--- title: 'Software Engineer, Forward Deployed (Mid - Senior Level) at Zip' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-forward-deployed-mid-senior-level-zip-san-francisco-tjxt8f5b5mtb' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-19' --- # Software Engineer, Forward Deployed (Mid - Senior Level) at Zip - **Company:** [Zip](https://feeny.ai/companies/zip) - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-09-15 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-19 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/zip/6a2338c5-2199-4d7d-a99f-999f9135f75d ## Job description ## About Zip Zip is the AI platform for enterprise procurement — built for humans and agents working together. By orchestrating procurement across teams, tools, and suppliers with the help of AI agents, companies can secure the resources they need to innovate faster than ever before. The world’s most influential enterprises trust Zip, including T-Mobile, OpenAI, AMD, Mars, Dollar Tree, and more. Together they’ve saved over $8 billion and processed over $500 billion in spend. Zip’s team includes product leaders from Apple, Airbnb, and Meta, as well as former procurement leaders from United Health, Sanofi, MGM Resorts, Discover, and NASA. Backed by Adams Street, Alkeon, BOND, CRV, DST, Tiger Global, and Y Combinator, Zip has raised $371 million, most recently at a $2.2 billion valuation and has been recognized by Forbes Fintech 50, Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies, Inc. Best in Business, and LinkedIn Top Startups. ## Your role You'll join Zip's Forward Deployed Software Engineering team as a software engineer on some of the highest-impact product work at the company. You'll write and ship production code, partner directly with our most critical customers, and own the engineering on the deals that matter most to Zip. The team operates close to the customer, moves with urgency, and builds the features that determine whether the biggest deals close on time, whether our most demanding customers stay on the leading edge of the product, and what enterprise-grade looks like in our platform. If you've done Forward Deployed work elsewhere, this is a place to keep doing it - on real product, at scale, for some of the most recognizable companies in the world. You will - Lead the engineering on critical customer projects. You'll own scope, sequencing, and delivery against the timelines that high-stakes deals demand, embedded in the implementation cadence alongside our Field PM and Solutions Consultants. - Ship high-impact features that move the most important strategic deals and renewals forward. The work this team takes on is what makes the platform enterprise-grade - net-new product capabilities, framework gaps (APIs, exports, notifications, etc), and targeted enhancements that ship in days or weeks. - Bring strong product sense to every decision. Partner with core product teams to decide what to build, what to push back on, and what to redirect. Strong opinions are welcome; strong opinions grounded in what you heard on a customer call are gold. - Shape Zip's long-term platform and roadmap. Features you ship land at our most critical customers first and compound into the platform, and the patterns you see first become next year's product investments. - Communicate directly with customers. You'll be on calls with procurement, finance, and IT teams, diagnose problems live against real deadlines, and translate trade-offs in language that lands with both engineers and executives. ## Your qualifications - 3+ years of experience in software engineering or similar field. - Strong software engineering skills. You've shipped non-trivial production systems and you can read and write code across the stack: Python on the backend and React/TypeScript on the frontend at Zip. - Product instincts and judgment. You're the engineer on your current team who pushes back on poorly scoped requirements, who notices when a feature is solving the wrong problem, and who's willing to say so. - Customer empathy and crisp communication. You can sit in a room with a Director of Procurement at a $50B company, hear what they're actually worried about, and translate it into a tech spec, and vice versa. If you've never done this before but the idea sounds energizing, that counts. - Speed and urgency with a high quality bar. You can move on a customer-driven timeline and still write code that holds up in production. - High ownership. You diagnose, build, and ship with minimal supervision. You're the kind of engineer who follows a problem upstream until it's actually fixed. Nice to haves - Prior experience as a product engineer or full-stack engineer on a team that owned features end-to-end, shipped frequently, and worked closely with users or customers. - Prior founder or early-employee experience. Many of the best FDEs are people who want to start a company someday and are using this role to build empathy for what enterprises actually buy and why. - Experience with procurement, finance, ERP, or AP automation systems. The base salary range for this role is $150,000 - $250,000. The salary for this position is determined based on a variety of job-related factors that may include location, relevant experience, education, or particular skills and expertise. ## Perks & Benefits At Zip, we’re committed to providing our employees with everything they need to do their best work. - 📈 Start-up equity - 🦷 100% health, vision & dental coverage options - 🍽️ Catered breakfast, lunch, & dinner - 🌴 Flexible PTO - 🏋️‍♀️ ClassPass membership - 🚍 Monthly commuter benefit - 🚠 Team building events & happy hours - 💻 Home office stipend - 🛜 Phone/internet reimbursement - 🍼 Paid parental leave - 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Fertility stipend - 💸 401k plan - 🤖 Unlimited AI token usage We're looking to hire Zipsters and that means hiring people who take ownership, communicate openly, have an underdog mindset, and are excited to increase the pace of innovation for every business in the world. We encourage all candidates to apply even if your experience doesn't exactly match up to our job description. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workspace where everyone (regardless of age, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and more) feels like they belong. We look forward to hearing from you! ## About Zip ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Zip is the AI platform for enterprise procurement, orchestrating the entire purchasing process from intake to pay for large organizations. