--- title: 'Forward Deployed Engineer at Novita AI' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-novita-ai-san-mateo-qm9q55p3bm10' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-19' --- # Forward Deployed Engineer at Novita AI - **Company:** Novita AI - **Location:** San Mateo, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-06-25 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/novita-ai/5f6a5483-cb49-4e08-a488-b497fe41a1d9 ## Job description ## About Novita AI Novita AI is an AI & Agent Cloud platform for builders. We provide a unified platform for Model APIs, GPU Cloud, and Agent Sandbox infrastructure, helping developers and enterprises build, deploy, and scale production AI systems without managing complex infrastructure. Today, thousands of teams rely on Novita to power AI agents, coding tools, multimodal applications, and large-scale inference workloads. ## The Role As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you’ll work at the intersection of engineering, customer success, and product. You’ll partner closely with customers to understand their AI workloads, deploy solutions, troubleshoot production issues, and influence the evolution of our platform. You will act as an extension of our customers’ engineering teams, helping them integrate model APIs, GPU infrastructure, and sandbox environments into real-world applications. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys wearing multiple hats—software engineer, solutions architect, product thinker, and trusted technical advisor. ## What You’ll Do - Work directly with customers to understand their AI products, technical requirements, and business goals. - Deploy and integrate Novita AI products, including: - Model APIs and inference endpoints - Dedicated model hosting - GPU cloud infrastructure - Agent sandbox environments - Debug production issues across APIs, networking, containers, GPUs, and distributed systems. - Build customer-specific solutions, integrations, demos, and prototypes. - Travel to customer sites when necessary and collaborate closely with their engineering teams. - Translate customer feedback into product requirements and work with internal engineering teams to improve our platform. - Create reusable tooling, automation, and reference implementations that benefit future customers. - Support proof-of-concepts (PoCs) and help customers successfully move into production. ## What We’re Looking For ## Requirements - Strong software engineering fundamentals. - Proficiency in Python and at least one additional programming language. - Experience building or deploying cloud-native applications. - Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, and networking concepts. - Strong debugging and problem-solving skills in production environments. - Excellent communication skills and ability to work directly with customers. - Ability to operate with ambiguity and move quickly in a startup environment. ## Nice to Have - Experience with AI/ML infrastructure, LLMs, or inference systems. - Familiarity with vLLM, SGLang, Ray, or distributed serving frameworks. - Experience working with GPUs, CUDA, or large-scale compute systems. - Background in solutions engineering, developer relations, or customer-facing engineering roles. - Experience building AI agents, coding agents, or sandboxed execution environments. - Prior startup experience or experience as an early engineer. - Professional working proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. What Success Looks Like In your first six months, you will: - Help multiple customers successfully launch AI workloads into production. - Become a trusted technical advisor for strategic accounts. - Build reusable solutions that accelerate future customer deployments. - Influence our product roadmap through direct customer insights. - Bridge the gap between customer requirements and internal engineering execution. ## Why Join Novita AI - Work on cutting-edge AI infrastructure used by leading AI companies and developers. - Solve challenging problems across inference, GPUs, agent systems, and distributed computing. - Have direct impact on customers and product direction. - Move fast in a highly technical and entrepreneurial environment. - Collaborate with a team deeply passionate about the future of open AI infrastructure. - Competitive pay package, 100% employer-covered premium medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) plan, free meals in the office ## About Novita AI ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Novita AI is an AI-native cloud platform providing model APIs, serverless and dedicated GPU infrastructure, and secure agent sandbox environments for developers building production AI applications. - **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States (with presence in Singapore and China) - **Founded**: 2024 - **Founders**: Ben Li (CEO) ## Core Business - **Primary Industry**: AI Infrastructure / Cloud Computing - **Target Customers**: B2B — AI-native startups, research teams, independent developers, and enterprises building agentic and generative AI applications. - **Mission**: To lower the barrier to building powerful AI systems by making AI infrastructure open, efficient, and developer-first. ## Products & Services - **Serverless Model APIs**: Access to 200+ open-source and multimodal models (text, image, audio, video) via a single API. Billed by token, not by hour. No infrastructure to manage. - **GPU Instances & Bare Metal**: On-demand, dedicated GPU instances and physical clusters for large-scale inference, training, and enterprise deployments. Predictable performance with isolated resources. - **Agent Sandbox**: A secure, isolated microVM execution environment for autonomous agents. Features sub-200ms startup times, ephemeral filesystem isolation, per-second billing, and stateful pause/resume. Built on Firecracker technology. