Forward Deployed Engineer - India
Forward Deployed Engineer · Mid · Full Time · Remote
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Role
What you'll do.
Forward Deployed Engineer at LiteLLM, the world's leading open-source AI Gateway trusted by Adobe, Netflix, and NASA. This technical support role focuses on owning the customer support queue, diagnosing root-cause issues in LLM integrations, and driving customer success through hands-on troubleshooting and bug fixes. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in AI systems, API integrations, and cloud infrastructure with a customer-obsessed mentality and strong problem-solving orientation.
Responsibilities
- Own Support Queue and Ticket Management: Manage and prioritize the customer support queue, working through tickets systematically to resolve issues and drive customer success with the LiteLLM platform. Handle high volume of tickets while maintaining quality and thoroughness in each resolution.
- Root Cause Analysis and Diagnosis: Diagnose complex customer issues by understanding the underlying technical problems rather than applying surface-level fixes. Analyze error logs, configuration issues, and integration problems to identify and address root causes in LLM gateway implementations.
- Environment-Specific Issue Reproduction: Reproduce customer issues within their specific environments and configurations, including various cloud providers, deployment architectures, and LLM provider integrations. Set up test environments that mirror customer scenarios to validate issues and solutions.
- Code Contribution and Bug Fixes: Submit pull requests for bug fixes, improvements, and enhancements to the LiteLLM codebase based on customer issues discovered. Contribute to the open-source project to improve platform reliability and user experience across the developer community.
- Customer Advocacy and Internal Communication: Act as the technical voice of customers within the organization, communicating feature requests, pain points, and product feedback to the engineering and product teams. Provide detailed context and customer impact assessments to inform product development priorities.
- Documentation and Knowledge Sharing: Create and maintain technical documentation, troubleshooting guides, and best practices for common issues. Share knowledge with the team to improve support efficiency and help customers self-serve through comprehensive resources.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
LiteLLM Platform Expertise
Deep familiarity with the LiteLLM AI Gateway surface, including routing, rate limiting, caching, cost management, and multi-provider LLM orchestration capabilities. Understanding of how the platform handles model switching, fallback mechanisms, and request optimization.
API Integration and Debugging
Strong experience diagnosing API integration issues, including authentication, request/response handling, rate limiting, and error codes across multiple LLM providers such as OpenAI, Claude, Cohere, and others.
Large Language Model Understanding
Solid foundational knowledge of how LLMs work, including model behavior, token limits, context windows, prompt engineering considerations, and differences between various model architectures and providers.
Cloud Infrastructure and Deployment
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and deployment architectures. Ability to troubleshoot issues related to networking, environment variables, secrets management, and container orchestration.
Debugging and Troubleshooting Tools
Proficiency with debugging tools, log analysis, network inspection utilities, and system monitoring platforms. Ability to trace requests through distributed systems and identify bottlenecks or failures.
Python Programming
Working knowledge of Python, as LiteLLM is built with Python and customers often integrate it into Python-based applications. Ability to read, understand, and potentially contribute to Python codebases.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field
Formal education in computer science, software engineering, electrical engineering, or related technical discipline. Equivalent professional experience demonstrating deep technical foundation may be considered.
Experience
Technical Support or DevOps Experience
3+ years of technical support, developer relations, customer success engineering, or DevOps experience. Proven track record of solving complex technical problems, diagnosing infrastructure issues, and working effectively with engineering teams.
API and Integration Support
Demonstrated experience supporting customers with API integrations, SDKs, or platform implementations. Comfort working across multiple programming languages, frameworks, and deployment environments.
Open Source Community Engagement
Familiarity with open-source development workflows, GitHub collaboration, and contributing to OSS projects. Understanding of how to engage with developer communities and gather feedback.
Problem-Solving Orientation
Proven ability to tackle ambiguous problems independently, think analytically, and drive toward root-cause solutions. Experience with metrics-driven approaches to prioritization and impact measurement.
Skills
Required
Technical Problem Solving
Exceptional ability to diagnose complex technical issues, understand system behavior under various conditions, and think through problems methodically to identify root causes rather than applying quick fixes.
API Integration Knowledge
Deep understanding of RESTful APIs, authentication mechanisms, error handling, rate limiting, and integration patterns. Experience troubleshooting integration issues across multiple services and providers.
Python
Working proficiency in Python programming, enabling code review, bug reproduction, and potential contribution to the LiteLLM codebase for customers and internal use cases.
Customer Communication
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, translating complex technical concepts into clear explanations. Ability to communicate effectively across different technical levels and gather detailed information from customers.
Linux and Command Line
Proficiency with Linux environments, shell scripting, and command-line tools essential for debugging, log analysis, and system troubleshooting in customer environments.
