Sr Forward Deployed Engineer

The job

LIVE Employer public job feed (private-sector employer) Source: the employer's public careers feed · Data: listed 2026-10-28

Job description

About Zuora

At Zuora, we help businesses grow smarter and adapt faster. Our platform powers modern business models — from subscriptions and usage-based pricing to AI-driven and outcome-based offerings — helping companies launch new products, automate complex billing, and unlock predictable, recurring revenue.

We’ve led the Subscription Economy for more than a decade. Now we’re evolving again by building the definitive platform for quote to cash and helping companies monetize their products and services with an adaptable, AI-ready foundation.

The Opportunity

Embedded build

• Co-build integrations, prototypes and agents with customer engineering teams in fixed-time engagements measured in weeks to months: production-quality code with a declared destination and a maintainer of record.
• Co-author the specification with your Forward Deployed Product Manager, and agree scope and success measures with the customer before you build.
• Prototype on the customer’s real data within the first few weeks, then harden it for production: security review, monitoring, and evals for AI-driven workflows.
• Design and ship production agents and multi-agent workflows: tool and function calling, sub-agents, orchestration, and MCP servers and clients, with context and retrieval engineered for quality, latency and cost.
• Integrate Zuora with the customer’s existing stack, including third-party metering and entitlement tools and ERP, CRM and finance systems, with Zuora as the order-to-revenue system of record.
• Build AI-monetization integrations: usage and AI-credit metering feeds, credit wallets and drawdown, and the billing and revenue flows behind them.
• Take Zuora’s new AI agents into their first customer deployments, extending the platform toward new use cases and new customer segments.

Agent quality and control

• Build eval harnesses and golden datasets with your Forward Deployed Product Manager and customer experts. Set acceptance thresholds and run evals in CI to gate every change.
• Implement guardrails and human-in-the-loop controls: least-privilege access, approval gates for write actions, and segregation of duties.
• Instrument everything (tracing, logging of prompts, inputs, outputs and model versions) so every agent action can be reconstructed for audit.
• Build with AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor or similar) as an everyday practice, and review their output with production rigor.

Product feedback loop

• File gap reports into the product roadmap. You’re the highest-fidelity sensor the product org has on what customers actually need built.
• Write the engagement Brief at exit, our standard write-up of what was built, what broke, what’s reusable and where it should live next. Turn what works into reusable components.

Ownership & handoff

• Hold the warranty window (roughly 30–60 days after go-live), then hand off to the named maintainer of record with runbooks and documentation. FDE doesn’t keep a maintenance book of business.
• An engagement isn’t done until the customer’s own team can run what you built without you in the room. Upskilling them is part of the build, not an afterthought.

Multiply what you build

• Delegate to agents and pull in Zuora engineers, partners and the customer’s engineers so the work moves faster than one person could carry it.
• Leave behind tools, components and agents that make the next engagement faster.
• Onboard new teammates inside live engagements on a watch one → do one → teach one progression.

What success looks like

• Customers adopt what you build: Zuora’s agents and AI-monetization capabilities are live in production and in daily use, and more of the customer’s quote-to-cash runs on Zuora.
• The customer’s team runs it without you, and the engagement leads to the next one: an expansion, a renewal or a reference.
• Every engagement makes Zuora stronger: reusable components, product gaps closed, and a faster path for the next customer.

About You

What we look for

• Builder. Show us what you’ve built: a product, integration, agent or tool you shipped that real people use. Walk us through the decisions, the trade-offs and what broke.
• Founder mentality: you act like an owner of the business, not the ticket. You weigh cost, speed and customer impact, make the call, and fix what’s broken even when it isn’t yours.
• Ownership: you want the ball when it matters most. You take the hardest problem on the engagement, own the result and see it through.
• Polite persistence: you get to yes without burning bridges. When a customer, partner or internal team stalls, you follow up, find another path and keep the relationship intact.
• Curiosity: you take things apart to see how they work, whether that’s the customer’s stack, a new model or an API you’ve never seen.
• Doer by default: you’d rather build a working version than write a deck about it.
• Force multiplier: you’ve delivered outcomes by pulling in people and agents beyond your own team.
• AI-first: AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor or similar) are part of how you build every day. Show us a real example: what you built, how you directed the agent and how you checked its output before it shipped.
• 5+ years of professional software engineering, including customer-facing delivery or startup engineering.
• Strong integration and API engineer with real production code shipped against external or partner systems, not only internal services. Python or TypeScript (Java a plus), REST, webhooks, event-driven patterns and solid SQL.
• You’ve taken code to production yourself: security review, observability and on-call readiness are part of how you build, including security judgment for systems that touch financial data.
• Hands-on experience building production LLM applications or agents (tool calling, retrieval, prompt engineering) and evaluating their output before it reaches a customer.
• Fast, and allergic to overbuilding: comfortable shipping in weeks to months, not quarters or years.
• Can sit with a customer’s staff engineer and hold the room, and explain trade-offs to finance users and architects alike, with strong technical communication under ambiguity.
• Write things down without being asked: specs, gap reports and the exit Brief are part of the job.
• Low ego. This is a founding role: the job description will change under you, and you’ll help write the next version of it.

