Founding Forward Deployed Engineer (UK)

<h1><strong>Dayjob - Founding Forward Deployed Engineer</strong></h1><p style="min-height:1.5em">Location: United Kingdom (on-site)</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">Company: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://Dayjob.AI">Dayjob.AI</a></p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p><h2><strong>About Dayjob (YC P26)</strong></h2><p style="min-height:1.5em">DayJob builds AI agents for short-haul trucking - a <strong>$45bn market</strong> still run on spreadsheets, phone calls and software from the 1990s.</p><div style="min-height:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"> </div><p style="min-height:1.5em">We've just completed <strong>Y Combinator</strong>, are scaling towards <strong>$1M ARR</strong>, growing ~20% month-on-month, and launching in the US. Our customers include some of the largest waste and recycling operators in the UK and US, and we're backed by leading investors including <strong>Paul Graham</strong> (Founder of Y Combinator) and <strong>Harry Stebbings</strong> (Founder of 20VC).</p><div style="min-height:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"> </div><p style="min-height:1.5em">If you want to deploy AI inside real operations - and on the ground as we launch new customers - this is the role.<br /></p><h2><strong>Founding Team</strong></h2><p style="min-height:1.5em">Fred &amp; George met at the University of Oxford.</p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">George (CEO) was Head of Sales at Otta and launched Deliveroo’s Grocery division, scaling it to £100M GMV.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Fred (CTO) builds products that optimise complex supply chains using AI and advanced analytics.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p></li></ul><h2><strong>The Role: Forward Deployed Engineer</strong></h2><p style="min-height:1.5em">This is a rare opportunity to be our first FDE on the ground, sitting at the front line of every customer deployment.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">You’ll work directly with the founders, the sales team, and our customers to get fleets live on Dayjob: integrating their existing systems, tuning the optimization model so plans hold up against reality, and feeding what you learn back into the product.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">This is not a back-office engineering role - you’ll be where the software meets the operation, owning the technical success of our UK customers end-to-end.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p><h2><strong>What You’ll Work On</strong></h2><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Owning the optimisation model settings for our customers - speed factors, service times, depot and tip times, zones, vehicle types, and time-window constraints - and validating them against real GPS and job-completion data.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Supporting sales by setting up and tuning the model for demos, trials, and proofs of concept, so prospects see plans that reflect how their fleet really runs.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Integrating customers’ legacy ERP, job-management systems and vehicle telematics with Dayjob, on-site - mapping data, designing the flows, and building the connections.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Acting as first-line technical support for your customers during go-live: triaging issues, diagnosing whether the problem is data, settings, or platform, and escalating cleanly to engineering.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Gathering customer requirements and translating them into clear input for product and engineering.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Writing SQL and building reports (e.g. in Metabase) on fleet performance, jobs-per-hour, utilisation, and plan quality.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p></li></ul><h2><strong>Who You Are</strong></h2><p style="min-height:1.5em">We’re looking for a strong technical generalist who is happy being the person a customer relies on, in messy real-world environments.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">You likely have:</p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">3+ years in a technical, customer-facing role (forward deployed / solutions / integration / implementation engineering or similar).</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Strong SQL - you can write your own queries against a non-trivial schema and read the results critically.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience integrating systems, ideally including legacy or ERP-style platforms with imperfect data (APIs, file-based pipelines, data mapping).</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Comfort working with messy operational data and edge-case-heavy workflows.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Clear communication with non-technical operators, and a willingness to travel to US customer sites.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">An ownership mindset - you diagnose root causes, follow through, and keep customers unblocked.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p></li></ul><h2><strong>Bonus If You’ve Worked On</strong></h2><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Contributing to a production codebase where it helps a deployment land.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Internal tooling and back-office apps (e.g. Retool) - this role can grow into owning the customer-specific tooling we build.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Logistics, fleet management, routing/VRP, or the waste and recycling sector.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Optimisation- or scheduling-adjacent products, and a sense of what makes a plan good or bad.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p></li></ul><h2><strong>What We Offer</strong></h2><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Competitive salary</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Meaningful equity</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">25 days holiday + your birthday off</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Moorgate office 4 days a week</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Learning &amp; development budget</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">A foundational role shaping how Dayjob scales</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p></li></ul><h2><strong>Application Process</strong></h2><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Intro call with the team (30 mins)</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Technical interview (60 mins)</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Final round (30 mins)</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p></li></ul><p style="min-height:1.5em">Want to be the person who turns our software into live operations across the US? We’d love to hear from you.</p><hr><p>Compensation: £75K – £110K • Offers Equity</p><ul><li> • £75K – £110K • Offers Equity</li></ul><p>Find more <a href="https://www.arbeitnow.co.uk/english-speaking-jobs">English Speaking Jobs in United Kingdom</a> on Arbeitnow</a>