Salary not listedPosted 2h ago
Real job — pulled straight from Altara’s careers page · Verified September 12, 2026 · No reposts.
Job description
Altara is hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer — a full-time, based in San Francisco, CA role. Apply directly on Altara's careers page below.
Forward Deployed Engineer
Location: San Francisco
Department: Engineering
Location Type: IN_OFFICE
Employment Type: FULL_TIME
We’re building the scientific intelligence platform for the physical world, to accelerate breakthroughs in semiconductors, batteries, advanced materials, aerospace, and beyond. These industries represent trillions in spend, but are still trapped in outdated software. We’re changing that by building the intelligence layer to help scientists and engineers move faster and solve core problems -- R&D through manufacturing.
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a category-defining company at the intersection of AI and the physical sciences. And we’re building a world-class team to do it.
We recently raised a seed round led by Greylock, with participation from Neo, BoxGroup, Liquid 2, and top angels including Jeff Dean + leadership at OpenAI and AMD. Our team (ex-Applied Intuition, Glean, SpaceX, Warp, Jane Street, Verkada) works in-person in San Francisco. Our office is located walking distance from 4th and King Caltrain station.
The Role:
Altara’s product can create significant value, but adoption requires someone to sit with scientists, understand how they work, earn their trust, identify the right workflow, and guide them toward a measurable outcome. We’re looking for someone that combines the technical skills to troubleshoot issues and build lightweight solutions for customers with the social stamina and patience to teach them how to use a brand new technology.
What you’ll do:
- Learn how scientists currently work, including their tools, data, language, and constraints.
- Identify high-value workflows where Altara can make an immediate difference.
- Drive pilots toward measurable outcomes, such as improving yield or shortening an R&D process, creating clear customer wins and accelerating deal cycles.
- Configure the product, troubleshoot issues, and build lightweight solutions around and with our customers.
- Teach users how to incorporate Altara into their daily work and create new champions and power users.
- Bring recurring customer insights back to engineering and turn them into reusable product capabilities, helping shape our product and engineering roadmap.
We would love to meet you if you have:
- Enough technical depth to understand data, troubleshoot integrations, configure the product, and prototype simple solutions
- Scientific fluency from engineering, physics, robotics, manufacturing, semiconductors, physics, chemistry, materials science, or a related field
- High social stamina and genuine energy from spending days with customers
- The patience to teach people who are unfamiliar with AI
- Strong discovery skills and the confidence to keep asking questions when others stop
- Product judgment to separate a one-off customer request from something Altara should build for everyone
- Comfort traveling, operating independently, and working through ambiguity
Bonus points if you have:
- Worked at an early stage startup, founded a company, or plan to start one someday.
- Experience working with a large variety of customers across industries and teaching them how to use new technology
- Experience or deep curiosity in science - you can talk shop with our customers about the problems they face
Learn More about Altara
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- Blog post
- TechCrunch
- Follow us on LinkedIn and X
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Frequently asked questions
What skills are required for Forward Deployed Engineer at Altara?
The required skills for Forward Deployed Engineer at Altara include: AI, Robotics.
What is the seniority level for Forward Deployed Engineer at Altara?
Forward Deployed Engineer at Altara is a Mid Level level position.
How do I apply for Forward Deployed Engineer at Altara?
You can view the full description and apply for Forward Deployed Engineer at Altara on EchoJobs: https://echojobs.io/job/altara-forward-deployed-engineer-80tkr.