Tenex — Forward Deployed Engineer

Type: Full-time | On-site | New York City, NY Compensation: $240,000–$600,000 (guaranteed base + uncapped quarterly variable) + competitive equity Hiring count: 1 Visa sponsorship: H-1B (per structured Job Details). Outreach template additionally mentions TN support — lower-priority source; confirm with client before relying on TN. Reports to: One of three engineering managers

About Tenex

Tenex embeds small "pod" teams of strategists and engineers directly into Fortune 500 operations to help enterprises become AI-native. Anthropic and OpenAI are formal partners and Tenex sits with their Applied AI teams on live client problems; Vercel, Lovable, and other leading AI companies also partner. Tenex was the partner Anthropic named for the Claude for Small Business launch, delivering AI-fluency training across 10 US cities.

Founded: 2025 (~1 year ago) | Team size: ~40 (grew from 5 in a year; ~80 expected by end of quarter, 150–200 by year's end) | Total funding: Fully bootstrapped, no outside funding Industry: AI Consulting Website: tenex.co Office: New York City, NY

Founding team includes a founder with a prior successful company. Beyond consulting, Tenex is exploring client joint ventures and its own go-to-market IP products.

Why Candidates Should Join

• Frontier-lab proximity: Formal partner to two top frontier AI labs; you work alongside their Applied AI teams on real Fortune 500 problems.
• Steep growth, real ownership: Pods own the domain end-to-end; most describe it as the steepest growth of their careers.
• Uncapped upside: Guaranteed base plus uncapped quarterly variable tied directly to shipped output; strong performers have reportedly cleared $60–80K in a single quarter on top of base (per outreach template — treat the specific figure as indicative, not confirmed).

Intake Call Summary

• An intake video is posted on the Contrario role page; no transcript was available in the source HTML. Summary pending — pull from the intake video if a written recap is needed for scoring nuance.

The Role

Forward Deployed Engineers make the strategists' bets real: genuine client-facing software engineers who design, develop, and maintain modern web and agentic applications embedded with Fortune 500 clients.

What You'll Be Doing

• Design, build, and maintain modern web and agentic applications directly for Fortune 500 clients
• Own technical initiatives end-to-end, from architecture through production delivery
• Operate with high autonomy in ambiguous, fast-moving client environments
• Present technical work and architecture directly to clients in a clear, consultative way
• Travel to client sites roughly once a month to work in person with stakeholders

Role context / bar: 3+ years professional software engineering, sweet spot 3–8 years, no hard cap. Not a mandated always-on culture, but not a standard 40-hour week — if a deliverable isn't done by Friday, the expectation is to grind through the weekend to land it. Tenex also considers intact teams of 2–5 people as a unit, run through the same bar and offered together.

Tech stack: Modern web + agentic application development; agentic coding tools used in daily workflow.

Requirements

• 3-8+ years software engineering
• Client-facing experience required
• High autonomy, ambiguous environments
• NYC 5 days in-person + monthly client travel
• Guaranteed base + uncapped variable

Green Flags

• Genuine client-facing or customer-facing experience where the candidate owned the relationship and delivered real outcomes
• Founder, co-founder, or CTO background at a startup, especially someone who built a solo AI or software development practice, even without major commercial traction
• Track record of shipping fast and independently, without waiting to be told what's next
• Comfortable presenting technical architecture in a clear, consultative, non-technical-friendly way
• Background at teams inside larger companies known for strong engineering bars

Red Flags

• Career built entirely at large, brand-name organizations with traditional, slower-moving software stacks (large banks, telecom, defense contractors)
• Held a "Forward Deployed Engineer" title elsewhere without functioning as a genuine hands-on engineer
• Master's degree in computer science with no compensating signal of shipped, independent work
• Comfortable working a standard 40-hour week without urgency; not a fit for a role where deliverables sometimes require working through a weekend
• No demonstrated experience operating independently in ambiguous, fast-changing environments

Role Details

Salary$240,000–$600,000 (guaranteed base + uncapped quarterly variable)EquityCompetitive equity; may become available to employees in the futureOn-site policyNYC, 5 days/week in person + ~monthly client-site travelVisa sponsorshipH-1B (Job Details); TN mentioned in outreach only — confirmEmployment typeFull-timeLocationNew York City, NY

Benefits & perks: Guaranteed base + uncapped quarterly variable tied to output; comprehensive medical (PPO and HSA options), dental, vision; HSA, Healthcare FSA, Commuter Benefits; 100% employer-paid life insurance and AD&D; 100% employer-paid long-term disability; Responsible PTO.

Screening Questions

(Contrario "Required Candidate Q&A" — the role's submission-form questions. Ask candidate-directed ones on the screening call / capture in outreach.)

1. Phone
2. LinkedIn Profile
3. Will you now or in the future require visa sponsorship?
4. Are you comfortable working in-person at the office (in New York) 5 days/week?
5. Please share your base salary expectations.
6. Where did you hear about this role?
7. What did you study in college?
8. How many years of experience do you have building and shipping production software?
9. What specifically interests you about joining Tenex at this stage? What's driving your interest in making a move right now?
10. Link something you've built that you're proud of (repo, PR, demo, launch, blog post). In 3–4 sentences, what would you change about it today?
11. Who are the team members you're applying with? (Please include names, emails and LinkedIn)

Interview Process

Stage 1 — Pending Approval — Candidates awaiting initial approval. Stage 2 — First Round | Recruiter Screen Stage 3 — Second Round | Hiring Manager Stage 4 — Third Round | Take-Home Stage 5 — Fourth Round | Systems Design Stage 6 — Final Round | Culture Stage 7 — Offer Extended Stage 8 — Candidate Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.

Ideal Companies & Backgrounds

Updated Jul 7, 2026 No named "Ideal Companies" list was published on this role. Directional signal from the JD: teams inside larger companies known for strong engineering bars; startup founder/co-founder/CTO chapters; small AI software-development shops.

Ideal Candidate Profiles

For reference only — DO NOT CONTACT. LinkedIn URLs were not present in the source HTML — pull from Contrario if needed.

• Liam Carroll
• Tyler Mendola
• Ashwin Kadaru
• Dan Zakon
• Roman Vellante
• Andrew Tang