Forward Deployed Engineer, AI Enablement

The job

LIVE Employer public job feed (private-sector employer) Source: the employer's public careers feed · Data: listed 2026-10-01

Job description

About Crunchyroll

Founded by fans, Crunchyroll delivers the art and culture of anime to a passionate community. We super-serve over 100 million anime and manga fans across 200+ countries and territories, and help them connect with the stories and characters they crave. Whether that experience is online or in-person, streaming video, theatrical, games, merchandise, events and more, it’s powered by the anime content we all love.

Join our team, and help us shape the future of anime!

About the Role

We're looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer to embed with teams across Crunchyroll and build AI solutions that materially change how work gets done.

You'll go where the work is. You'll sit with teams, understand how their workflows actually operate, identify where AI or automation can create meaningful value, and rapidly build solutions alongside the people who will use them. This role combines strong business judgment and consultative problem-solving with hands-on engineering. You'll take problems from ambiguity through prototype, production, and adoption.

You'll be part of AI Enablement in the Executive Office, working across Crunchyroll to turn high-value business problems into practical AI-powered solutions, including agents, workflow automation, and other applied AI systems. You'll connect models to the systems, tools, and data teams already use, and build the context, evaluations, guardrails, and human checkpoints required for them to work reliably in the real world.

The goal is not to build AI for its own sake. You'll focus on problems where AI can materially improve speed, quality, cost, or the employee experience, and you'll measure whether what you build actually delivers that impact.

You'll work closely with Engineering, Enterprise Technology, Data & Insights, IT, Security, and other partners to ensure solutions are scalable, secure, and maintainable. Every engagement should also leave behind reusable components, patterns, and lessons that make the next solution faster to build.

In this role, you will:

• Embed deeply with business teams. Sit alongside them as work happens, map the real workflow rather than the documented one, and understand the pain points, decisions, systems, and handoffs that shape how work gets done.
• Identify where AI can create meaningful business value. Start with the problem, not the technology, and be willing to conclude that AI is not the right answer.
• Determine the right technical approach for each problem, whether that is an agentic system, generative AI, RAG, classical ML, deterministic automation, or a simpler software solution.
• Translate ambiguous business problems into clear technical plans, including architecture, data flows, integration points, permissions, tool usage, success criteria, and build vs. buy vs. integrate decisions.
• Prototype quickly to test whether an idea works before over-engineering it. Know when to build something in days to learn and when a problem warrants production-grade infrastructure.
• Design and build reliable AI systems end-to-end, including tool use, orchestration, context and prompt engineering, state and memory, structured outputs, APIs, enterprise integrations, and human-in-the-loop workflows.
• Engineer for the real world, not the demo. Anticipate failure modes, tool errors, hallucinations, retries, permission boundaries, latency, cost, security constraints, and graceful degradation.
• Build evaluations and observability from the start. Define task-level success criteria and eval sets, and instrument tracing, logging, monitoring, cost, quality, and drift so performance is measurable in production.
• Define the expected business outcome before you build and measure whether the solution actually improves the workflow after launch.
• Work directly with business and technical leaders, translating between business needs and technical reality, setting clear expectations, surfacing risks early, and keeping stakeholders aligned as the solution evolves.
• Stay close to users after launch. Observe how solutions perform in real workflows, iterate based on usage and feedback, and partner with the broader AI Enablement team on adoption and change management.
• Build for handoff and scale. Establish clear ownership, documentation, monitoring, and maintenance paths so successful solutions can transition to the appropriate long-term owner.
• Create reusable components, patterns, tools, and learnings that make future AI solutions faster and easier to build across Crunchyroll.

