OpenRouter
Technology
ForwardDeployedEngineer
Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Mid+ candidates.
“Forward Deployed Engineer at OpenRouter. Skills: AI inference, Customer implementation, Developer engagement. Lead technical onboarding. Partner with Customer Success Managers”
What You'll Achieve.
Move from kickoff to production usage; Integrate OpenRouter into production systems; Improve inference architecture; Expand usage across teams; Expand usage across applications; Get live quickly; Increase adoption; Improve reliability; Reduce cost; Expand into new workloads; Broader production deployment; Improve retention; Improve adoption; Improve customer health; Drive expansion; Strategic account growth; Measurable increases in production usage; Identify expansion opportunities; Create feedback loop
Industry & Context.
Debug integrations; Diagnose problems; Design practical solutions; Troubleshoot issues
What They're Looking For.
Must Have
4+ years technical customer-facing role, Software engineering fundamentals, Read, write, debug production-quality code, Experience with APIs, SDKs, cloud infrastructure, Experience with developer platforms or AI/ML infrastructure, Ability to work with developers and engineering leaders, Customer instincts, Manage ambiguity, Build trust, Excellent written communication skills, Excellent verbal communication skills, High ownership, Bias for action, Comfort operating in startup environment
Nice to Have
Experience with OpenAI-compatible APIs, Model routing experience, Evals experience, Observability experience, LLM application frameworks experience, Prior experience in customer success, Prior experience in post-sales engineering, Prior experience in implementation roles, Experience at an API company, Experience at an infrastructure company, Experience at a developer tools company, Experience at an AI company, Experience building AI agents, Experience building chat products, Experience building copilots, Experience building automation workflows, Experience building production LLM applications, Familiarity with Python, Familiarity with TypeScript, Familiarity with REST APIs, Familiarity with streaming APIs, Familiarity with backend application architectures, Experience with enterprise customers, Experience with startups, Experience with technical founders, Ability to create technical content
What You'll Do.
Lead technical onboarding
Partner with Customer Success Managers
Partner with Account Executives
Define implementation milestones
Define technical adoption goals
Help customers integrate OpenRouter
Troubleshoot API issues
Troubleshoot SDK issues
Troubleshoot model selection issues
Troubleshoot routing issues
Troubleshoot latency issues
Troubleshoot reliability issues
Troubleshoot deployment issues
Create implementation guides
Create reference architectures
Create reusable playbooks
Work with customers on AI use cases
Work with customers on application architecture
Work with customers on traffic patterns
Work with customers on inference goals
Recommend model strategies
Recommend provider strategies
Recommend routing strategies
Recommend fallback strategies
Recommend caching strategies
Recommend cost-optimization strategies
Analyze usage patterns
Identify opportunities to increase adoption
Identify opportunities to improve reliability
Identify opportunities to reduce cost
Identify opportunities to expand workloads
Help customers evaluate models
Help customers evaluate providers
Drive customers from API usage
Build technical relationships with developers
Build technical relationships with engineering leaders
Build technical relationships with AI teams
Build technical relationships with platform teams
Run technical working sessions
Run integration reviews
Run architecture discussions
Run developer enablement sessions
Act as technical advisor
Translate technical concepts
Advocate for developer needs
Improve customer implementation experience
Partner with Customer Success
Collaborate with Sales
Work with Engineering
Surface customer feedback
Surface feature requests
Surface integration blockers
Contribute to internal knowledge bases
Contribute to customer playbooks
Contribute to onboarding materials
Contribute to best practices
Define post-sales technical engagement
How You'll Work.
Team & Collaboration
Customer Success Managers; Account Executives; Customer developers; Engineering leaders; AI teams; Platform teams; Cross-functional partnership; Customer Success; Sales; Product; Engineering
Communication Scope
Written communication; Verbal communication; Explaining technical topics
Process & Methodology
Success plans, Implementation milestones
Full Job Description
ABOUT OPENROUTER OpenRouter is the unified interface for AI inference, giving developers and organizations access to hundreds of models through a single API. Our platform helps teams choose, route, evaluate, and scale model usage across providers, making it easier to build production AI applications with the right model for every use case. As inference becomes a core operating layer for modern software companies, OpenRouter helps customers move faster, reduce complexity, and get more value from the rapidly evolving model ecosystem. ABOUT THE ROLE We are looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer to join our post-sales team and help customers successfully implement, adopt, and scale OpenRouter. This role sits at the intersection of customer success, support, customer engineering, product, and developer relations. You will work directly with our customers after the sale to help them get live quickly, integrate OpenRouter into production systems, improve their inference architecture, and expand usage across teams and applications. You will be deeply hands-on with developers. You will debug integrations, design implementation paths, advise on model and routing strategy, identify opportunities to increase adoption, and turn customer learnings into product feedback. The ideal candidate is technical enough to earn the trust of engineering teams, commercial enough to understand customer outcomes, and proactive enough to drive customers from initial implementation to scaled production usage. WHAT YOU’LL DO CUSTOMER IMPLEMENTATION - Lead technical onboarding for new customers after contract close, helping them move from kickoff to production usage. - Partner with Customer Success Managers and Account Executives to define success plans, implementation milestones, and technical adoption goals. - Help customers integrate OpenRouter into their applications, workflows, infrastructure, and developer environments. - Troubleshoot API, SDK, model selection, routing, latency, reliability,
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