Forward Deployed Engineer [IC1-IC5]

Who we are

Our mission at Sourcegraph is to make it so that everyone can code, not just ~0.1% of the population. 

We are transforming how the world’s most important companies build software by industrializing development with AI. Today, most professional developers spend a disproportionate amount of time understanding code and performing repetitive, low-level tasks—leaving less time for innovation and meaningful impact.

We’re changing that. Sourcegraph brings AI-powered search and agents to the enterprise, helping teams automate the mundane and amplify what developers do best— solving hard problems and creating great products.

Here’s how we’re making a difference:

• Accelerating developers with AI agents that deliver insights and precision—enabling 5x faster test creation, 30% increase in merge requests, and saving 20 minutes per developer daily.
• Automating repetitive tasks, from remediating vulnerabilities (saving teams 1,000+ hours annually) to speeding up migrations that would take years to months. 
• Enabling innovation by addressing complex problems like automated bug triage, vulnerability detection, and AI-driven code reviews seamlessly integrated into workflows.

Trusted by 7/10 top software companies by market cap, 4/6 top US banks and many of the companies leading global innovation, like Stripe, Indeed, Tesla, and 1Password, and with $225M in funding from investors like a16z, Sequoia, and Redpoint, we are building the tools that will define the next era of enterprise software development.

If you’re passionate about solving the hardest problems in software and shaping the future of technology, join us. Let’s build something extraordinary together.

Hours & location

🌎 This role is based in our San Francisco headquarters. However, please note that this position requires extensive travel, typically up to 80% of the time (Monday-Thursday) for on-site customer engagements. When not traveling, you'll work from our SF office.

We do not subscribe to “I do my best work when I work 40 hours a week.”  People we hire at Sourcegraph believe that building outstanding things means working very hard — smarter and more hours than the competition.

Why this job is exciting 

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) at Sourcegraph, you’ll report directly to our CEO and get to work with the most successful and sophisticated software companies in the world (our customers) and build code AI capabilities that all of their devs love and use in ways far beyond anything else out there. Your code will be informed by what our biggest customers need and will ship to all customers and users, so you must have exacting standards. You’ll be working directly with our biggest customers, so you need to know how to work with eng leaders and devs and pitch and sell and react on the fly. You’ll learn and do more in your first 6 months of being an FDE here than you will anywhere else.

📅 Within one month, you will…

• Get yourself intimately familiar with our entire tech stack and product feature set
• Shadow experienced team members FDE, Engineering, and Technical Success to learn about customer engagements
• Learn how to pitch our product and familiarize yourself with our go-to-market motion to understand how FDEs fit into the larger customer success strategy
• Get deployed to your first customer to lead an engagement from end-to-end

📅 Within six months, you will…

• Work with our largest and most sophisticated customers, building new capabilities and improving existing capabilities in our product
• Identify and capitalize on new opportunities across all of our customers
• Contribute to the refinement and scaling of the FDE program based on your experiences
• Become a go-to expert for complex customer integrations and technical challenges
• Grow our customers' love for Sourcegraph

About you

You are a driven engineer who thrives with customers, loves working with cutting-edge technology, and is excited about shaping the future of developer tools:

• You're passionate about developer tools and solving complex technical challenges
• You excel in fast-paced, changing environments and enjoy working directly with customers
• You're comfortable balancing technical work with relationship building and strategic thinking
• You're excited about the prospect of frequent travel and intense on-site engagements
• You're eager to learn and adapt to diverse technologies and business environments
• You enjoy the idea of having a direct impact on product development and company growth
• You have a strong software engineering background with hands-on coding experience
• You possess excellent problem-solving skills and ability to think on your feet
• You have strong communication skills, both technical and non-technical
• You have experience with developer tools, code search, and AI-assisted coding

Level

📊 This job is an IC1-IC5.  You can read more about our job leveling philosophy in our Handbook.

We're open to candidates at various experience levels, but this is a highly demanding role that requires a lot of autonomy and high-agency. You’ll be interacting with some of the world’s most powerful and influential technical leaders. If using your strong technical skills and ability to communicate to world-class executives to deliver high-impact solutions to previously unsolved problems sounds like a fun challenge then this job may be a great fit for you!

Compensation

💸 We pay you an above-average salary because we want to hire the best people who are fully focused on helping Sourcegraph succeed, not worried about paying bills. As an open and transparent company that values competitive compensation, our compensation ranges are visible to every single Sourcegraph teammate.

Your salary is determined by your pay band for the IC1-IC5 job level. For determining pay bands, we use a number of market and data-driven salary sources, along with your location zone, and target the high-end of the range to ensure we’re always paying above market regardless of where you live in the world. Both U.S. and international locations are divided into one of four zones, determined by the cost of labor index for each area. The salary for a successful candidate will be based on level, job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and location zone. Please note that the salaries below may be adjusted in the future.

💰 The target compensation for this role is based on the IC1-IC5 pay band for your zone. The start of the IC1-IC5 pay band for each zone is listed below:

• IC1: $136,000
• IC2: $160,000
• IC3: $185,000
• IC4: $215,000
• IC5: $240,000

Please speak with a recruiter for additional information regarding zone locations.

📈 In addition to our cash compensation, we offer equity (because when we succeed as a company, we want you to succeed, too) and generous perks & benefits.

Interview process

Below is the interview process you can expect for this role (you can read more about the types of interviews in our Handbook). It may look like a lot of steps, but rest assured that we move quickly and the steps are designed to help you get the information needed to determine if we’re the right fit for you… Interviewing is a two-way street, after all! 

We expect the interview process to take 3.5 hours in total. 

👋 Introduction Stage - we have initial conversations to get to know you better…

• [30m] Recruiter Screen
• [30m] Hiring Manager Screen with CEO/Co-founder

🧑‍💻 Team Interview Stage - we then schedule an all-day onsite interview to delve into your experience in more depth and introduce you to members of the team, including cross-functional partners…

• [60m] Coding exercise
• [45m] Cross-functional team collaboration / Values
• [45m] Decomp interview with CEO/Co-founder
• We check references and conduct your background check

Please note - you are welcome to request additional conversations with anyone you would like to meet, but didn’t get to meet during the interview process.

Learn more about us

You can learn more about what it is like to work at Sourcegraph by reading our handbook.

We are an ambitious team who are collectively working hard to build the most influential company in the world.  You can read more about our culture, competitive compensation and benefits here.

Sourcegraph is an equal opportunity workplace; we welcome people from all backgrounds. 

Sourcegraph participates in E-Verify for U.S. Employees.