You have:

• 6+ years of software engineering experience, including significant recent experience building and shipping applied AI or LLM-powered systems in production.
• Demonstrated experience designing, building, and deploying AI systems that interact with APIs, enterprise systems, data sources, or external tools to complete multi-step tasks.
• Strong Python skills and deep experience with modern LLM application development, including tool and function calling, orchestration, prompt and context engineering, structured outputs, RAG, model APIs, state management, and enterprise integrations.
• Experience taking AI solutions end-to-end, from an ambiguous problem statement through architecture, prototyping, implementation, deployment, and iteration.
• Experience engineering AI systems for reliability, including failure handling, human-in-the-loop controls, guardrails, permissions, monitoring, cost management, and latency management.
• Strong technical judgment on when to use an agent, RAG, classical ML, automation, or conventional software, including the discipline to avoid unnecessary complexity.
• Proven ability to work directly with non-technical stakeholders, understand how their work actually happens, and translate business needs into practical technical solutions.
• Strong product and business judgment. You can distinguish an interesting technical problem from a problem worth solving.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, early-stage environments where you are expected to define the problem as much as solve it.
• The ability to move between rapid experimentation and production engineering, knowing when speed matters and when reliability, security, and scale matter more.

A plus if you have:

• Experience in a forward-deployed, embedded, solutions engineering, applied AI, or highly cross-functional engineering role.
• Experience building tool-using or agentic systems that plan and execute multi-step workflows.
• Experience with APIs, MCP, event-driven systems, enterprise SaaS integrations, and internal data systems.
• Experience building internal platforms, SDKs, reusable tooling, or shared components adopted by other engineering teams.
• Experience evaluating and observing LLM or agent systems, including eval design, tracing, monitoring, and drift detection using tools such as Datadog, LangSmith, Langfuse, or similar platforms.
• Experience designing multi-agent systems, planner/executor architectures, specialized agents, or other orchestration patterns where they are appropriate.
• Familiarity with workflow analysis and process mapping, particularly in complex operational environments.
• Exposure to AI governance, security, privacy, and legal review processes, including risks related to data access, permissions, prompt injection, tool use, autonomous actions, and sensitive information.
• Experience in media, entertainment, streaming, consumer technology, or another environment with complex content and operational workflows. Familiarity with areas such as localization, marketing operations, content operations, customer support, rights management, or commerce is a plus.

How You'll Work

You won't operate from a centralized backlog waiting for requirements. You'll move toward the highest-value problems, embed with the teams experiencing them, and work alongside those teams until a solution is delivering measurable value.

Some engagements may result in a lightweight automation built in days. Others may become production AI systems used across the company. Your job is to know the difference, build the right thing, and leave the organization more capable than you found it.

About the Team

The Executive Office enables enterprise alignment, executive execution, and strategic acceleration, working to keep Crunchyroll's highest-priority work moving with clarity and speed.

Why you will love working at Crunchyroll

In addition to getting to work with fun, passionate and inspired colleagues, you will also enjoy the following benefits and perks:

• Receive a great compensation package including salary plus performance bonus earning potential, paid annually.
• Flexible time off policies allowing you to take the time you need to be your whole self.
• Generous medical, dental, vision, STD, LTD, and life insurance
• Health Saving Account HSA program
• Health care and dependent care FSA
• 401(k) plan, with employer match
• Employer paid commuter benefit
• Support program for new parents
• Pet insurance and some of our offices are pet friendly!

#LifeAtCrunchyroll #LI-Hybrid

About our Values

We want to be everything for someone rather than something for everyone and we do this by living and modeling our values in all that we do. We value

• Courage. We believe that when we overcome fear, we enable our best selves.

• Curiosity. We are curious, which is the gateway to empathy, inclusion, and understanding.

• Kaizen. We have a growth mindset committed to constant forward progress.

• Service. We serve our community with humility, enabling joy and belonging for others.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion

Our mission of helping people belong reflects our commitment to diversity & inclusion. It's just the way we do business.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at Crunchyroll. Pursuant to applicable law, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Crunchyroll, LLC is an independently operated joint venture between US-based Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Japan's Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation.

