Forward Deployed Engineer

AI in this role

openai

ai-agentsspeech

About LiveKit

LiveKit is building the infrastructure layer for the agentic era of computing. Our platform gives developers everything they need to build, test, deploy, scale, and observe AI agents in production. Founded in 2021, LiveKit powers voice and agentic AI applications for OpenAI, Salesforce, Spotify, Meta, and tens of thousands of other developers, collectively facilitating billions of calls each year.

About This Role

LiveKit is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to work directly with customers building real-time communication and voice AI applications on the LiveKit platform.

This role sits at the intersection of engineering, architecture, and customer implementation. Forward Deployed Engineers partner closely with customers to design systems, prototype solutions, and solve complex technical challenges as teams move from experimentation to production.

You'll work alongside customers' engineering teams to help them successfully deploy and scale applications built on LiveKit — designing architectures, building integrations, debugging production issues, and developing reference implementations that demonstrate best practices.

This is an ideal role for engineers who enjoy solving real-world problems in real customer environments. You'll collaborate closely with Product and Engineering to surface insights from customer implementations and help shape the future of the LiveKit platform.

Your mission: make it seamless for developers to build and scale real-time audio, video, and AI applications on LiveKit.

You'll Thrive Here If You:

are obsessed with helping developers succeed
are known as the go-to person for solving tricky technical issues
work hard and can move fast without sacrificing quality
care deeply about polish, detail, and clear communication
are a fast learner, frequently picking up new tools, systems, and skills

What You'll Do

Work directly (remotely or on-site when necessary) with customer engineering teams to design and implement real-time applications built on LiveKit
Design scalable architectures for voice AI, real-time media, and developer platform use cases
Build prototype integrations, reference implementations, and sample applications to accelerate customer development
Help customers navigate SDKs, APIs, infrastructure, and deployment strategies for production systems
Debug and troubleshoot complex technical issues in production environments
Lead technical workshops and architecture sessions with developers and product teams
Translate customer needs into technical insights that inform product and platform development
Partner with Product and Engineering to improve developer experience, documentation, and tooling
Contribute code, examples, or improvements to LiveKit's open-source ecosystem when helpful
Act as a trusted advisor helping customers successfully launch and scale applications on LiveKit

Who You Are

Strong engineering background with 7+ years of experience in backend or infrastructure engineering
Proficient in one or more programming languages such as Go, Python, Node, Rust, or C++
Comfortable working across APIs, SDKs, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure
Experience building or integrating developer platforms or real-time systems
Able to quickly understand complex systems and debug issues in real-world environments
Strong communicator who can collaborate directly with customer engineering teams and internal product teams
Comfortable operating in fast-paced, low-process environments where ownership and initiative matter
Excited to work hands-on with customers solving complex technical implementation challenges

Nice to Have

Experience with WebRTC, real-time media systems, or telephony/SIP infrastructure
Familiarity with voice AI, conversational agents, or AI infrastructure
Experience working in customer-facing engineering roles such as Solutions Engineer, Field Engineer, or Forward Deployed Engineer
Experience contributing to open-source projects or developer ecosystems
Previous experience building with or integrating LiveKit

Our Commitment to You

An opportunity to build something truly impactful to the world
Contribute to open source alongside world-class engineers
Competitive salary and equity package
Health, dental, and vision benefits
Flexible vacation policy

We are hiring across multiple levels (Forward Deployed Engineer, Senior FDE, and Staff FDE). Compensation will be determined by experience, technical depth, and interview performance.

LiveKit is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any characteristic protected by applicable law. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact recruiting@livekit.io.

How we score this

Forward Deployed Engineer at LiveKit scores 69 out of 100 on AI centrality, which makes it AI Level 3 of 4 (Works on AI) on this board. The level measures how much of the work is AI, not seniority.

Classification

AI Level 3. The daily work is on or around AI systems, without necessarily building the model: remove AI and the job is hollow.

AI Level 480 to 100
AI Level 360 to 79
AI Level 240 to 59
AI Level 10 to 39

Bands come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.

Prepare for this job

A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI AgentsSpeechOpenAI

Questions you could be asked

How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
What have you built with speech recognition or text-to-speech, and where did it break?
What are the limits of OpenAI that you've run into, and how did you work around them?
Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
If you removed AI from this role, what would be left, and how do you decide what still needs a human?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI Agents, Speech, and OpenAI. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them — a tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project — this role expects it to be a running habit.

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