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed. The company is early-stage (founded 2024). - **Key Metric**: Total Funding — Not publicly disclosed. The company is privately held and appears to be seed-stage. - **Headcount**: 12 employees (as of early 2026), with +125% YoY growth. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly disclosed. Talent sources include Foundation Capital, Credit Key, and several AI/tech companies, suggesting some investor/advisor connections. - **Growth Signals**: - Launched Agent Sandbox in April 2026, targeting the rapidly growing autonomous agent market. - 2,116 LinkedIn followers ( +205% YoY), indicating strong brand interest. - Active hiring for Account Executive and Forward Deployed Engineer roles. - Growing engineering team with presence across the US, Singapore, and China. ## Competitive Advantages - **Full-stack AI infrastructure**: Uniquely combines model APIs, GPU compute, and agent sandboxes on one platform — reducing complexity for developers who would otherwise stitch together multiple vendors. - **Cost efficiency**: Claims up to 50% less than major cloud providers, with serverless billing (pay per token/execution, not idle time). - **Developer-first design**: Built for agents and AI workloads from day one, with fast startup times (sub-200ms for sandboxes), simple APIs, and no-install integrations for agent frameworks. - **Performance isolation**: Dedicated kernels, bare metal options, and no noisy neighbors — critical for production AI workloads. ## Strategic Focus - **Agent infrastructure**: The Agent Sandbox launch signals a major bet on the autonomous agent market, providing secure execution environments for agentic workflows. - **Global expansion**: Presence in US, Singapore, and China — likely targeting both Western and Asian AI developer markets. - **Open-source ecosystem**: Emphasis on supporting open-source models and providing a frictionless path from prototype to production. - **Scaling team**: Active hiring in go-to-market (Account Executive) and technical roles (Forward Deployed Engineer), suggesting a push to grow customer base and enterprise adoption. ## Why Work Here - **Cutting-edge space**: Work on infrastructure that powers the next generation of AI agents and applications — at the intersection of cloud, AI, and developer tools. - **Small, fast-growing team**: 12 employees with rapid growth trajectory. High impact per person, likely with significant ownership and autonomy. - **Strong culture signals**: Perfect 5.0/5.0 employer rating on LinkedIn (1 review) with top marks for work-life balance, compensation, and culture. Career growth rated 4.0/5.0. - **Global, distributed team**: Presence in San Francisco, Singapore, and China. Roles appear to be hybrid/onsite in San Francisco, with some remote flexibility. - **Engineering culture**: "Built for developers, priced for startups" — the product itself reflects a deep understanding of developer needs. Likely a technically rigorous environment. - **Key roles open**: Chief of Staff, Account Executive, Forward Deployed Engineer — indicating a push to operationalize and scale the business. ## Sources 1. [novita.ai](https://novita.ai/) 2. [LinkedIn - Novita AI](https://www.linkedin.com/company/novita-ai-labs) 3. [Built In - Novita AI Careers](https://builtin.com/company/novita-ai) 4. [benched.ai - Novita Profile](https://benched.ai/companies/novita) 5. [Novita AI Documentation](https://novita.ai/docs) ## Other roles at Novita AI - [Forward Deployed Engineer New Grad](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-new-grad-novita-ai-san-mateo-npkw5njv940g) — San Mateo, CA - [Forward Deployed Engineer Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-intern-novita-ai-san-mateo-g21sq0qnz358) — San Mateo, CA - [Technical GTM Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-gtm-intern-novita-ai-san-mateo-n15vjfg4zep0) — San Mateo, CA - [Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/account-executive-novita-ai-san-mateo-ce8a66gsf9gh) — San Mateo, 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-keboola-prague-53faxes3b2hp) — Prague, Czech Republic - [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-66degrees-bengaluru-04afaam55rw4) — Bengaluru, India - [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-onebrief-united-states-tnabc3c4c451) — United States - [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-sewerai-corporation-remote-sbegyegt61d8)