Forward Deployed Engineer, Triage

Why AssemblyAI

AssemblyAI builds the best-in-class Voice AI models powering the next generation of voice applications. We have a lab, and we also power our own models in our own proprietary inference environment. Our models serve 500M+ inference calls monthly, and process nearly 2 million hours of audio daily. The Voice AI space is at an inflection point; we’re looking for the best talent we can find to join a rapidly scaling team that's defining the future of the industry.

We are one of the most capital-efficient AI companies on the planet - and are rapidly approaching $1M ARR per employee. We sit among the top 5 most revenue-dense teams within the fastest-growing AI companies today. We have thousands of customers building with us including the top startups and world-renowned enterprises, and are serving at tremendous scale: we process nearly 2 million hours of audio daily and handle more than 15 million API calls every day. This is a rare growth-stage opportunity where the business is proven, the revenue is durable, and the growth trajectory is steep and getting steeper. We have a super flat culture and expect our employees to be deeply intimate with the details at all levels.

If you've ever felt buried under layers of bureaucracy, starved of real ownership, or frustrated watching your work disappear into a slow-moving org, AssemblyAI is built differently. The company operates as a true meritocracy, with no heavy planning or approval processes and no gatekeeping on the tools or information you need. For anyone who genuinely cares about voice AI, not as a trend to chase, but as a technology to build, this is the place where the most interesting problems at the most interesting scale are being solved by a team small enough that you'll actually know everyone's name.

About the role:

AssemblyAI is growing quickly, and we're hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer for our Triage team. You'll work across our entire customer base to answer their questions and solve their technical problems. You’ll also build and run the agents that handle our first line of customer contact. Most of your work happens in Slack, with customers and our Engineering and Research teams.

This role is hybrid. You'll need to live within commuting distance of our SF office.

What You’ll Do:

• Work with customers at scale. You will work across our entire customer base, from owned accounts to self-serve accounts, and serve as a product expert and technical resource with a heavy focus on unblocking customers who are facing technical issues. You will also be responsible for escalating and routing conversations to other teams as needed, particularly commercial conversations.
• Build and manage agents. We run internal agents for customer support and operations, including our customer-facing chat agent, which you'll help bring back online. You'll iterate on these agents, build new ones, and own their quality.
• Turn escalations into fixes. When our chat agent can't resolve something, it escalates to you. Solve the customer's problem, then fix the agent so it handles that case next time.
• Close the loop with Engineering and Research. File bugs and feature requests with enough evidence to act on, and turn what customers tell you into product changes.
• Improve our docs and SDKs. Fix what's confusing customers at the source.

What You’ll Need:

• 2+ years in a technical, customer-facing role (solutions engineering, technical support, developer relations, or software development). We'll consider 1 year for someone with a strong solutions background.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language. Python preferred; other languages considered.
• Daily use of coding agents like Claude Code or Codex, with real projects shipped using them. You manage context across long tasks and check agent output before it reaches a customer.
• Experience with REST APIs, and the ability to read and debug customer code
• Strong written communication. Most of this job happens in Slack.
• Ability to hear a customer use case and map it to what our API can do

Nice to Have:

• Experience with speech, audio, or voice AI products
• You've built an agent or automation that other people rely on
• You’ve worked with tools like Datadog, Looker, Metronome, Pylon, and GitHub

Where this role leads:

Triage is where you learn our product, our customers, and how we build with agents. Engineers who do well here take on more senior roles on the Triage team, move into our Portfolio and Strategic teams, and start owning their own books of business or move into more technical roles in the company. Your manager will work with you on what that path looks like and the timeline for you specifically.

Pay Transparency:

AssemblyAI strives to recruit and retain exceptional talent from diverse backgrounds while ensuring pay equity across our team. Our salary ranges are set to be competitive for our size, stage, and industry, and reflect just one component of the full compensation, benefits, and rewards we offer.

Salary determinations consider a variety of factors, including relevant experience, technical depth, skills demonstrated during the interview process, and maintaining internal equity with peers on the team. The range shared below represents a general expectation for the posted position. However, we are open to considering candidates who may fall above or below the outlined experience level—in those cases, we will communicate any adjustments to the expected salary range.

The range provided applies to candidates located in the United States. For candidates outside of the U.S., compensation ranges may differ; any adjustments will be communicated throughout the interview process.

Salary range: $115,000 - $135,000 

Our total compensation package includes competitive equity grants, 100% employer-paid benefits, and working alongside the team in our San Francisco office. A 401k match up to 4% is offered to all US-based full time team members.

Using AI in your interview
If you’re selected for an interview, please read our Candidate AI Guidance. It explains how you can use AI at each stage of our process, from your application and take-home to the interviews themselves.

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Keep exploring AssemblyAI
Transcribe: Speech-to-Text | Streaming Speech-to-Text
Understand: Speech Understanding | LLM Gateway
Interact: Voice Agent API | Dictation API

Try our models in the Playground
See how 50+ LLMs rank on real voice tasks: Voice Standard Bench
Watch us on YouTube