Forward Deployed Software Engineer (AI Agents)

About Pallet

Pallet is building AI Agents to transform logistics — a $12 trillion global industry. We’ve raised $50M from top investors, including General Catalyst, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Bain Capital Ventures. In under two years, we’ve achieved 700% revenue growth and are just getting started.

Our mission is to increase the efficiency of the global supply chain by automating the manual workflows that slow logistics teams down — from scheduling and appointment setting to data entry and load management. Our flagship platform provides end-to-end visibility, control, and optimization, while our newest product, CoPallet, introduces AI Agents that can understand and execute requests in real time, and integrate directly with customer systems.

As logistics providers look to generative AI to drive efficiency, many are turning to Pallet to lead the way. With deep industry expertise and cutting-edge AI capabilities, we’re positioned to build the next $10B company in logistics.

Join us and work alongside leaders from Google, DoorDash, YC, and more to shape the future of logistics tech.

$160,000 - $200,000Full-time / Onsite (5 days/week) / ~25% Travel 

About The Role

We’re hiring one of our first Forward Deployed Software Engineers to embed directly with customers and deploy production AI agents inside some of the world’s largest logistics companies. You will sit alongside customer engineers and operations teams, reverse engineer legacy systems, design pragmatic integrations, and ship AI workflows into messy, real-world environments.

This is not a research or pure backend role. This is a hands-on deployment role focused on getting systems live, keeping them reliable, and owning real-world outcomes.

This role is for you if

• You enjoy debugging messy real-world systems more than building pristine internal abstractions
• You’re comfortable sitting with customers and figuring things out in ambiguous environments
• You prefer shipping impact quickly over polishing perfect architectures

This role is likely not for you if

• You’re primarily interested in model research or pure ML experimentation
• You prefer deeply scoped platform work without external customer interaction
• You’re looking for a remote-first environment

What You’ll Do

• Reverse engineer undocumented APIs, ERPs, TMS systems, and internal tools with minimal guidance.
• Debug broken data pipelines, mismatched schemas, and flaky integrations in production environments.
• Sit onsite with customer teams (~25% travel) to diagnose failures and ship fixes in real time.
• Make pragmatic tradeoffs to get systems live under tight timelines.
• Own customer go-lives end-to-end — from scoping to production stability.

Who You Are

• 1–5 years of experience shipping and owning production systems in high-growth or early-stage environments
• Strong experience integrating with third-party APIs, authentication systems, and event-driven workflows
• Experience debugging distributed systems in production under real customer constraints
• Comfortable working in ambiguous environments where documentation is incomplete, and requirements evolve during execution
• Experience working directly with customers or external stakeholders is a strong plus

Our Tech Stack

• Backend: Node + TypeScript on Encore.dev. Event-driven design with message passing and queues. Hosted on GCP
• Database: PostgreSQL
• LLMs: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google for foundation models; fine-tuned models on Vertex AI
• Browser Automation: Playwright
• Frontend: Next.js + React + TypeScript. Hosted on Vercel
• Observability: Datadog for logging and metrics

How We Work & What We Offer

• Impact from Day One: Your first week might involve wiring a new integration into production or debugging a workflow that saves a customer hours. This isn't demo work—it's real implementations
• Ownership & Autonomy: Propose ideas, whiteboard them, ship without layers of approvals. One standup at 10 am PST—primary focus is building, not meetings
• Close-Knit Pods: We sit side by side, so questions get answered in minutes. Small PRs, fast iteration, observability-first
• Culture: Catered lunch daily at 12 pm. Thursday boba runs. AI tools encouraged (Claude, Cursor)—but you must understand the architecture
• Compensation: Salary and equity at 80th percentile, plus bonuses tied to customer go-lives. We promote from within—several teammates earned promotions in under a year

Interview Process

1. Intro Chat with Recruiting - (30 mins)
2. Technical Screen+ Meet and Greet with an Engineer (60 mins)
3. Executive Chat with Bizops Lead or CTO (30-45 mins)
4. Final Interview: deep-dive technical and behavioral interviews (~4 hours)

Location

• San Francisco: Since we're a small team building 0→1 products, we prefer candidates comfortable working in an in-office environment in San Francisco. We typically come into the office 5 days a week. Relocation assistance can be provided for interested candidates.
• New York: Satellite office with Pallet employees across engineering, operations, and success—we're seeking to hire and grow out the team here. The team typically comes into the office 5 days a week. Relocation assistance is not provided for our New York office.
• Travel: ~25% travel to customer locations

Compensation

The estimated salary range for this role is $160,000–$200,000, depending on experience and skill set. In addition to base salary, we offer competitive equity, benefits, and growth opportunities. Final compensation will be determined based on a combination of factors, including experience, qualifications, and location.

Our Benefits 

We invest in our people the same way we invest in our product: seriously.

• 🩺 Health, Vision, and Dental benefits 
• 🏝️ Flexible PTO
• ➕ Life Insurance and Accidental Insurance 
• ❤️‍🩹 Short-Term Disability Coverage
• 💸 Generous salary and equity for all staff
• 🪜 401k option; helping you save for the future
• 📚 Yearly learning and development stipend
• 🚌 Commuter benefits for Bay Area employees
• 🚘 Uber ride stipend if you ever have to work late in the office 
• 🏡 Remote office home stipend to get you comfy in your space
• 🍔 Daily catered lunches provided 
• ✈️ Onboarding trip to San Francisco HQ if you work remotely
• 🥤 Monthly happy hours
• 🎉 Annual Company Offsites; our last one was in Palm Springs CA 🌴

Workplace Policy

We are an in-person company. Our offices in San Francisco and New York City are where ideas get built, decisions get made, and the team gets stronger. We have invested in making them genuinely great places to spend your day, with catered lunches, monthly happy hours, and people who care about the work and each other.

Most of our team works in office five days a week. For select roles, we hire remotely across the U.S. Remote employees come to San Francisco for their first week to onboard and meet the team, and we cover the full trip. Most remote employees visit once a year after that, with all travel, lodging, and meals on us.

Every role is different. Travel expectations are always shared upfront in the job description and confirmed in your first call with us. No surprises.

Equal Opportunity

Pallet is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We make all employment decisions based solely on merit. We provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, disability status, or any other applicable legally protected characteristic. We prohibit any form of discrimination or harassment. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including hiring.

Candidate Privacy Notice

Please review Pallet’s Candidate Privacy Notice here.

Accommodations

Pallet complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as amended by the ADA Amendments Act, and all applicable state or local laws. We will reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with a disability during the application process and throughout employment as required by law.

If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please contact us at peopleops@pallet.com.