Forward Deployed Engineer Intern – AI Implementation

About the role

Redefine the future of customer experiences. One conversation at a time. At Nextiva, we’re reimagining how businesses connect, bringing together customer experience and team collaboration on a single, conversation centric platform. Powered by AI, driven by human innovation. Our culture is forward thinking, customer obsessed and built on the belief that meaningful connections drive better business outcomes. Whether it’s through our signature Amazing Service®, the technology we create, or the experiences we cultivate, connection is at the core of who we are. If you’re ready to collaborate with incredible people, make an impact, and help businesses everywhere deliver truly amazing experiences, this is where you belong.

Location

This is an onsite role based at Nextiva’s Scottsdale headquarters (9451 E. Via de Ventura, Scottsdale, AZ 85256). Working together onsite strengthens how we operate, enabling faster decisions, clearer communication, and stronger execution, so you can make a greater impact and move work forward with speed and clarity.

In-office expectation

This role is expected to work onsite four days per week. Specific scheduling and flexibility will be guided by your leader to support both team collaboration and individual productivity.

What You'll Do

• Partner with Sales through live customer handoffs following product purchase.
• Guide customers through Xbert AI onboarding and initial platform setup.
• Configure AI Employees for common business use cases.
• Write and refine prompts that produce reliable, predictable AI responses.
• Build deterministic conversation flows and workflow logic.
• Configure greetings, routing, transfers, business hours, and after-hours experiences.
• Configure prebuilt tools and simple API-enabled functions within the platform.
• Test AI prompts, workflows, and customer experiences before deployment.
• Train customers on how to use and manage their AI Employees.
• Document customer requirements, configurations, implementation notes, and next steps.
• Recognize when customer requirements require deeper technical expertise and partner with the Forward Deployed Engineering team.
• Maintain clear customer communication throughout implementation.
• Share customer feedback with Product, Engineering, and internal stakeholders to improve the platform.

About You

• You enjoy solving problems, learning new technology, and working directly with customers.
• You can explain technical concepts clearly and are excited about applying AI to real business challenges.
• You have excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• You have confidence presenting technical concepts in a simple, customer-friendly way.
• You have foundational knowledge of large language models such as OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, or Llama.
• You understand prompt engineering and how prompts influence model behavior.
• You have basic knowledge of APIs, including inputs, outputs, parameters, and common response patterns.
• You are familiar with workflows, tool calling, or function calling concepts.
• You have strong analytical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• You have a collaborative mindset and willingness to ask questions and learn.
• You are available to work a schedule aligned with Arizona business hours.

Nice to have

• Experience with Python.
• Experience with low-code or no-code automation platforms.
• Experience with conversational AI or chatbot development.
• Experience with API integrations.
• Experience with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
• Experience with embeddings or vector databases.
• Experience with AI evaluation frameworks, prompt testing, or model benchmarking.

What You'll Gain

• Hands-on experience implementing AI solutions for real customers.
• Preliminary exposure to prompt engineering, AI workflows, tool calling, and customer onboarding.
• Mentorship from experienced Forward Deployed Engineers.
• Experience working at the intersection of AI, customer success, and solutions engineering.
• The opportunity to contribute to customer implementations that deliver measurable business value.

Nextiva DNA (Core Competencies)

• Drives Results: Action-oriented problem solvers who quickly bring clarity and simplicity to ambiguity, challenge the status quo, and lead meaningful change; celebrating wins to fuel momentum. They act swiftly and pragmatically, learning and improving as they go.
• Critical Thinker: Data-driven, forward-thinking individuals who identify key drivers, anticipate risks, and deliver clear recommendations. They confidently leverage AI and automation to reduce friction, improve decision-making, and focus on higher-value work.
• Right Attitude: Collaborative, competitive, and resilient team players who jump in to solve tough problems, learn from setbacks, and foster a culture of service, respect, and care for customers and teammates.