---
title: 'Forward-Deployed Software Engineer at Workhelix'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-software-engineer-workhelix-san-francisco-m0k6xtnvz7ze'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Forward-Deployed Software Engineer at Workhelix

- **Company:** Workhelix
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-03-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/workhelix/jobs/5138818008

## Job description

## Who We Are

Workhelix is an enterprise SaaS company with a single goal: helping organizations get the most out of their AI investments.

Our people and software combine to give leaders answers to the three critical questions about the business value of AI:

- Where are our top opportunities to create value with AI?
- Are our current efforts actually delivering? What’s their ROI?
- How can we accelerate and increase the benefits of our AI?

To find answers for each customer, Workhelix applies our unmatched expertise in economics, AI, and data science. We have pioneered a task-scoring method to identify top GenAI opportunities, ensuring clear, data-driven deployment strategies. Our ROI monitoring suite applies Nobel Prize-winning economics to provide accurate, ongoing insights into the impact of GenAI implementations. Renowned AI and Economics thinkers including Andrew Ng, and cofounders Andy McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson stand proudly behind our mission.

We maintain a culture established on five key principles. For more information on our leadership principles, please visit the careers page of our website.

## Role

As a Forward-Deployed Software Engineer (FDSE) at Workhelix, you’ll work directly with enterprise clients to solve high-impact data and engineering challenges. You’ll embed with client teams to understand legacy systems, extract and transform complex datasets, and build scalable solutions that answer the three critical questions leaders have for us.

This role is technical first: you’ll write production-grade code, build data pipelines, and integrate with messy real-world systems. You’ll be critical to our mission of delivering actionable insights by ensuring our software works seamlessly in diverse enterprise environments.

We expect our engineers to bring deeper technical experience—this is not an entry-level or rotational role. You’ll need at least 5 years of experience building software, ideally in environments where understanding the business context matters. You may be a good fit if you’ve been in any of the following roles: Sales Engineer, Technical Consultants, Customer facing Software Engineers, Developer Advocates or Technical Evangelist.

Key Responsibilities:

## What You’ll Do

Client-Embedded Engineering

- Deploy on-site or work closely with client engineering teams to extract data from enterprise systems (e.g., ERPs, data warehouses, SaaS tools).
- Navigate unfamiliar systems and architectures to identify the best technical path forward, often with incomplete documentation or limited access.
- Own end-to-end implementation of technical solutions—from data extraction and transformation to integration with the Workhelix platform.

Software & Infrastructure Development

- Write clean, efficient, and maintainable code in Python, SQL, and other languages as needed.
- Build and deploy data pipelines, APIs, and internal tooling to support analytics and modeling workflows.
- Develop connectors and integrations with third-party systems, ensuring robustness and scalability.
- Navigate legacy codebases to diagnose customer issues and contribute fixes when needed.

Problem Solving in the Real World

- Partner with customer stakeholders (technical and non-technical) to deeply understand their systems, workflows, and pain points.
- Decompose vague or ambiguous problems into tractable engineering tasks with measurable impact.
- Balance speed and quality—know when to build quick scrappy prototypes and when to harden systems for scale.

Cross-Functional Execution

- Collaborate with Workhelix’s data scientists, strategists, and platform engineers to deliver end-to-end solutions that drive business outcomes.
- Surface client insights that inform our product roadmap and internal tooling priorities.
- Contribute to internal playbooks, libraries, and reusable assets that increase the velocity of future deployments.

Requirements:

- 3+ years of professional software development experience, ideally in data-heavy environments or full-stack roles.
- Fluency in Python and SQL, with experience working across a range of data storage systems (e.g., Postgres, Snowflake, BigQuery).
- Demonstrated ability to operate in ambiguous environments and deliver working software within real-world constraints.
- Strong communication skills—you can collaborate directly with client engineers and translate between technical and business domains.
- Experience with cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS, GCP) and deployment best practices is a plus.
- Willingness to travel occasionally to client sites (typically U.S.-based Fortune 1000 companies).

Pay range and compensation package $145,000- $200,000 + Equity + Health Benefits

## What You’ll Get

- Competitive compensation package and benefits.
- Chance to learn and collaborate with some of the most famous researchers in the AI and digital economy space: Andrew Ng, Erik Brynjolfsson, Andy McAfee, and Daniel Rock.
- The unique opportunity to help build a company, culture, and products from the ground up with a team that values healthy working practices.
- A high-trust, high-autonomy work environment.

At Workhelix, we stand committed to ensuring an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available without any discrimination. We believe diversity is critical to our success. Selection for employment will solely be based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. We encourage all qualified individuals to apply!

