Forward Deployed Engineer (Contract-to-Hire)

About Scholete AI

We're an early-stage startup building AI products that ship into real schools and clinics — high-stakes environments where legacy software has consistently failed the people who depend on it. We're small, fast, and obsessed with shipping things that actually work in the messy real world.

The Role

As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you'll be the bridge between our users and our product. You'll embed with teachers, school administrators, and healthcare staff, understand their problems deeply, and build the software that solves them — end to end. This is equal parts engineering and product judgment: half your week is code, the other half is understanding a problem well enough that the code is worth writing.

Responsibilities

• Embed with real users and translate their messy reality into working software.
• Build across the stack — TypeScript/Python, LLM pipelines, and data plumbing.
• Own outcomes, not tickets: product, code, and the customer relationship.
• Prototype fast, deploy into live environments, and iterate on real feedback.

Requirements

• A strong generalist engineer who's also genuinely good with people.
• Bias toward shipping — you'd rather help a real user this week than perfect an architecture for six months.
• Comfort with ambiguity and a distaste for bureaucracy.
• Bonus: Hands-on experience building with LLMs, or a background in education/healthcare.

Compensation Structure

• Contract: ₹50,000/month for an initial 6-month engagement.
• Conversion: Strong performers convert to full-time with a package (base salary + equity) of up to 10x the contract rate. We define clear performance expectations from day one — the path to full-time is transparent, not a moving target.
• The contract is a fair deal now; the full-time offer is built to be a genuine milestone worth working toward.

How to Apply

Apply here, or message me directly with the last thing you built and shipped to a real user. That matters more to us than a polished resume.