Forward Deployed Engineer — Tenex

Tenex — Forward Deployed Engineer

Type: Full-time | On-site | New York City, NY Compensation: $240,000–$600,000 (guaranteed base + uncapped quarterly variable) + competitive equity Hiring count: 1 Visa sponsorship: H-1B (per structured Job Details). Outreach template additionally mentions TN support — lower-priority source; confirm with client before relying on TN. Reports to: One of three engineering managers

About Tenex

Tenex embeds small "pod" teams of strategists and engineers directly into Fortune 500 operations to help enterprises become AI-native. Anthropic and OpenAI are formal partners and Tenex sits with their Applied AI teams on live client problems; Vercel, Lovable, and other leading AI companies also partner. Tenex was the partner Anthropic named for the Claude for Small Business launch, delivering AI-fluency training across 10 US cities.

Founded: 2025 (~1 year ago) | Team size: ~40 (grew from 5 in a year; ~80 expected by end of quarter, 150–200 by year's end) | Total funding: Fully bootstrapped, no outside funding Industry: AI Consulting Website: tenex.co Office: New York City, NY

Founding team includes a founder with a prior successful company. Beyond consulting, Tenex is exploring client joint ventures and its own go-to-market IP products.

Why Candidates Should Join

• Frontier-lab proximity: Formal partner to two top frontier AI labs; you work alongside their Applied AI teams on real Fortune 500 problems.
• Steep growth, real ownership: Pods own the domain end-to-end; most describe it as the steepest growth of their careers.
• Uncapped upside: Guaranteed base plus uncapped quarterly variable tied directly to shipped output; strong performers have reportedly cleared $60–80K in a single quarter on top of base (per outreach template — treat the specific figure as indicative, not confirmed).

Intake Call Summary

• An intake video is posted on the Contrario role page; no transcript was available in the source HTML. Summary pending — pull from the intake video if a written recap is needed for scoring nuance.

The Role

Forward Deployed Engineers make the strategists' bets real: genuine client-facing software engineers who design, develop, and maintain modern web and agentic applications embedded with Fortune 500 clients.

What You'll Be Doing

• Design, build, and maintain modern web and agentic applications directly for Fortune 500 clients
• Own technical initiatives end-to-end, from architecture through production delivery
• Operate with high autonomy in ambiguous, fast-moving client environments
• Present technical work and architecture directly to clients in a clear, consultative way
• Travel to client sites roughly once a month to work in person with stakeholders

Role context / bar: 3+ years professional software engineering, sweet spot 3–8 years, no hard cap . Not a mandated always-on culture, but not a standard 40-hour week — if a deliverable isn't done by Friday, the expectation is to grind through the weekend to land it. Tenex also considers intact teams of 2–5 people as a unit, run through the same bar and offered together.

Tech stack: Modern web + agentic application development; agentic coding tools used in daily workflow.

Requirements

• 3-8+ years software engineering
• Client-facing experience required
• High autonomy, ambiguous environments
• NYC 5 days in-person + monthly client travel
• Guaranteed base + uncapped variable

Green Flags

• Genuine client-facing or customer-facing experience where the candidate owned the relationship and delivered real outcomes
• Founder, co-founder, or CTO background at a startup, especially someone who built a solo AI or software development practice, even without major commercial traction
• Track record of shipping fast and independently, without waiting to be told what's next
• Comfortable presenting technical architecture in a clear, consultative, non-technical-friendly way
• Background at teams inside larger companies known for strong engineering bars

Red Flags

• Career built entirely at large, brand-name organizations with traditional, slower-moving software stacks (large banks, telecom, defense contractors)
• Held a "Forward Deployed Engineer" title elsewhere without functioning as a genuine hands-on engineer
• Master's degree in computer science with no compensating signal of shipped, independent work
• Comfortable working a standard 40-hour week without urgency; not a fit for a role where deliverables sometimes require working through a weekend
• No demonstrated experience operating independently in ambiguous, fast-changing environments

Role Details

Salary$240,000–$600,000 (guaranteed base + uncapped quarterly variable)EquityCompetitive equity; may become available to employees in the futureOn-site policyNYC, 5 days/week in person + ~monthly client-site travelVisa sponsorshipH-1B (Job Details); TN mentioned in outreach only — confirmEmployment typeFull-timeLocationNew York City, NY

Benefits & perks: Guaranteed base + uncapped quarterly variable tied to output; comprehensive medical (PPO and HSA options), dental, vision; HSA, Healthcare FSA, Commuter Benefits; 100% employer-paid life insurance and AD&D; 100% employer-paid long-term disability; Responsible PTO.

Screening Questions

(Contrario "Required Candidate Q&A" — the role's submission-form questions. Ask candidate-directed ones on the screening call / capture in outreach.)

• Phone
• LinkedIn Profile
• Will you now or in the future require visa sponsorship?
• Are you comfortable working in-person at the office (in New York) 5 days/week?
• Please share your base salary expectations.
• Where did you hear about this role?
• What did you study in college?
• How many years of experience do you have building and shipping production software?
• What specifically interests you about joining Tenex at this stage? What's driving your interest in making a move right now?
• Link something you've built that you're proud of (repo, PR, demo, launch, blog post). In 3–4 sentences, what would you change about it today?
• Who are the team members you're applying with? (Please include names, emails and LinkedIn)

Interview Process

Stage 1 — Pending Approval — Candidates awaiting initial approval. Stage 2 — First Round | Recruiter Screen Stage 3 — Second Round | Hiring Manager Stage 4 — Third Round | Take-Home Stage 5 — Fourth Round | Systems Design Stage 6 — Final Round | Culture Stage 7 — Offer Extended Stage 8 — Candidate Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.

Ideal Companies & Backgrounds

Updated Jul 7, 2026 No named "Ideal Companies" list was published on this role. Directional signal from the JD: teams inside larger companies known for strong engineering bars; startup founder/co-founder/CTO chapters; small AI software-development shops.

Ideal Candidate Profiles

For reference only — DO NOT CONTACT. LinkedIn URLs were not present in the source HTML — pull from Contrario if needed.

• Liam Carroll
• Tyler Mendola
• Ashwin Kadaru
• Dan Zakon
• Roman Vellante
• Andrew Tang