## About Workhelix

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Workhelix helps enterprises measure, track, and grow the ROI of their AI investments by combining economic research, data science, and a software platform to identify where AI delivers value.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: James Milin (CEO), Erik Brynjolfsson (Co-Founder & Co-Chairman), Andrew McAfee (Co-Founder), Daniel Rock (Co-Founder & CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: AI ROI Analytics, Enterprise Software, Tech-Enabled Services
- **Target customers**: Large enterprises (B2B) — including Accenture, Wayfair, and Coursera
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "To identify and measure with rigor and clarity the benefits of disruptive technologies." Their vision is "To help organizations and their people thrive in a rapidly changing world."

## Products & Services
- **[Nucleus Platform]**: The enterprise platform that connects workforce data and AI usage history to deliver a prioritized view of AI opportunities, hidden superusers, gaps in adoption, and estimated time/money savings. It provides role-level analytics to quantify ROI.
- **[Task-Scoring Methodology]**: A proprietary, research-backed approach that breaks down jobs into specific tasks and scores each for suitability to be accelerated by generative AI, creating a data-driven deployment roadmap.
- **[ROI Monitoring Suite]**: Applies Nobel Prize-winning economics to provide ongoing, accurate insights into the impact of GenAI implementations.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding raised — **USD 30.3 million** across two rounds (a $15.3M round in November 2024 and a $15.0M Series A in March 2025).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: AIX Ventures (lead), Andrew Ng’s AI Fund, Accenture Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, and angel investors including Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder), Mira Murati (OpenAI co-founder), Jeff Dean (Google DeepMind Chief Scientist), and Yann LeCun.
- **Growth Signals**: 17 employees (+26.3% YoY headcount growth), active job postings for Forward-Deployed roles, strong enterprise demand with zero paid advertising for first dozen customers, and recent $15M Series A funding to expand task/KPI tracking and internal tools.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Academic Roots & Credibility**: Founded by world-renowned economists (Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, Daniel Rock) from MIT, Stanford, and Wharton, giving the methodology deep research legitimacy that competitors lack.
- **Rigorous, Task-Level Approach**: Unlike broad-stroke consulting, Workhelix breaks down every role into thousands of individual tasks and scores each for AI suitability, providing a quantitative, defensible roadmap.
- **Nobel Prize-Grade Economics**: The ROI monitoring applies advanced economic frameworks (from Nobel Prize-winning research) to measure impact, not just usage.
- **All-Star Network**: Backed by an unparalleled roster of AI and tech luminaries (Hoffman, Ng, Murati, Dean, LeCun), providing credibility, network effects, and strategic guidance.

## Strategic Focus
- **Expand Task & KPI Coverage**: The Series A capital is being used to increase the number of tasks and KPIs the software tracks.
- **Scale the Human+Software Model**: Workhelix deliberately combines its Nucleus platform with expert support (data scientists working directly with enterprise customers), creating a defensible tech-enabled services model. They plan to improve internal tools for these data scientists.
- **Lead the AI ROI Category**: The company sees a massive gap in the market for rigorous, data-driven AI value measurement and aims to become the standard for enterprises trying to justify and optimize their AI spend.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven & High Impact**: Work on the defining business problem of the decade — helping enterprises unlock the trillion-dollar opportunity of AI productivity.
- **World-Class Founding Team & Network**: Work alongside and learn from founders who are the most cited researchers in the field, plus get exposure to an advisory network that includes AI pioneers.
- **Strong Culture & Principles**: The company operates on five clear leadership principles: *Evidence Always*, *Customer Obsession*, *Bias for Action*, *Debate and Commitment*, and *Extreme Ownership*. They practice "minimum viable permission-seeking" and emphasize speed.
- **Dogfooding AI**: The company lives its mission — AI use is a reflex for everyone, used to elevate the quality, speed, and rigor of work.
- **Location & Work Style**: Headquarters in Palo Alto, CA. Open roles include Forward-Deployed Strategist and Forward-Deployed Software Engineer, suggesting a hybrid model with client-facing work.
- **Growth Trajectory**: With 26% yearly headcount growth, active hiring, and a fresh $15M Series A, this is an early-stage company with significant upward mobility for early employees.

## Sources
1. [workhelix.com](https://www.workhelix.com/)
2. [workhelix.com/careers](https://www.workhelix.com/careers)
3. [Greenhouse Job Board](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/workhelix)
4. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/workhelix)
5. [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/27/workhelix-taps-years-of-research-to-help-enterprises-figure-out-where-to-apply-ai/)

## Other roles at Workhelix

- [Senior Product Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-engineer-workhelix-san-francisco-6zt70ga8cces) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-workhelix-san-francisco-mkfg1x4p1caj) — San Francisco, CA
- [Product Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/product-engineer-workhelix-san-francisco-y23z88zcshg7) — San Francisco, CA
- [Enterprise Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/enterprise-account-executive-workhelix-san-francisco-q6q3qys42cq4) — San Francisco, CA
- [Forward-Deployed Strategist](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-strategist-workhelix-san-francisco-2ma12n3ddegw) — San Francisco, CA