As a Forward-Deployed Engineer at ShipBob, you'll embed directly within business teams to eliminate manual, repetitive, error-prone workflows. You'll map out how work really happens, identify automation opportunities, and rapidly build end-to-end solutions.
This is an AI-first engineering role where you'll design and deploy agentic workflows using code, APIs, and AI agents. You'll work on everything from micro-automations to large-scale AI-driven solutions, bridging the gap between operations and engineering while maintaining ShipBob's structured engineering principles.
This role is ideal for a high-agency engineer who loves being close to real users and thrives in ambiguity. You iterate fast and ship working solutions quickly, with a proven ability to translate modern AI capabilities into meaningful operational outcomes while leveraging AI-assisted coding to operationalize automation at scale.
Who You Are
You're a first-principles thinker and meta-learner. The only constant in this role is change. You'll context-switch across projects and domains many times a month. Ambiguity doesn't slow you down. You make progress fast even with unclear requirements and moving targets.
You optimize for surface area of technical skills, not depth in one stack. If you have a favorite framework you've been married to for years, this probably isn't the role. We're looking for someone who gets genuinely excited when they have to learn a new API, pick up an unfamiliar tool, or dive into a platform they've never touched. You'll context-switch across different technologies constantly and that should energize you, not drain you.
You write most of your code with AI. You spend your coding time prompting Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex. You can manage multiple AI coding sessions simultaneously. You understand AI's limitations and own correctness and security.
You love prototyping and shipping fast. You've either done a lot of hackathons or built personal projects that solved real problems. Be prepared to share them—we'll talk about them a lot. You're a scrappy builder who can take an idea from 0→1 faster than most could write a PRD.
You're relentlessly pragmatic. You make smart tradeoffs to get value out quickly, then iterate once you know what matters. You're excited to work in messy, high-constraint environments: legacy codebases, enterprise infrastructure, incomplete documentation.
Bonus: Founder background. You've shipped and scaled products before. You think like a founder and challenge assumptions to deliver impact.
What you’ll do:
Embed with our operational teams to observe workflows, uncover root causes, and identify where AI agents can meaningfully reduce friction
Break down complex, manual processes into clean system flows and technical requirements
Own the full lifecycle: observe → prototype → validate with domain experts → harden → productionize
Build reliable systems with logging, retries, monitoring, and guardrails for edge cases
Collaborate with Product and Engineering when automations interface with core systems; operate independently for everything else
Validate solutions with domain experts and iterate quickly based on feedback
Document and publish reusable modules into our Automation Hub that accelerate future automation projects
Drive fast iteration: ship small, gather feedback, and improve quickly
What you’ll bring to the table:
Must have:
1-3 years of experience building AI agents that automate real workflows and eliminate manual work
Deep proficiency in Python, TypeScript (Node/React), and relational databases
You've designed and built multiple RESTful APIs from scratch
Proficiency with CLI tools. You must use CLI-based agents (Claude Code, Codex) as your primary workflow.
Experience with observability platforms (logging, tracing, monitoring your agents in production)
Big plus:
Hackathon experience (wins, shipping under pressure, chaotic builds)
Contributions to open source repositories.
Early-stage startup background (you've worn many hats)
Experience building or extending CLI tools
Things to know
We're hiring this role on a contract basis with the opportunity to convert to full-time, think of it as a mutual try out.
About ShipBob
Every time you order something online and it shows up fast, there's a gnarly logistics problem someone had to solve. ShipBob is a YC '14 unicorn backed by SoftBank Vision Fund, Menlo Ventures, and Bain Capital, building the tech stack that makes that happen for thousands of brands, from scrappy DTC startups to household names. We run fulfillment centers across three continents, and we're building AI-powered systems that orchestrate inventory, automate warehouse ops, and ship millions of packages. If you want to work on problems where software meets atoms and stakes are real, come build with us.
About ShipBob
ShipBob is a leading global fulfillment and supply chain platform designed for SMB and Mid-Market ecommerce brands. ShipBob provides brands a single view of their business and customers across sales channels to manage products, inventory, orders, and shipments, leveraging real-time analytics and reporting, dedicated support, and access to hundreds of technology and retail partners. ShipBob enables brands to improve the operations in their own facilities with ShipBob WMS (ShipBob's proprietary warehouse management system), and/or outsource fulfillment to have their orders picked, packed, and shipped from any of ShipBob’s 50+ fulfillment centers across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Founded in 2014, ShipBob launched through Y Combinator by co-founders Dhruv Saxena and Divey Gulati, two ecommerce entrepreneurs who saw a need for more efficient SMB supply chain services. Learn more by visiting shipbob.com.