Nice to have

• Founder or early-team experience, ideally in AI monetization, agentic product development and deployment, or the quote-to-cash lifecycle: CPQ, contracts and orders, usage metering and rating, billing, payments, collections and AR, and revenue recognition.
• Experience with subscription billing, usage-based pricing, payments or monetization platforms.
• Exposure to agentic or usage-based AI pricing models, AI agents, MCP servers or agent frameworks, or a prior customer-facing or forward-deployed engineering role.
• ERP, CRM or finance integration experience (NetSuite, SAP, Salesforce, Workday or similar), and familiarity with SOX or IT general controls.

How we’ll evaluate

Expect a deep-dive walkthrough of something you’ve built, including how you used AI tools to build it, and a conversation about a time you pushed something through when it stalled. We look at judgment (what you delegated, what you checked, when you stopped trusting the output), curiosity and ownership, not just speed.

About the Team

Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) is Zuora’s newest technical go-to-market motion. Forward Deployed Engineers are full-time engineers in Zuora’s Product & Engineering organization who embed directly with customer engineering teams to build the integrations, prototypes and agents that no existing motion reaches. You work in a pod with a Forward Deployed Product Manager and, where scope requires, a second engineer. Our focus: building the future of agentic quote-to-cash, which means helping enterprises monetize AI-native and usage-based products, and taking Zuora’s new AI agents into their first customer deployments. Internally, we call this role a Delta.

The job is to embed with a customer’s software engineers and build the ideal end-state integration: real code, not slideware or a bare-bones demo, taken from idea to production in weeks, not quarters. You’ll expose what the platform can’t do yet, fill the gap fast, and document exactly what product must pave next. You’ll work closely with Engineering, Product Management, Product Marketing, Sales, Services and Support so what you learn in the field becomes a capability the whole company can use.

Our tech stack: Zuora Billing and Revenue platform APIs; customer-side integration stacks vary by engagement.

Benefits

Zuora offers a comprehensive total rewards package designed to support ZEOs’ wellbeing, growth, and flexibility. While specific offerings may vary by country, we typically provide:

• Competitive compensation, variable bonus and performance-based reward opportunities, and retirement programs
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Generous, flexible time off, plus paid holidays, wellness days, and a company-wide year-end break
• Paid parental leave (including fully paid leave for eligible ZEOs, subject to local policy)
• Learning & development stipend to support ongoing growth
• Opportunities to volunteer and give back, including charitable donation matching where available
• Mental wellbeing resources and support

*Benefits may vary by location; details will be shared during the interview process

#ZEOLife at Zuora

ZEOs (our employees) are empowered to take ownership, challenge the status quo, and make a real impact. We:

• Collaborate deeply across teams and regions
• Learn constantly and iterate often
• Build an inclusive, high-performance culture where people feel inspired, connected, and valued

Our Commitment to an Inclusive Workplace

Think, be and do you.
At Zuora, different perspectives, experiences, and contributions matter — everyone counts.

Zuora is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to creating an inclusive environment for all. We do not discriminate on the basis of, and consider individuals seeking employment with Zuora without regard to, race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply. Applicants in need of special assistance or accommodation during the interview process or in accessing our website may contact us by sending an email to assistance@zuora.com (or local equivalent, where applicable).