Questions about Crunchyroll’s hiring process? Please check out our Hiring FAQs: https://help.crunchyroll.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040471712-Crunchyroll-Hiring-FAQs

Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Policy for more information about how we process your personal information, and your data protection rights: https://tbcdn.talentbrew.com/company/22978/v1_0/docs/spe-jobs-privacy-policy-update-for-crpa-dec-21-22.pdf

Please beware of recent scams to online job seekers. Those applying to our job openings will only be contacted directly from @crunchyroll.com email account.

Explore around this job

Field: Technology Sub-niche: Data, analytics and AI All jobs at Crunchyroll, LLC Jobs in California Jobs in Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles city guide California state guide Los Angeles County economy

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About the role

This is a — role in the Technology field (Data, analytics and AI) at Crunchyroll, LLC.

We could not match this job title to one occupation in the official wage statistics, so no pay estimate is shown. Pay is not in the source listing; ask the employer for the range and compare in the 240 job niches.

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How to prepare and behave

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• Read the whole description and match your examples to its requirements; use the same words the posting uses where they are true for you.
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• Arrive early (or log in early for a video call), dress one step above the daily dress code, and test your camera and audio beforehand.
• Answer with short stories: the situation, what you did and the result. Give numbers when you have them and never invent them.
• Be honest about gaps; say what you did to learn and how fast you can close them.
• Ask about the team, the first 90 days, how success is measured and the schedule; do not open with salary and time off.
• When pay comes up, know the market range for the occupation and your lowest acceptable offer before you answer; ask for the full package in writing.
• Send a short thank-you message within a day, mentioning one thing you discussed.
• Have code, data work or projects you can show, and be ready to think aloud: many technical interviews test how you reason, not only the answer.

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The city

The job is in Los Angeles, CA. Below is what the official statistics say about living and working there.

How Los Angeles compares. Among the 145 largest places in California, Los Angeles is #1 by population, #141 for homeownership (#1 = highest), #121 for household income (#1 = highest), #39 for rent (#1 = cheapest). Its county, Los Angeles County, is #7 of 58 counties for average pay ($83,554).

The place in numbers

Los Angeles has 3,857,263 residents (ACS 2020–2024), about 9.8% of the population of California. It covers 471 square miles of land, which works out to roughly 8,198 people per square mile. The median age is 37.2, about the same as the state median (37.2 against 37.9).

Housing

The median gross rent is $1,933 a month (rent plus utilities), 5% below the state median ($1,933 against $2,036). Over a year that is 28.3% of the median household income. US housing guidance treats housing as affordable when it takes 30% of income or less, so the typical household is under that line. The median home value is $921,200, which is 11.2 times the median household income ($81,939); a ratio above 5 usually means buying is out of reach without savings or a second income. 36.0% of households own their home, 36% below the state average (36.0% against 55.9%). A low ownership share points to a rental-heavy market with more apartments and shorter stays.

Work and pay

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metropolitan area has 6,271,560 jobs in the BLS wage survey, and the median pay across all occupations is $55,850 a year, 10% above the national median ($55,850 against $50,980). The biggest occupation groups are office and administrative support (702,480 jobs, median $52,710); food preparation and serving related (588,660 jobs, median $38,460); healthcare support (537,460 jobs, median $35,630). The area is most specialised in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (2.2 times) and healthcare support (1.7 times), where the share of workers is well above the national share. The best-paying groups with at least 5,000 jobs are management ($136,490) and legal ($128,110). In 2026M09 the unemployment rate of Los Angeles County was 4.5%. 66.4% of residents aged 16 and over are in the labour force. The city lies in Los Angeles County; its jobs, pay by industry and GDP are on the county page.

Getting around

Among workers, 59.8% drive alone, 6.1% use public transit, 3.2% walk, 19.5% work from home. 22.2% of workers commute 45 minutes or more, 14% above the state average (22.2% against 19.4%).

People and education

38.5% of adults aged 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 4% above the state share (38.5% against 37.1%). 35.7% of residents were born outside the United States, 32% above the state share (35.7% against 27.0%). The poverty rate is 16.6%, 38% above the state rate (16.6% against 12.0%).

