---
title: 'Lead Forward Deployed Engineer at SalesPatriot'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-forward-deployed-engineer-salespatriot-san-francisco-46gb5p88hfrs'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Lead Forward Deployed Engineer at SalesPatriot

- **Company:** SalesPatriot
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $150k–$220k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/salespatriot/22729334-b583-451b-917f-42414c32d243

## Job description

The Mission America's industrial base runs on systems built in the 1980s. Billions of dollars in critical components (F-35 parts, industrial assemblies, electronics, bolts, and hoses) still move through email threads, excel sheets, and disconnected ERPs. We're replacing that with an AI-native platform that makes aerospace, electronics, industrial, and defense supply-chain operations nearly autonomous. Faster quoting. Faster procurement. Full visibility. Real operational intelligence for the companies our nation depends on. Quick Facts

- YC W25 company. Top 5% growth in batch
- Raised $10M+ from investors including Paul Graham, SV Angel, Pear VC, and CRV
- Team of 20 co-live in our Warsaw & SF Hacker Houses
- 7 figure ARR transacting ~$50M a week through our system

The Job

- Go. Fly out and plant yourself inside the customer's operation. Weekdays are onsite (Wisconsin, New York, Miami, Los Angeles); weekends we regroup at the SF HQ to debrief and keep building.
- Understand. Map how the company actually operates, from sales and supply chain teams to executives and CEOs. Learn the breakpoints choking their growth and speed.
- Implement. Configure automations within SP Studio tooling so the platform accurately reflects the customer's needs. Build trust and confidence in SalesPatriot.
- Iterate. Take full ownership of the customer's outcome. Keep finding and killing their most pressing problems, leading org-wide scaling, until SalesPatriot is the operating system their business runs on.
- Lead. Run the FDEs on your accounts. Set their priorities, review their work, and get them to where they can run an implementation without you.

## What We’re Looking For

- You've owned customer-facing technical work before and can point to results you delivered.
- You own the account. You set technical direction with the customer's executives and IT, decide what gets built first, and tell them no when they're asking for the wrong thing.
- You make scoping and trade-off calls on your own, without waiting for sign-off.
- You've mentored or managed engineers. Here you're accountable for the FDEs on your accounts hitting their outcomes.
- Strong full-stack engineer: TypeScript, at least one frontend framework (React, Svelte, Next, etc), and SQL, preferably Postgres. You still ship production code every week.
- You can earn trust with procurement specialists while navigating executive priorities and IT constraints.
- Ready to travel every week and relocate full-time to San Francisco. This is not a remote role.
- Absolute grinder. Interested in co-living (though not required).
- Low ego, curious, intellectually honest.

The Process Call with engineer → 1hr technical test → Call with founder → fly out to SF HQ (on us) → offer.

## About SalesPatriot

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: SalesPatriot is building an AI-native operating system for defense and aerospace supply chains, automating procurement, quoting, and sourcing for distributors and OEMs.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed-stage, YC W25)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States (with a second office in Warsaw, Poland)
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Nelson Ray (Co-Founder & CEO), Ben Rhodes-Kropf (Co-Founder & CTO), Maciej Szymczyk (Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Defense and Space Manufacturing, Supply Chain Software, AI for Enterprise
- **Target customers**: B2B, specifically defense and aerospace distributors, OEMs, and manufacturers who manage complex, multi-source procurement and government (DoD) contract bidding.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To replace fragmented, legacy supply chain systems running on email, spreadsheets, and disconnected ERPs with an AI-native platform that makes quoting, procurement, and sourcing nearly autonomous, thereby strengthening the industrial base of the United States and its allies.

