Forward Deployed Software Engineer — AI & Operations

Lanart Rug Inc. — Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu or Montréal, Quebec

Full-time, permanent | In person at either office | Limited hybrid flexibility by agreement

Compensation: C$130,000–C$200,000 annual base salary, plus formula-based participation in incremental net sales and eligible operating profit attributable to assigned deployments. The final percentages, baselines, attribution rules and measurement periods will be documented in writing before employment begins.

The mandate

Lanart is building an AI-native operating system inside an established Canadian manufacturing and consumer-products business. We are hiring a Forward Deployed Software Engineer who will sit directly with the people doing the work, understand messy operational problems, and ship production software that changes the outcome.

This is not a ticket-taking or pure research role. You will move between discovery, architecture, coding, deployment and adoption. One week may involve automating a finance or logistics workflow; the next may involve building an AI-assisted product, connecting an ERP to an external platform, or putting reliable data in front of a factory or commercial team.

The environment is fast, direct and high ownership. The role regularly requires work beyond a standard 40-hour week and occasional late nights around launches or critical incidents. Lanart will respect applicable employment standards and overtime requirements.

What you will own

• Embed with commercial, e-commerce, finance, logistics, manufacturing and product teams to identify high-value problems.
• Turn ambiguous workflows into clear technical requirements, measurable outcomes and maintainable production systems.
• Build full-stack applications, integrations, data pipelines, automations and AI-enabled tools using modern APIs and cloud infrastructure.
• Connect systems such as ERP, accounting, marketplaces, e-commerce, logistics, spreadsheets, databases and factory data sources.
• Use LLMs, retrieval, agents and structured automation where they materially improve quality, speed or decision-making—not as demos.
• Own deployments end to end: data handling, testing, permissions, observability, documentation, user training and incident response.
• Work directly with internal users and, when required, customers, suppliers and technology partners.
• Convert one-off solutions into reusable components, standards and an operating backlog.

What strong performance looks like in the first 90 days

1. Map the highest-value operational workflows and establish a prioritized deployment backlog with measurable baselines.
2. Ship at least two useful production deployments that real users adopt and that produce a measurable business or cycle-time improvement.
3. Establish practical standards for source control, environments, secrets, observability, testing and rollback.
4. Create a reliable feedback loop between users, business owners and the technical roadmap.
5. Produce a clear next-quarter plan linking engineering work to revenue, margin, working capital, risk or service outcomes.

What you bring

• A record of personally shipping production software and owning the result after launch.
• Strong software-engineering fundamentals in Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, or a comparable language, plus SQL and API integration experience.
• Practical experience deploying AI or automation into a real workflow, including evaluation, failure handling and human oversight.
• The ability to understand an operational problem, challenge assumptions and choose a solution proportionate to the value at stake.
• Comfort working across frontend, backend, data and infrastructure when the problem requires it.
• Strong communication with both technical and non-technical users; you can earn trust on the floor and explain tradeoffs to ownership.
• High agency, urgency and judgment in an environment with incomplete information and limited structure.
• Authorization to work in Canada and the ability to work regularly from either the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu or Montréal office, with collaboration at the other office when deployments require it. Relocation support can be discussed.

Experience in manufacturing, e-commerce, ERP, accounting systems, logistics, marketplaces, industrial data or customer-facing engineering is valuable but not required.

French is strongly valued. English is required because the role works with English-language software, customers, marketplaces, suppliers and technology partners across North America.

How to apply

Please send a concise application answering these questions. Links to code or sanitized work samples are welcome.

1. What is the most valuable production system you personally shipped? What was the baseline, what did you build, and what changed?
2. Describe an AI or automation workflow you deployed for real users. How did you evaluate quality and handle failure?
3. Tell us about a messy integration or data problem. Which systems were involved and how did you make it reliable?
4. Describe a technical tradeoff you made under time pressure and how you managed the risk.
5. Can you work primarily in person from either Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu or Montréal and collaborate at the other office when deployments require it? Which office would be your base, and would relocation be required?
6. Are you currently authorized to work in Canada?

The interview process is a 15-minute introductory call, a 30-minute technical conversation, a 60-minute structured working session using a fictional problem, and—after mutual agreement—a paid in-person work trial. We do not request unpaid company-specific work.

Lanart evaluates candidates using job-related evidence and demonstrated results. We welcome qualified applicants from all backgrounds and will provide reasonable accommodation during the hiring process.