Climate

The warmest month is Aug, averaging 75°F (23.9°C), and the coolest is Dec at 53°F (11.8°C). About 332 mm (13 inches) of precipitation falls in a year; Feb is the wettest month (75 mm) and Jun the driest (1 mm). These values come from NASA satellite-based climatology on a grid of about 50 km, so they describe the wider area, not a weather station in the city.

Nearby cities to compare

Closest cities in this guide: Santa Monica (5 miles, rent 24% higher); Inglewood (6 miles, rent 8% lower); Hawthorne (8 miles, rent 8% lower); Burbank (13 miles, rent 13% higher). Rent differences are against Los Angeles; use the Compare tab to put any two cities side by side.

Full guide to Los Angeles →California guideAll jobs in Los Angeles

Official links for Los Angeles

• Census Bureau data profile for Los Angeles
• Official website of Los Angeles County: lacounty.gov
• Official state website: ca.gov
• BLS Economy at a Glance: California

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Where to live

CITY Official statistics Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year (via Census Reporter) · Data: ACS 2020–2024

Places within 50 miles (straight line) of Los Angeles, CA that have a guide, with what living there costs. No pay estimate is shown because the title did not match one occupation.

Career paths

We could not match this title to one occupation, so here are the other sub-niches in Technology, where your skills may carry over:

Cybersecurity (713) Software engineering (4089) Cloud, IT and infrastructure (1040) Product management (836)

Distances

CITY Calculation (straight line) Source: U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer (coordinates) · Data: 2024

How far Los Angeles, CA is from the 20 largest US cities, in straight-line miles (not driving distance). Click a column to sort.

Nearby cities with open jobs (within 120 miles)

The employer

Crunchyroll, LLC is the employer in this listing. See all its open jobs here →

We do not hold headcount or revenue for this employer. Check its careers site and, if it is listed on a stock exchange, its public filings (SEC EDGAR search).

What it is like to work at a company (culture, schedules, benefits) is not in the source data, so we do not describe it. Read the description and ask the questions under "How to prepare".

Other open jobs at Crunchyroll, LLC

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Same sub-niche: Data, analytics and AI

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FAQ

What is the Forward Deployed Engineer, AI Enablement job at Crunchyroll, LLC?

A private-sector role in technology (data, analytics and ai) listed 39 days ago. The full description is on this page and on the employer's page.

Where is this job?

Los Angeles, CA.

How do I apply?

Use the "View this job and apply on the employer's page" button. AtiveSite does not receive applications.

How much does it pay?

The listing does not publish pay, and we could not match the title to one official occupation.

What is the cost of living there?

Median rent in Los Angeles is $1,933 a month and median household income $81,939 (ACS 2020–2024).

How old is this listing?

It was posted on 2026-10-01 (39 days ago). Jobs older than 90 days are not shown.

Are there similar jobs?

Yes: browse data, analytics and ai jobs in California.

Sources and terms

• Job data: Crunchyroll, LLC careers page public feed (listing dated 2026-10-01). The job disappears from this site when it disappears from the source.
• Wages and projections: BLS OEWS (May 2025) and Employment Projections 2025–35.
• City and county figures: Census Bureau ACS 2020–2024, BEA, BLS QCEW and LAUS, NASA POWER climatology; distances from Census Gazetteer coordinates.

AtiveSite is not affiliated with or endorsed by the employer or any government agency, and does not process applications. Verify every detail with the employer before acting.

Sources

• BLS OEWS (wages and employment by occupation, May 2025)
• BLS Employment Projections 2025–35
• BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
• BLS JOLTS
• BLS State and Metro Area Employment
• Census Bureau American Community Survey (via Census Reporter)
• BEA GDP by state and Regional Price Parities
• IRS 2026 tax adjustments
• U.S. Department of Labor, minimum wage by state
• Tax Foundation state income tax rates 2026
• USAJOBS
• USCIS
• U.S. Department of State, visas
• NASA POWER climatology
• GeoNames / Census Gazetteer (coordinates)