## Products & Services
- **SalesPatriot Platform (AI-Native OS)**: An integrated suite of AI workflows for sales and supply chain teams. It automates RFQ (Request for Quote) processing, procurement, data entry, and sourcing. Provides real-time visibility for executives into the entire supply chain, aggregating data from ERPs, CRMs, email, and marketplaces into a single, searchable interface.
- **Defense & Aerospace Module**: Specifically designed to help manufacturers win DoD solicitations by automating opportunity capture, contract research, and bid management.
- **Distribution Module**: End-to-end AI workflows for high-volume quoting, sourcing, and inventory management.
- **Procurement Module**: Autonomous workflows for teams managing complex, multi-source procurement operations.
- **Forward Deployed Engineering**: A service model where SalesPatriot engineers embed directly with customer teams to configure, integrate, and optimize the AI platform in their specific operational environment.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed.
- **Total Funding**: **$5.5M** (as of late 2025). Consists of a $500k pre-seed from Y Combinator (March 2025) and a $5.0M seed round led by **CRV** (November 2025), with participation from **Pear VC**, **SV Angel**, and **Paul Graham**.
- **Key Metric**: **17 Employees** (+175% YoY growth). Top 5% growth in its Y Combinator W25 batch.
- **Growth Signals**: Hyper-growth trajectory from a top-performing YC batch; rapid headcount expansion; opening a second office in Warsaw, Poland; strong investor backing from top-tier venture firms; a focus on a deeply strategic, non-cyclical market (US defense supply chain).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Focus on National Security Supply Chain**: Solves a genuinely broken, high-stakes problem for the US industrial base, creating a strong "mission-driven" moat.
- **Forward Deployed Model**: Engineers embed with customers, leading to deep integration, high switching costs, and rapid, real-world impact that can't be replicated by a simple SaaS tool.
- **AI-Native Architecture**: Purpose-built from scratch for modern AI workflows, replacing legacy systems from the 1980s rather than layering AI on top of them.
- **Elite Team & Culture**: A small, high-caliber team with backgrounds from MIT's Han Lab, DARPA, D.E. Shaw, and top universities, creating a culture of high ownership and technical excellence.

## Strategic Focus
- **Aggressive Hiring**: Actively building out its engineering teams in both San Francisco and Warsaw to accelerate product development and customer deployments.
- **Customer Density**: Prioritizing deep, high-impact deployments with key players in the defense and aerospace supply chain over a broad, shallow customer base.
- **Product Expansion**: Moving from core RFQ automation into a full end-to-end operating system that covers procurement, distribution, and supply chain visibility.
- **Geographic Expansion**: Using the Warsaw office as a hub to tap into a deep pool of technical talent in Europe.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven Impact**: Work on a problem that genuinely matters—securing critical supply chains for the US and its allies. Your code directly impacts national readiness.
- **Rapid, Tangible Results**: New hires ship code to production within days, not quarters. Short feedback loops with real customers mean your work has immediate, visible impact.
- **High-Caliber Team**: Join a small, highly selective team ("nobody likes B players") where you'll learn from top performers from MIT, DARPA, and premier venture funds.
- **Meaningful Equity**: As an early-stage company on a hyper-growth trajectory, early employees receive significant equity ownership.
- **Culture of Autonomy**: The team values builders who "figure it out without a spec" and "care more about the problem than the title." It's a high-trust, high-autonomy environment.
- **Work Environment**: Office-first, in-person culture with two hubs (San Francisco and Warsaw). There is also a "co-living in hacker house" option, emphasizing a tight-knit, intense team culture.

## Sources
1. [SalesPatriot Website](https://salespatriot.com/)
2. [SalesPatriot Careers Page](https://salespatriot.com/careers)
3. [SalesPatriot on Y Combinator](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/salespatriot)
4. [SalesPatriot on Built In](https://builtin.com/company/salespatriot)
5. [SalesPatriot on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/salespatriot)

## Other roles at SalesPatriot

- [Engineering Lead (Warsaw)](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-lead-warsaw-salespatriot-warsaw-2qf2cytp1x3m) — Warsaw, Poland
- [Software Engineer (Warsaw)](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-warsaw-salespatriot-warsaw-ena6py27xsd9) — Warsaw, Poland
- [Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/account-executive-salespatriot-san-francisco-70sjxf70pr6p) — San Francisco, CA
- [Business Development Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-representative-salespatriot-houston-cyfvhxn8hmb3) — Houston, TX
- [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-salespatriot-san-francisco-cp2tgy90amjx) — San Francisco, CA
- [Full Stack Engineer (San Francisco)](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-engineer-san-francisco-salespatriot-san-francisco-snbfca96thb8) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Software Engineer (Warsaw)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-warsaw-salespatriot-warsaw-xfb7dbm25m0d) — Warsaw, Poland
- [Lead Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-forward-deployed-engineer-veeam-software-united-states-k4hcw6bawkkb) — United States
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