AI Presales Engineer

S&F AI Automation is a team of AI geeks who see our work as a way to express creativity. We are looking for someone who shares this obsession and will raise the bar: challenge our architecture decisions, bring tools and techniques we haven't tried, and help us turn prospects into projects we will enjoy engineering.

At the moment, we are building our client base but lack a senior technical voice in presales engagements. This limits the department's ability to design reliable, scalable solutions and to speak with authority during technical conversations with prospects. 

This role brings senior-level engineering depth to the team while also adding the presales muscle needed to grow the client base.

Mission

Own the technical side of presales engagements. Join prospect calls alongside the Department Head, translate business pain points into credible AI solution designs, build lightweight prototypes when it reduces risk, and author the technical sections of proposals.
Between engagements, act as the team’s senior technical voice, shaping architecture and technology choices so delivery stays reliable and scalable.
Finally, add much needed engineering capacity to the team, contributing to the delivery of client projects and internal AI automation initiatives.

Outcomes over the next 6–12 months

Ramp up as a presales partner within 30 days
Independently lead the technical portion of prospect calls by the end of month one. The department head should be confident you ask strong discovery questions, communicate clearly, and propose relevant approaches without heavy coaching or supervision.
Help close the first $80k in new revenue
Participate in presales engagements that result in at least $80k in signed project value within the first six months. This includes Discovery Sprints and follow-on projects that come from them.
Strengthen the team’s engineering capability
Provide architectural guidance on client or internal projects so solutions are more reliable and scalable than what would have been built without your input.

What the work looks like

Provide technical depth during presales. You join prospect calls alongside the department head and own the technical side of the conversation.You probe for technical constraints, assess feasibility in real time, identify integration points or data dependencies, and start forming an architecture before the call ends.
Design AI solutions that match the actual problem.You translate business context into an architecture with realistic scope and effort estimates. You know when prompt engineering is enough, when RAG is needed, when fine tuning or custom development is justified, and you can explain why.
Connect AI to the tools businesses already use.You design integrations that make AI solutions practical: pulling data from CRMs or ERPs, syncing with cloud drives or email, pushing outputs into Slack channels or project management tools. You think in terms of end to end workflows, not standalone modules.
Contribute to building, not just sales.Between engagements, you write production code, guide architecture decisions, and help the team ship client and internal projects. This role carries engineering weight, not just advisory influence.

Who you are

You have 3+ years of experience in a technical presales, solutions engineering, or solutions architect role. You have led discovery calls, scoped proofs of concept, and handled technical objections in B2B sales cycles.
You have hands-on experience building AI-powered applications in a professional setting, not just personal experimentation.
Your English is fluent at C1+ level. You can lead live calls with English-speaking stakeholders and handle nuanced technical questions without hesitation.
You communicate consultatively. You guide stakeholders to clarity instead of overwhelming them with options. You can easily explain a complex concept to a non-technical audience.
You take ownership and initiative. You do not need a heavy playbook. You identify gaps, flag risks early, and move things forward. Much of the presale process is still being built, and you are comfortable shaping it as you go.
You are adaptable. You are comfortable in a small team where priorities shift, and where the role will evolve as the practice grows.

Technical competencies

• Ability to assess a business problem and pitch an AI solution in real time,identify tradeoffs between approaches and create realistic effort estimates.
• Hands-on experience building LLM-powered applications: AI assistants and agents, prompt engineering for complex multi-step workflows, structured outputs, and retrieval-augmented generation systems (document ingestion, vector databases, chunking strategies, relevance fine-tuning).
• Familiarity with automation and orchestration platforms (n8n, Temporal, etc) for building end-to-end workflows.
• Ability to connect AI capabilities to enterprise systems: CRMs, ERPs, knowledge sharing systems, project management platforms, etc. 
• Experience building data pipelines that extract insights and present them in actionable formats (dashboards, reports, automated alerts). 
• Understanding of security requirements for enterprise AI systems: Zero Data Retention policies, private or segmented cloud/VPS deployments, data isolation. Knowledge of LLM safety layers including guardrails frameworks, hallucination mitigation techniques, and prompt injection protection. Ability to articulate security posture during presales conversations with enterprise clients.
• Working knowledge of AWS cloud AI services: Bedrock, SageMaker, OpenSearch. Experience setting up and managing vector databases and embedding pipelines in cloud environments. Familiarity with VPS provisioning and configuration for private AI deployments. Ability to design production infrastructure including serverless patterns (Lambda) and managed API endpoints for LLM-based applications.

About Speed & Function

Speed & Function is a software development company focused on long-term partnerships, not transactional outsourcing. Since 2006, we’ve been building digital products and teams with a strong emphasis on trust, ownership, and collaboration. We evolve our processes as real-world complexity demands.

How to apply

Apply with a short cover letter that includes why you’re considering a new opportunity, your hourly rate, your English level, your availability, and your location.