The base pay details represent the annualized salary range for the posted position. While we share a comprehensive range, a candidate’s final base salary will fall within these guidelines and will be determined based on multiple factors including but not limited to: qualifications of the candidate, job related knowledge, prior related experience, specific and unique skills, the location of the role, internal equity and internal budget. Base pay is only one element of Zuora’s Total Rewards Package. Additional elements may also include bonus/variable compensation, equity and comprehensive benefits, more details found here.

Explore around this job

Field: Technology Sub-niche: Data, analytics and AI All jobs at Zuora Jobs in California Jobs in Foster City, CA Foster City city guide California state guide San Mateo County economy

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About the role

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

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.

Know your rights as a candidate and an employee:

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The city

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

How Foster City compares. Among the 145 largest places in California, Foster City is #131 by population, #140 for rent (#1 = cheapest), #10 for college degrees (#1 = most), #10 for remote work (#1 = most). Its county, San Mateo County, is #2 of 58 counties for average pay ($196,441).

The place in numbers

Foster City has 32,792 residents (ACS 2020–2024), about 0.1% of the population of California. It covers 4 square miles of land, which works out to roughly 8,659 people per square mile. The median age is 39.5, 4% older than the state median (39.5 against 37.9).

Housing

The median gross rent is $3,501 a month (rent plus utilities), 72% above the state median ($3,501 against $2,036). Over a year that is 21.1% 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 $1,838,200, which is 9.2 times the median household income ($199,143); a ratio above 5 usually means buying is out of reach without savings or a second income. 50.8% of households own their home, 9% below the state average (50.8% against 55.9%).

Work and pay

The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA metropolitan area has 2,373,920 jobs in the BLS wage survey, and the median pay across all occupations is $74,260 a year, 46% above the national median ($74,260 against $50,980). The biggest occupation groups are office and administrative support (226,320 jobs, median $62,120); management (223,100 jobs, median $176,340); business and financial operations (207,030 jobs, median $112,960). The area is most specialised in computer and mathematical (1.9 times) and life, physical, and social science (1.8 times), where the share of workers is well above the national share. The best-paying groups with at least 5,000 jobs are management ($176,340) and computer and mathematical ($167,770). In 2026M09 the unemployment rate of San Mateo County was 3.9%. 67.2% of residents aged 16 and over are in the labour force. The city lies in San Mateo County; its jobs, pay by industry and GDP are on the county page.

Getting around

Among workers, 51.8% drive alone, 2.9% use public transit, 1.7% walk, 34.2% work from home. 20.6% of workers commute 45 minutes or more, 6% above the state average (20.6% against 19.4%). Remote work is more common than in the state as a whole, which widens the set of employers a resident can work for without moving.

People and education

73.8% of adults aged 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 99% above the state share (73.8% against 37.1%). 49.5% of residents were born outside the United States, 83% above the state share (49.5% against 27.0%). The poverty rate is 4.1%, 66% below the state rate (4.1% against 12.0%).

Climate

The warmest month is Sep, averaging 61°F (16.0°C), and the coolest is Jan at 51°F (10.7°C). About 515 mm (20 inches) of precipitation falls in a year; Dec is the wettest month (115 mm) and Jul the driest (2 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: San Mateo (3 miles, rent 12% lower); Redwood City (4 miles, rent 15% lower); Belmont (4 miles, rent 18% lower); San Carlos (5 miles, rent 18% lower). Rent differences are against Foster City; use the Compare tab to put any two cities side by side.

Full guide to Foster City →California guideAll jobs in Foster City

Official links for Foster City

• Official website of Foster City: fostercity.org
• Census Bureau data profile for Foster City
• Official website of San Mateo County: smcgov.org
• Official state website: ca.gov
• BLS Economy at a Glance: California

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Where to live

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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 (762) Software engineering (4641) Cloud, IT and infrastructure (1147) Product management (927)

Distances

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The employer

Zuora 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 Zuora

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Same sub-niche: Data, analytics and AI

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FAQ

What is the Sr Forward Deployed Engineer job at Zuora?

A private-sector role in technology (data, analytics and ai) listed 13 days ago. The full description is on this page and on the employer's page.

Where is this job?

Foster City, 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 Foster City is $3,501 a month and median household income $199,143 (ACS 2020–2024).

How old is this listing?

It was posted on 2026-10-28 (13 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: Zuora careers page public feed (listing dated 2026-10-28). 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)