January 16, 2026
Now hiring: drama engineers
Zep AI (Agent Context Engineering, YC W24) Is Hiring Forward Deployed Engineers
Dream job or sales-in-a-hoodie? Fans cheer, skeptics grill; pay and travel top questions
TLDR: Zep AI is hiring customer-facing engineers to help its AI tools work faster and smarter, touting 20k GitHub stars and big-company credentials. Comments split between excitement and skepticism: is this a dream, a sales gig in disguise, and what about pay, travel, and whether those speed claims really hold?
Zep AI just dropped a hiring post for “Forward Deployed Engineers,” and the comment section lit up like a GitHub star board. Supporters swooned, calling it a dream job—tools that give AI “agents” the right memory so they don’t act clueless—and praised the team vibe. Skeptics rolled in fast: “FDE = sales engineer in a hoodie,” one wrote, arguing it’s more client babysitting than coding. The braggy bits drew heat too: 20k stars for its Graphiti project, sub‑200ms retrieval, and big‑company clients. Fans called the speed flex impressive; cynics joked, “I wish my manager replied in 200ms.”
Certs sparked corporate banter. SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA (security and health privacy badges) made enterprise folks nod, while indie devs shrugged: “Cool, but does it slow shipping?” The founder shoutout to Daniel started a mini cult vs skepticism thread: some praised mentorship and ownership; others side‑eyed “founder worship.” The hottest practical debate: pay, travel, and burnout. One camp loves high‑impact, user‑facing work; another fears red‑eye flights and endless demos.
Memes flew: “Forward Deployed = Forward Delayed,” and “Agent Context Engineering is just organized prompts.” Love it or roast it, the crowd agrees: this role isn’t boring—and the spotlight is blazing.
Key Points
- •Zep AI focuses on assembling context from chat history, business data, and user behavior to improve AI agent personalization, accuracy, and speed.
- •Its open-source project Graphiti reached 20,000 GitHub stars in under 12 months.
- •Zep AI reports sub-200ms retrieval performance.
- •The company holds SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA certifications.
- •Zep AI’s products are used by teams ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies, and employees highlight strong leadership and growth opportunities.