Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer
Application analysis
Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer at Sierra is a forward deployed enterprise software role for engineers who want customer-facing technical work with real deployment ownership.
Reading this role
This Forward Deployed Engineer role centers on embedded customer delivery — discovery, prototyping, integration, and production rollout.
About Sierra
Enterprise software forward deployed engineers drive adoption, integration, and measurable customer outcomes. The role is anchored in Tokyo, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Stand out for Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer to a specific customer or deployment you owned — Sierra hires for shipped outcomes, not tool lists.
- Prepare a 5-minute “week one on site” plan: who you would meet, what you would inspect in their stack, and what artifact you would deliver by day five.
- Show you can go from discovery notes → working integration → production checklist without needing a large internal team.
- This role is tied to Tokyo — mention willingness to work on-site with customers and any existing ties to that market (clients, partners, or domain knowledge).
Stand out at Sierra
- Demonstrate stakeholder management with a concrete example — Sierra will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Demonstrate integration skill with a concrete example — Sierra will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Prepare stories that move from discovery → pilot → production with named outcomes.
- Read recent engineering blog posts, product launches, and customer stories on sierra.com — reference one explicitly in your outreach to show genuine interest.
Tailored from this listing’s title, company, and description. Always verify requirements on the company careers page before applying.
Role description
ABOUT US At Sierra, we’re creating a platform to help businesses build better, more human customer experiences with AI. We are primarily an in-person company based in San Francisco, with growing offices in Atlanta, New York, London, Paris, Madrid, Munich, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney. We are guided by a set of values that are at the core of our actions and define our culture: Trust, Customer Obsession, Craftsmanship, Intensity, and Family. These values are the foundation of our work, and we are committed to upholding them in everything we do. Our co-founders are Bret Taylor https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettaylor/ and Clay Bavor https://www.linkedin.com/in/claybavor/. Bret currently serves as Board Chair of OpenAI. Previously, he was co-CEO of Salesforce (which had acquired the company he founded, Quip) and CTO of Facebook. Bret was also one of Google's earliest product managers and co-creator of Google Maps. Before founding Sierra, Clay spent 18 years at Google, where he most recently led Google Labs. Earlier, he started and led Google’s AR/VR effort, Project Starline, and Google Lens. Before that, Clay led the product and design teams for Google Workspace. WHAT YOU’LL DO As a Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer at Sierra, and a founding member of this function, you will own the end-to-end lifecycle of customer deployments, while helping define how Sierra’s AI platform is deployed and operated across enterprise environments. You'll work directly with enterprise customers to architect, deploy, upgrade, and manage Sierra's AI platform infrastructure — ensuring every deployment meets their security, compliance, and operational requirements. In addition, you’ll establish the standards, tooling, and processes that make deployments scalable and repeatable, and partner cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Sales, and Customer Success. This role will define how Sierra scales some of its most complex customer engagements. - Own deployment architecture conversati