Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM
Kong
Remote · Sacramento, CA · $125k–$179k a year · Posted October 30, 2026
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Where Sacramento, CA ranks
Where Sacramento, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #3Best all-round cities for new graduates68 / 100 · of 100
- #6Best all-round cities for new graduates in the West Coast61 / 100 · of 39
- #7Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast124 jobs · of 47
- #10Best all-round cities for remote workers in the West Coast66 / 100 · of 39
- #11Best cities for junior jobs in California32% · of 54
- #11Cities hosting the most business conferences in the West Coast5 conferences · of 17
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing pays about $152,235 a year. Across 137 open forward deployed engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $155,000 to $237,500 and the median is $195,000. That is 22% below the median, below the middle half of those listings.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Forward Deployed Engineer salaries by state · Check your own pay
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among software developers, AI is already used for some of the tasks. Measured exposure for software developers: 29% (some).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
Say which you have and which you want to build. We use it to match you to jobs like this one.
About the job
Are you ready to unlock intelligence?
If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.
We are looking for a GTM Forward Deployed Engineer to build and launch AI agents for our go to market (GTM) teams (Marketing, Sales, Product and Revenue Operations) using platforms like Salesforce, Slack, Claude Code, Gemini, Snowflake, Marketo, Clay, Nooks, and Rox
Key Responsibilities
- Prototype and deploy AI agents for customer retention, pipeline generation, GTM productivity, deal inspection, account research, opportunity updates, and meeting prep.
- Create prompt templates and system instructions for accurate, consistent outputs.
- Define agent persona, tone, and fallback logic
- Re-engineer GTM processes by connecting LLMs to GTM systems
- Build and test agentic tools quickly.
- Document agent logic and prompt structures to ensure scalable, independent automation across the global GTM organization.
- Test system prompts, context retrieval, and model selection to boost output quality, seller adoption, and deal velocity.
- Track and audit production agents to quickly fix output drift, performance gaps, and accuracy issues
- Partner with GTM Analytics teams to integrate GTM data sources for real-time customer and pipeline insights.
- Create practical prompt libraries, quick-reference playbooks, and training sessions to maximize seller, customer and/or potential customer value.
- Ensure prompt, workflow, and deployed solutions meet security, legal, and company AI standards.
Required Qualifications
- Have 5+ years of software engineering experience
- Working knowledge of GTM strategy, AI Operations and hands-on experience putting AI workflows or LLM agents into production.
- Experience creating internal documentation, toolkits and playbooks that outlived your involvement and were adopted at scale.
- Experience in a technical or cross-functional role that required problem-solving across teams and functions.
- A track record of building AI-powered tools, automations, or workflows that changed how real work gets done — with specific examples you can speak to.
- Clear, concise communication skills — you can explain a technical concept to someone who's never thought about it before, without talking down to them.
- Comfort with ambiguity and self-direction; you don't need a detailed roadmap to know where to start.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Hands-on experience with AI development platforms and tools such as Claude, Claude Code, MCPs, LLM APIs, custom agent frameworks, or workflow automation platforms.
- Background in change management, organizational development, or a large-scale rollout that required bringing skeptical stakeholders along.
- Experience in solutions engineering where you had to earn trust and deliver results quickly.
- Familiarity with the enterprise SaaS tools Kong runs on: Okta, Slack, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Jira, or Freshservice.
- Familiarity with Kong Konnect, Kong Gateway, or API management concepts — understanding how APIs and AI models connect will help you build smarter tools.
- Experience helping others develop new technical skills, whether through formal training, one-on-one coaching, or team enablement programs
About Kong:
Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.konghq.com http://www.konghq.com.