Forward Deployed Engineer

Why Zania

Every enterprise spends millions of dollars on Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). It's one of the most critical, yet universally painful, parts of running a business. For decades, this industry has been dominated by legacy systems with notoriously low NPS scores, making it totally ripe for disruption.

Zania is building agentic AI for Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) to solve this massive problem. We are on a rocketship trajectory, creating intelligent agents that automate and augment the most complex risk and compliance workflows. We have found exceptional product-market fit and are scaling our team very quickly. Some reasons to join Zania are:

• Dream Customers: Our customers are the most notable enterprises in the world, including FAANG, Big 4 firms and a portfolio of top customers.

• Tier 1 Backing: Funded by a leading Tier 1 venture capital fund, giving us the resources to build a generational company.

• World-Class Team: Zania is hiring the best. Our team includes AI and Security leaders from Airbnb, Microsoft, Bain & Company, Deloitte, PwC, Brex, and Instacart.

• Pioneering Technology: Our engineers and GRC experts work at the absolute forefront of applied AI, building the next generation of agentic systems that will define the future of compliance.

• Hyper-Growth: We have seen 10x ARR growth in the last year and are rapidly expanding.

• Competitive Compensation & Equity.

Role Overview

As an Applied AI Engineer, you will lead the charge in creating AI systems designed to outperform the world's leading experts in Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). We are seeking an engineer to build production AI systems with a fanatical focus on accuracy, innovation, and responsible design. You will own and build the AI-native products that set a new global standard for GRC.

This role is based in our Palo Alto, CA office. We use an in-person work model and offer relocation assistance.

What You'll Do

• Build & Fine-Tune Models: Perform fine-tuning of foundation models on proprietary data and implement novel techniques to achieve world-class accuracy and precision on complex GRC tasks.

• Develop AI-Native Workflows: Build sophisticated, multi-step agentic workflows that automate complex GRC processes, from risk assessment to compliance monitoring.

• Champion Responsible AI: Implement and pioneer methods for AI explainability and safety, ensuring our systems are transparent, auditable, and fair.

• Drive Innovation: Rapidly prototype, evaluate, and integrate state-of-the-art AI research (agents, RAG, new architectures) into reliable, production-grade features.

Role Overview

As our Founding Forward Deployed Engineer, you’ll partner directly with Fortune 500 CISOs, GRC leaders, and technical teams to deploy Zania’s AI-native platform into some of the most complex, security-conscious environments in the world. You’ll own technical engagements end-to-end — from discovery and configuration to integration and production rollout — running deep proof-of-concepts and navigating rigorous security, compliance, and legal requirements.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role where you’ll help shape our forward deployment playbook alongside Product, GTM, and leadership as we build a new category.

What You’ll Do

• Lead technical deployments at Fortune 500 enterprises — from discovery through configuration, integration, and rollout.

• Design and run deep proof-of-concepts that validate Zania’s AI agents in complex security and compliance environments.

• Integrate Zania with enterprise systems (e.g., GRC tools, identity platforms, document stores, APIs) securely and reliably.

• Collaborate closely with CISOs, GRC leaders, and technical teams to tailor deployments to strict security and regulatory requirements.

• Partner with Sales during evaluations and onboarding to ensure technical fit and a smooth customer experience.

• Work with Product and Engineering to translate field learnings into product improvements and influence the roadmap.

• Contribute to internal tooling, deployment frameworks, and documentation to scale the forward deployment function.
  

What You’ll Bring

• 2+ years in software engineering, solutions engineering, or technical consulting for enterprise SaaS.

• Proven experience deploying and configuring complex technical products in customer environments — ideally in security or compliance contexts.

• Strong understanding of APIs, cloud platforms, and enterprise security tools (e.g., IAM, SIEM, GRC/IRM platforms, TPRM systems).
  

• Comfort working with security, compliance, and legal teams, including navigating enterprise security and regulatory reviews.
  

• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills — able to bridge engineering, product, and business conversations.
  

• Startup builder mindset: resourceful, comfortable with ambiguity, and motivated to shape a new function from the ground up.

• Technical curiosity and ability to quickly understand AI models, agentic workflows, and developer-centric products.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience in security, compliance, or risk engineering domains.

• Background in forward deployed engineering, technical consulting, or customer-facing roles at startups.

• Familiarity with LLMs, AI agents, or risk quantification frameworks.

• Prior experience at a high-growth, venture-backed startup.
  

Compensation and benefits

• Flexible PTO policy.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance

• Meals and snacks in the office

• Relocation and immigration support