Log Analysis and Debugging
Skilled at reading and interpreting logs, using debugging tools, and tracing system behavior to understand failures and performance issues in distributed systems.
Preferred
Kubernetes Experience
Nice to haveExperience deploying and troubleshooting applications in Kubernetes environments, including understanding of networking, storage, config management, and common failure scenarios.
LLM Provider Experience
Nice to havePrior experience integrating with or troubleshooting issues with popular LLM providers including OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Cohere, HuggingFace, or other major model providers.
Observability Tools
Nice to haveExperience with observability and monitoring tools such as Datadog, New Relic, Prometheus, or ELK stack for analyzing application performance and diagnosing production issues.
Git and Version Control
Nice to haveProficiency with Git and GitHub workflows, including ability to understand pull requests, review code changes, and contribute patches to open-source projects.
Go or Rust
Nice to haveFamiliarity with compiled languages like Go or Rust, beneficial for understanding performance-critical components and contributing to infrastructure improvements.
Developer Relations Background
Nice to havePrevious experience in developer relations, technical evangelism, or community engagement roles that required building relationships with technical audiences and advocating for customer needs.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·USD 50,000 – 90,000
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Health Insurance
Comprehensive health insurance coverage for employees, supporting preventive care and medical treatment needs.
Dental and Vision Coverage
Dental and vision insurance benefits included as part of the comprehensive health plan, supporting overall wellness and healthcare access.
401(k) Retirement Plan with Matching
Competitive 401(k) retirement savings plan with 3.5% employer match, helping employees build long-term financial security.
Fast-Paced Growth Environment
Opportunity to work in a rapidly growing technology company working with leading enterprises including Adobe, Netflix, and NASA, providing exposure to scaling challenges and innovation.
Deep Technical Ownership
Meaningful technical autonomy and ownership of the support function, enabling personal growth through tackling complex problems and making strategic contributions to product improvement.
Open Source Impact
Opportunity to contribute to and shape the world's most popular open-source AI Gateway, making direct impact on the developer community and broader AI infrastructure ecosystem.
Equity Compensation
Stock options as part of competitive compensation package, aligning personal success with company growth and providing long-term financial upside potential.
Process
Interview steps.
- 01
Initial Screening Call
Preliminary conversation with the recruiting team to assess background, motivation for the role, and cultural fit. Typical duration 30 minutes covering career trajectory and interest in forward deployment engineering.
- 02
Technical Assessment
Evaluation of technical knowledge through discussion of past support experiences, problem-solving approach, and familiarity with APIs, cloud infrastructure, and LLM concepts. May include practical scenarios of customer issues.
- 03
Product Deep Dive
Hands-on exploration of the LiteLLM platform, discussing gateway architecture, routing mechanisms, multi-provider orchestration, and how customers typically integrate the product. Assessment of ability to quickly understand complex systems.
- 04
Customer Interaction Simulation
Role-play or case study exercise simulating real customer support scenarios. Evaluation of communication skills, customer empathy, problem-solving methodology, and ability to diagnose complex issues effectively.
- 05
Team Interview
Conversations with members of the support and engineering team to assess collaboration style, technical communication, and cultural alignment. Discussion of team processes and how the role fits within the organization.
- 06
Final Offer Discussion
Conversation with hiring manager or leadership to discuss compensation, benefits, expectations, and answer final questions about the role, team dynamics, and company vision.
Full posting
Original listing.
LiteLLM is the world's most popular AI Gateway, trusted by top companies like Adobe, Netflix, and NASA. Our platform empowers developers by providing secure, reliable access to LLMs and adjacent services, and we're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead the team building the leading OSS AI gateway.
About the Role
We're looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer to own our support queue and drive our customers to success. Because LiteLLM is a developer tool, this person needs to be technical. You'll dig into our customers' issues, understand them deeply, and unblock them.
The core of this role is simple: work the queue, address tickets, and make our customers successful with the product. We're looking for someone who is obsessed with getting to the root cause of problems rather than applying surface-level fixes. The best people in this role understand the real depth of a problem before they solve it.
Responsibilities
Own the support queue and work through tickets to drive customers to success
Diagnose customer issues and solve for the root cause, not just the symptom
Reproduce customer issues in their specific environments
Submit pull requests for bug fixes and improvements where needed
Act as the technical voice of the customer back to engineering
What We're Looking For
Technical depth and real familiarity with the LiteLLM product surface
Obsessed with customers and making them successful with the product
Obsessed with solving root causes rather than patching over problems
Metrics-driven and hardworking, ready to move through a high volume of tickets
A strong bias toward understanding problems deeply
Why Join LiteLLM?
Fast-paced growth environment with deep technical ownership.
Competitive salary, health, dental, and vision benefits, 401k plan with 3.5% match.
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