About the job
Wonderschool supports small business owners and childcare providers in launching and growing in-home early childhood education programs. The company combines software, personalized coaching, and responsive support to help providers succeed, while also working with government partners to strengthen public childcare infrastructure. The team is small and agile, focused on creating meaningful impact for families and communities nationwide.
Role overview
The Forward Deployed Engineer - Applied AI role focuses on building and launching products that directly support Wonderschool’s mission. This position involves working hands-on with customers, sometimes traveling to their locations, to identify pain points and deliver AI-powered solutions that drive revenue, efficiency, and a better user experience. The work blends engineering, product management, operations, and business leadership, often requiring independent decision-making and rapid iteration based on user feedback.
Collaboration is central to this role. Expect to work closely with sales, onboarding, and account management teams to automate workflows, improve customer experiences, and find new growth opportunities. The approach draws inspiration from the forward deployed engineering model seen at companies like Palantir, and is ideal for those who want to solve real-world problems in the field.
What you will do
- Work directly with users and internal teams to identify key issues and deliver product solutions.
- Spend about half your time writing production code and rolling out weekly improvements across the customer journey.
- Use tools such as Widesurf, Cursor, and other AI accelerators to improve productivity and quality.
- Develop and deploy AI-enhanced tools that reduce manual work and improve experiences for providers, parents, and government partners.
- Automate processes like onboarding, proposal generation, reporting, and other operational workflows.
- Own the entire feedback loop: engage users, design solutions, code, test, deploy, and monitor adoption.
- Prioritize projects based on business impact and work across teams to drive measurable results.
What success looks like
- Quickly uncover user pain points and consistently deliver solutions that address them.
- Deploy AI-powered internal tools or product features that improve conversion, retention, and revenue.
- Take full responsibility for the feedback cycle from discovery to deployment, iterating rapidly.
- Internal teams rely on your tools to operate more efficiently and with fewer resources.
Locations
Gallup, New Mexico; Michigan; Missouri; San Francisco; West Virginia (United States)

