About Archetype AI

Archetype AI is developing the world's first AI platform to bring AI into the real world. Formed by an exceptionally high-caliber team from Google, Archetype AI is building a foundation model for the physical world, a real-time multimodal LLM for real life, transforming real-world data into valuable insights and knowledge that people will be able to interact with naturally. It will help people in their real lives, not just online, because it understands the real-time physical environment and everything that happens in it.

Supported by deep tech venture funds in Silicon Valley, Archetype AI is currently pre-Series A, progressing rapidly to develop technology for their next stage. This presents a unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of an exciting AI team at the beginning of their journey, located in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Our team is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with team members throughout the US and Europe.

We are actively growing, so if you are an exceptional candidate excited to work on the cutting edge of physical AI and don’t see a role that exactly fits you below you can contact us directly with your resume via jobs<at>archetypeai<dot>io.

About the Role

Archetype AI is seeking a hands-on Staff Solutions Engineer, reporting to the Head of Solutions Engineering, to serve as the technical lead for customer engagements across multiple industries. You will be the technical expert in the sales process, guiding enterprise customers from discovery through successful implementation. This role combines deep technical execution with leadership, not only designing, demonstrating, and delivering solutions, but also mentoring other engineers and potentially acting as a project lead.

This is a fast-paced startup role for someone who thrives on solving hard problems, taking ownership, and getting things done. You will need to operate with agility, think creatively under pressure, and balance the demands of multiple high-priority projects. Success in this role means being as comfortable hands-on with code and integrations as you are leading conversations with executives, all while adapting to rapid changes in priorities and strategy as the company grows. This role is customer-first and making our clients successful may require significant travel, sometimes including extended on-site presence. We do what it takes to ensure smooth deployments, adoption, and long-term success.

You will work directly with customers in verticals including industrial & manufacturing, logistics & supply chain, transportation & fleet, field operations, smart infrastructure, commercial & retail, and defense & military.

Core Responsibilities

• Pre-Sales Technical Leadership

  • Be the technical voice of the company in customer engagements, representing our product’s capabilities and technical vision.

  • Join customer sales calls as the technical subject matter expert, translating requirements into solution designs.

  • Deliver tailored technical demos that highlight relevant capabilities and industry use cases.

  • Lead technical discovery and solution scoping sessions with customer stakeholders.

  • Respond to technical questions and requirements in procurement and RFP processes.

• Solution Delivery & Implementation

  • Lead delivery of POCs and pilot projects using internal tools, application templates, and APIs.

  • Onboard, deploy, and integrate solutions into customer environments, including cloud, edge, and on-premise deployments.

  • Build reusable solution assets such as templates, scripts, and integration components to accelerate delivery for future projects.

  • Ensure solutions align with performance, security, and compliance requirements.

  • Take a hands-on role in coding, integration, troubleshooting, and optimization during deployments.

• Team Mentorship & Leadership

  • Mentor junior and mid-level engineers on technical best practices, deployment approaches, and customer engagement skills.

  • Act as a technical lead on select projects, coordinating engineering efforts to ensure quality and timely delivery.

  • Contribute to building internal knowledge bases, playbooks, and reusable technical assets.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • Partner with Sales, Product Management, AI R&D, and Platform Engineering teams to ensure customer needs are met and exceeded.

  • Act as the technical voice of the customer, advocating for enhancements and prioritization of high-value capabilities.

  • Support marketing and GTM teams by contributing technical content for solution briefs, case studies, and events.

Required Qualifications

• Experience & Background

  • 10+ years of engineering experience in relevant fields (IoT, industrial, medical, computer vision, enterprise SaaS, or similar).

  • 5+ years working directly with enterprise clients in a customer-facing Solutions Engineer, Sales Engineer, or Solutions Architect role.

  • Demonstrated success designing and delivering complex enterprise-grade technical solutions for customers in production environments.

  • Track record as a hands-on engineer: you’ve debugged gnarly issues, written core components yourself, and solved problems that didn’t come with a playbook.

  • Experience building and deploying solutions on the edge or on-premise, as well as in cloud-native environments (AWS, Azure, Kubernetes).

  • Hands-on experience with numerous sensor technologies (video, vibration, radar, temperature, accelerometers, etc.) and communications protocols (REST, MQTT, TCP/UDP, WebSockets, serial, RTSP, etc.).

  • Proficiency integrating with customer systems via APIs, Kafka, and data pipelines.

  • Ability to design and build data ingestion pipelines for real-time and batch processing scenarios.

• Technical Skills

  • Proficiency in multiple programming languages (e.g., Python, C#, C++, JavaScript/TypeScript) and able to roll up your sleeves to build production-grade code, not just prototypes.

  • Experience with modern software architecture (microservices, event-driven systems, containerized deployments).

  • Experience building full-stack applications with modern frameworks and tooling (e.g., Svelte, React, Tailwind, Node.js).

  • Knowledge of compliance frameworks including SOC2, HIPAA, PHI, GDPR, and ISO standards.

  • Familiarity with security best practices such as TLS/SSL, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, secure connectivity protocols, and IoT security.

  • Understanding of data provenance, governance, and secure data handling.

  • Familiarity with model deployment, inference pipelines, and real-time data processing.

• Soft Skills & Attributes

  • Startup-ready mindset, thrives in ambiguity, adapts quickly to change, and operates at speed without sacrificing quality.

  • Hardcore problem-solver with a bias for action: the kind of engineer who digs in, finds the root cause, and gets it done even when the path isn’t obvious.

  • Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex technology into customer value.

  • Consultative and collaborative, with the ability to navigate complex enterprise environments.

  • Skilled at mentoring and enabling other engineers.

  • Self-starter with strong organizational and time-management skills.

  • Willingness to travel extensively as needed for customer success. This may include regular customer engagements, visits to Palo Alto HQ, trade shows, and industry events. While travel volume may fluctuate, candidates should be prepared for periods of heavy travel, including extended on-site work with customers if required.

We Would Love To See

• Experience with machine learning and artificial intelligence in production environments.

• Background in edge computing, low-latency pipelines, or multimodal systems.

• Prior work with large enterprise accounts and multi-stakeholder solution sales.

• Knowledge of additional industry-specific standards or compliance frameworks.