations, essentially building the next generation of ERP systems. - **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage, $5M total funding) - **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States (with presence in Germany and Greece) - **Founded**: 2024 - **Founders**: Anna-Julia Storch (CEO) and Leonie Freisinger (CTO) ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: AI for manufacturing operations; industrial software. - **Target customers**: B2B – manufacturing companies (SMB to enterprise). - **Mission or purpose statement**: "We combine agent-based intelligence with mathematical optimization to build what comes after ERPs: systems that think, act, and adapt autonomously across manufacturing operations." ## Products & Services - **Dryft AI Platform**: An AI-powered system that uses agents and mathematical optimization to autonomously handle complex manufacturing decisions such as supplier follow-ups, inventory management, safety stock adjustments, and late-item alerts. It integrates with existing data (inventory, orders) and acts as an autonomous co-pilot for manufacturing operations. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company). - **Key Metric**: Total Funding – $5.0M (Seed round, November 2025). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Led by General Catalyst; investors include Ali Partovi (founder, Neo; co-founder Code.org), Jeannette zu Fürstenberg (Managing Director, General Catalyst), Jeff Wilke (former CEO Amazon Consumer), Steve Blank, Claire Hughes Johnson, and others. - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount grew from ~1 to 12 in a year (+1,100% YoY). - Active job postings for 4 open positions (Founding Forward Deployed Engineer, Full-Stack Engineering Intern, Founding Full-Stack Engineer, Founding Design Engineer). - Monthly website visits ~9,475 (73% US, 27% Germany). - Team members span three countries and backgrounds from Stanford, MIT, Porsche, and manufacturing companies. ## Competitive Advantages - **AI + Mathematical Optimization**: Dryft uniquely combines agent-based AI with traditional optimization (operations research), creating a hybrid that can both learn and mathematically guarantee good decisions. - **Deep Manufacturing Domain Expertise**: Founders and team have hands-on experience in manufacturing (Leonie worked on Porsche Taycan predictive controllers; Anna-Julia worked with Siemens' AI Lab on the “factory of the future”). - **Founder-Market Fit**: Both founders are technical (MS in Data Science from Stanford) and have spent thousands of hours with manufacturers co-developing the product. - **Backed by Top-Tier Investors**: General Catalyst and a roster of prominent individuals (Ali Partovi, Jeff Wilke) signal strong confidence. ## Strategic Focus - **Replace legacy ERPs** with autonomous, AI-native systems for manufacturing. - **Hire a small, elite technical team** to build and deploy the first product version. - **Scale from manufacturing operations** to broader industrial decision-making. - **International presence**: Already has team members in Germany and Greece, suggesting a pan-European talent strategy. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: "All technical team" with a sense of urgency and taste for great products. Values include building everything from robots, PCBs, and race cars to software. - **Remote/Hybrid/Office**: Roles are listed as “San Francisco” – likely onsite but open to relocation support. - **Perks**: "We support Visa & Relocation" – actively hiring international talent. - **Engineering Culture**: Early‑stage startup (founded 2024) with opportunity to shape the product and architecture. Team includes people from physical intelligence, Stanford, MIT, and manufacturing backgrounds. - **Growth Opportunity**: Joining at “Day 0” – chance to be a founding engineer in a well-funded startup tackling a 50‑year‑old industry problem. ## Sources 1. [dryft.ai](https://dryft.ai/) 2. [dryft.ai/careers](https://dryft.ai/careers) 3. [LinkedIn - Dryft](https://www.linkedin.com/company/dryft-hq) 4. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/dryft](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/dryft) ## Other roles at Dryft - [Open Application - Germany](https://feeny.ai/job/open-application-germany-dryft-munich-ch746br298eg) — Munich, Germany - [Member of Technical Staff Intern - Germany](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-intern-germany-dryft-munich-0ezdsw5jz26y) — Munich, Germany - [Member of Technical Staff - Germany](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-germany-dryft-munich-a2pjp47mbgh3) — Munich, Germany - [Open Application - US](https://feeny.ai/job/open-application-us-dryft-san-francisco-vyasam35twme) — San Francisco, CA - [Technical Community Lead - US](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-community-lead-us-dryft-san-francisco-4kex4p6n7s7z) — San Francisco, CA - [Head of Marketing & Creative - US](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-marketing-creative-us-dryft-san-francisco-b3wqn6mwrygn) — San Francisco, CA - [GTM Lead - Germany](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-lead-germany-dryft-munich-vf34ef72vbw5) — Munich, Germany - [Deployment Lead - Germany](https://feeny.ai/job/deployment-lead-germany-dryft-munich-t7b99em7jwyz) — Munich, Germany - [Deployment Strategist - Germany](https://feeny.ai/job/deployment-strategist-germany-dryft-munich-esf0d4jxnncg) — Munich, Germany - [Forward Deployed Engineer - US](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-us-dryft-san-francisco-z4n57j8pvsq4) — San Francisco, CA