Principal Forward Deployed Engineer

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 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. What you’ll do & achieve 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. Build only after the spec is signed by the customer sponsor, FDE leadership and Product & Engineering. No unsigned builds. 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 As an industry pioneer, our work is constantly evolving and challenging us in new ways that require us to think differently, iterate often and learn constantly. It’s exciting. Our people, whom we refer to as “ZEOs,” are empowered to take on a mindset of ownership and make a bigger impact here. Our teams collaborate deeply, exchange different ideas openly and together we’re making what’s next possible for our customers, community and the world. 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 [email protected] (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 . Base Pay Details $208,600 — $312,900 USD