Etched · 1 day ago
Forward Deployed Engineer (AI Systems)
San Jose, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Mid Level
$190K/yr - $250K/yrEtched is building the world’s first AI inference system purpose-built for transformers. As a Forward Deployed Systems Engineer, you will work hands-on in large-scale datacenter environments to manage customer deployment execution, solve complex technical issues, and improve deployment processes.
AI InfrastructureArtificial Intelligence (AI)ComputerHardwareSemiconductor
Hiring Manager
Ryan Kelly
Responsibilities
Own technical execution of customer deployments, including readiness assessments, installation coordination, integration testing, and stabilization
Serve as the primary technical point of contact during deployment and ramp, ensuring rapid issue resolution and customer confidence
Drive deployment planning with customers and internal teams to identify risks and establish success criteria
Debug and resolve system-level issues across hardware, firmware, drivers, Linux OS, and networking stacks
Perform root-cause analysis on field issues and partner with internal engineering teams to reproduce issues and ship fixes
Build and maintain diagnostics, monitoring/telemetry, and dashboards to improve visibility into system health
Coordinate firmware updates, hotfixes, and configuration changes to improve reliability and unblock customer deployments
Manage update rollouts with minimal downtime and clear communication to customers and internal teams
Create and maintain deployment runbooks, escalation playbooks, known-issues documentation, and field service guides
Capture structured learnings from deployments and convert them into repeatable processes
Partner with firmware/software/hardware engineering teams to drive reliability improvements
Collaborate with Deployment, RMA, Sustaining Engineering, and Support teams to ensure smooth handoffs and long-term supportability
Improve deployment workflows, metrics, and best practices to reduce deployment risk, time, and cost
Identify patterns across deployments and drive process/tooling improvements that scale across customers
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
Experience supporting datacenter customers in systems, networking, AI infrastructure, or field engineering roles
Deep experience with Linux/Unix installation, configuration, debugging, and performance tuning
Strong networking fundamentals including TCP/IP, RDMA, and low-latency Ethernet
Hands-on experience with high-speed networking such as 100GbE / 400GbE
Strong ability to diagnose performance and integration issues across hardware + OS + networking layers
BMC experience, telemetry/monitoring systems, RMA/failure analysis exposure
Travel up to 30% to customer sites for deployments, on-site debugging, and launch support
Benefits
Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
$500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office
Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
Daily lunch + dinner in our office
Company
Etched
Building the hardware for superintelligence
Founded in 2022
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Etched has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (9)
2024 (11)
2023 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$625.36MKey Investors
StripesPositive Sum,Primary Venture PartnersPrimary Venture Partners
2026-01-14Series Unknown· $500M
2024-06-25Series A· $120M
2023-05-16Seed· $5.36M
Leadership Team
Chris Zhu
Co-Founder
Robert Wachen
Co-Founder and President
Recent News
alleywatch.com
2026-01-20
2026-01-20
Company data provided by crunchbase