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series D, $371M total funding) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States - **Founded**: 2020 - **Founders**: Rujul Zaparde (CEO), Lu Cheng (CTO), Felix Meng (GTM) ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Procurement orchestration, spend management, AI-powered enterprise software - **Target customers**: B2B, primarily large enterprises and mid-market companies (e.g., T-Mobile, OpenAI, AMD, Mars, Dollar Tree, Anthropic) - **Mission or purpose statement**: "To unblock innovation by helping businesses procure with the fastest process, least risk, and best value." ## Products & Services - **Intake-to-Procure**: AI-powered platform that guides every purchasing request from intake through approval, automating workflows and policy enforcement. - **Procure-to-Pay**: Automates purchase orders and invoice processing to close the books faster. - **Supplier Onboarding**: Streamlines the process of vetting and onboarding new suppliers. - **Sourcing**: Improves RFx management with AI-driven decision support. - **Global Payments**: Ensures accurate, compliant payments globally with AI oversight. - **Vendor Cards**: Controls card spend with real-time visibility and intelligent controls. - **AI Superagents**: A fleet of AI agents that automate real procurement work, such as the first AI Agent that saved a customer 1,400 hours. - **App Studio**: Allows customers to build custom integrations and extensions on the Zip platform. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: $2.2 billion (most recent valuation, per company about page) - **Key Metric**: Total Funding of $371M; Annual Revenue estimated at $22.0M (per LinkedIn data) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Adams Street, Alkeon, BOND, CRV, DST, Tiger Global, Y Combinator. Partners include major ERP and systems integrators. - **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 62.1% YoY to 690 employees. Recognized as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Visionary for Source-to-Pay Suites 2026, Forbes Fintech 50, and Fast Company Most Innovative Companies. Customers have saved over $6.8 billion and processed over $500 billion in spend. ## Competitive Advantages - **Category Creator**: Pioneered the "intake and orchestration" category in procurement, giving them a first-mover advantage and deep product moat. - **AI-Native Platform**: Built from the ground up with AI, not retrofitted, allowing for more powerful automation and insights (e.g., AI Superagents). - **Enterprise Transformation Office**: An in-house advisory team of former CPOs from major enterprises (UnitedHealth, MGM, Discover, NASA) that helps customers redesign their procurement operations, ensuring high-value outcomes and deep customer stickiness. - **Strong Customer Base**: Trusted by high-profile, innovation-driven companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, which serves as a powerful reference and validation. ## Strategic Focus - **AI-First Innovation**: Continuing to invest heavily in AI agents to automate more complex procurement tasks and drive efficiency. - **Global Expansion**: Supporting payments in 140+ countries and operating in 13 countries, with a focus on scaling globally. - **Platform Depth**: Expanding the platform's capabilities (e.g., App Studio, Vendor Cards) to become the single system of record for all procurement activity. - **Enterprise Adoption**: Deepening relationships with large enterprises through the Enterprise Transformation Office and ensuring compliance and control at scale. ## Why Work Here - **Culture & Values**: Emphasizes speed, collaboration ("Win as one"), and a bias for action ("Be the underdog," "Go upstream"). Described as a highly cross-functional and supportive environment where employees are encouraged to "dream big and build even bigger." - **Remote/Hybrid/Office Policy**: Based in San Francisco, CA. The careers page mentions "catered in-office meals" and a "commuter benefit," suggesting a strong in-office or hybrid culture. - **Notable Perks**: Start-up equity, health/vision/dental coverage, flexible PTO, generous home office stipend, parental leave, well-being resources, 401k plan, and shiny new Apple equipment. - **Engineering Culture**: Product leaders from Apple, Airbnb, and Meta. The engineering blog is highlighted, and the team is described as turning concepts into high-quality realities quickly. The company is building a "Developer Platform" team, indicating investment in internal tooling and developer experience. - **Growth Opportunity**: With 104 active job postings and rapid headcount growth, there is significant opportunity for career advancement and impact in a high-growth, well-funded company. ## Sources 1. [ziphq.com](https://ziphq.com/careers) 2. [ziphq.com](https://ziphq.com/) 3. [zip.com](https://zip.com/about) 4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/theziphq) 5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/zip) ## Other roles at Zip - [Strategic Account Executive - Central](https://feeny.ai/job/strategic-account-executive-central-zip-united-states-snhgtd8p8yx0) — United States - [Commercial Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/commercial-account-executive-zip-germany-6vtngd1barpq) — Germany - [Business Operations Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/business-operations-manager-zip-san-francisco-z68raz51ta4q) — San Francisco, CA - [Principal Business Value Consultant](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-business-value-consultant-zip-united-states-gp12a1dfn3x1) — United States - [Lead Product Marketing Manager, Compete](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-product-marketing-manager-compete-zip-san-francisco-azgb0k2087jr) — San Francisco, CA - [Enterprise Solution Engineer (Pre-Sales)](https://feeny.ai/job/enterprise-solution-engineer-pre-sales-zip-germany-mvnv4e6t09db) — Germany - [Commercial Account Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/commercial-account-manager-zip-toronto-8h3sky2v4cg2) — Toronto, Canada - [Senior Product Designer, Procure to Pay](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-designer-procure-to-pay-zip-san-francisco-qg4gwvstzyc0) — San Francisco, CA - [Senior Product Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-designer-zip-toronto-cgjex8f03e4v) — Toronto, Canada - [Senior Product Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-designer-zip-new-york-m7dq3cx2107h) — New York, NY