Forward Deployed Engineer

About Distro

Distro is the AI Revenue Platform for sales reps in the industrial distribution industry. Our platform helps reps quote faster, close more business, and improve margins, all while delivering a superior customer experience.

We’re a well-funded, venture-backed and Y Combinator-backed (S24) startup with strong traction and growing customer demand. Our goal is to modernize a massive industry that has historically been underserved by software.

About the Role

We’re hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer to join our engineering team. This is a hybrid role — you’ll build core product features while also working directly with customers to ensure successful onboarding and implementation of the Distro platform.

You’ll partner with our Head of Customer Success to secure API credentials, debug technical issues, and integrate Distro into complex customer environments. At the same time, you’ll be contributing directly to our codebase, working with the same stack as our product engineers.

This is a great fit for someone who thrives at the intersection of engineering and customer engagement, someone equally comfortable writing clean, scalable code as they are jumping on a call to troubleshoot a customer’s API setup.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain features across the Distro platform
• Collaborate with customers to secure API credentials and configure integrations
• Troubleshoot and unblock technical issues during onboarding and deployment
• Translate customer needs into scalable, reliable product solutions
• Partner with Engineering, Product Design, and Go-to-Market teams on implementation workflows
• Write clean, testable code with attention to performance and maintainability
• Operate with ownership and professionalism in customer-facing settings

What We’re Looking For

• 3 - 5 years of professional experience building web applications
• Proficiency with React/Next.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, Python and MongoDB
• Familiarity with API integrations, authentication flows, and data pipelines
• Strong engineering fundamentals and ability to make pragmatic decisions
• High EQ and strong communication skills; able to interact directly with customers in a professional, empathetic manner
• Comfortable working in fast-paced, ambiguous startup environments
• Ownership mentality. Willing to rise to the occasion and help wherever needed

Bonus Experience (Nice to Have)

• Exposure to AI/ML workflows, LLM APIs, or vector search
• Experience with DevOps, CI/CD, or infrastructure (AWS or similar)
• Previous experience in customer-facing engineering roles (solutions engineering, customer engineering, or similar)

How We Work

• This is an in-person role based in Palo Alto
• We work in office Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday
• Wednesdays are remote
• Every engineer at Distro is an individual contributor writing production code
• We prioritize speed, accountability, and strong cross-functional collaboration

Why Join

You’ll be joining Distro at a formative stage with real traction, real customers, and a huge market in need of transformation. This is an opportunity to help shape the product, the customer experience, and the company’s future.

If you’re excited to code while also working directly with customers to make them successful, we’d love to hear from you.