ElevenLabs Forward Deployed Engineer Interview Guide

ElevenLabs is a medium-sized startup specializing in AI-powered, human-sounding speech and audio synthesis.

ElevenLabs hires highly self-motivated individuals, often with backgrounds in entrepreneurship or extensive experience in end-to-end project ownership.

As a startup, they have a horizontal org structure and use an interview style that is less process-focused than at other organizations.

They are not highly invested in a particular culture fit screen, and they do not have a dedicated behavioral round. Instead, they will sprinkle behavioral questions throughout the interview process.

Below, we break down the complete forward-deployed engineer interview process at ElevenLabs.

Interview Process

ElevenLabs' Forward-Deployed Engineer interview process will assess both your technical skills and your ability to understand customers' needs and pain points.

Each round will begin with a five- to ten-minute discussion of a behavioral topic

Here’s a general outline of how each interview looks:

Recruiter screen: A short call to discuss your background, past projects, and interest in the role
Coding assessment: A one-hour, automated, multi-question assessment of coding skills
Coding interview: A more in-depth question with a set of tasks
Case study interview: A hypothetical customer will present you with a problem, and you will be asked to mock up a solution
Founder interview: A high-level discussion that covers your past projects and companies, along with a deeper exploration of the details of the role.

All of these interviews will be remote, but deployed engineers are sometimes expected to work out of a specific office.

Our guides are built from recent, real, first-hand insights shared by both interviewers and candidates.

Processes change. If your experience differs, tell us here–we actively update our information.

Recruiter screen

This recruiter call will go deeper than similar calls at other companies, and will focus on both your skills fit and on past projects that highlight your autonomy and ability to come up with solutions on your own.

You’ll want to discuss examples that combine customer-facing work with technical work, as this role will involve extensive interaction with ElevenLabs’ customers.

The interviewer may ask you to describe past projects in detail in order to see if you have the desired skillset.

Recruiter Screen Questions:

Coding exercise

This exercise is the only round that won’t involve a behavioral question, as you will complete it on your own.

You’ll be given a link to a set of questions that you will complete on CodeSignal. These questions will not be overly difficult and will focus on basic technical problem-solving. You’ll have one hour to complete them.

Because you are working alone, you can run tests to make sure your solutions work before they are considered complete.

Coding Exercise Questions:

Coding interview

This round will start with a short, ten-minute discussion about a behavioral topic, such as a time you faced a conflict or an example of a challenging project.

The coding challenge will be more involved than the screening round, but it won’t necessarily be related to ElevenLabs' products and services.

You’ll be given a shared Google Doc and asked to write code to complete a set of technical tasks. For example, you might be asked to assess permissions in a file system based on user IDs.

You would need to write Python functions that take different dimensions into account, such as the file system hierarchy, the timestamps of certain permission changes, and so on.

Coding Interview Questions:

Case study

You’ll begin with another brief behavioral discussion, such as cross-functional work, leadership, or conflict resolution.

This round will be mostly conversational, though you will be able to diagram out your solution on Excalidraw.

You’ll be given a problem, such as a company that is looking to automate an internal or customer-facing process, and you’ll get to ask more about their specific needs and issues.

Rather than a technically-focused discussion, the interviewer will want to see how quickly you can zero in on a customer’s pain points and motivations. You’ll want to think about more than how to solve the issue and understand the specifics of why it’s an issue for them.

While they will ask you about some technical aspects, the primary role of this interview is to signal your ability to understand customer needs and ask good questions.

Example Case Study Questions:

Founder interview

This interview will focus primarily on past projects but will also include technical discussions and behavioral questions. You will likely speak with the CTO or someone in a high-level technical role.

Similar to the recruiter screen, the questions will focus on determining your ability to thrive in ElevenLab’s results-focused, autonomous, and horizontal organizational structure.

When they ask about past projects, it’s a good idea to highlight projects you played a major role in or completed independently, as ElevenLabs favors self-motivated solutioning.

It’s also a very important component of this role, as you’ll need to design and implement unique customer-focused solutions to solve specific needs.

Because deployed engineering is a relatively new paradigm in the industry, this interview will allow you to ask questions and gain a deeper understanding of how ElevenLabs uses its deployed team members, how it works with solutions architects, and other relevant details.

Founder Interview Questions:

Common Mistakes

Here are some of the mistakes people make when preparing to interview for an forward deployed engineer position at ElevenLabs:

Over-preparing for behavioral and cultural questions, as this is not a point of focus at ElevenLabs
Only preparing for product-specific questions related to AI audio synthesis, as the questions are often more general
Focusing on technical skills at the expense of customer- and product-focused concerns
Choosing past projects and examples that were the result of a great deal of process and collaboration, rather than end-to-end ownership
Not doing enough research or not having adequate experience working directly with customers on technical solutions
Not preparing for context switching in interview rounds, as each interview will combine technical assessment, experience, and behavioral questions

Interview Prep

Focus on balance and speed: Because of the hybrid nature of the role and the general unpredictability of a growth-focused startup, you will be expected to roll with changes and new ideas constantly. With this in mind, you should be able to move quickly from addressing customer needs to prototyping to cross-team work.

Talk about results, not process: While your interviews will want to understand your past work, they will be less interested in the defined processes of each company and more focused on how your work drove results and success. Teamwork is less important to them than a strong track record as a problem solver who is willing to roll up their sleeves.

Lead with a “hacker mindset”: As a rapidly-growing startup, ElevenLabs wants people who can adapt and develop quickly, rather than resign themselves to a particular niche. Looking over your history, you should identify times when you had to handle unexpected changes or solve a problem alone. This can include activities such as hackathons, open-source work, and other self-motivated projects.

About the Role

ElevenLabs’ Forward Deployed Engineers fulfill a specific function, but the work can vary a great deal depending on the customers you are working with. Here are some common characteristics:

Optimize AI and agents: You’ll work with clients to understand their specific needs and any issues they have with ElevenLabs’ agents and AI voice generator. You’ll make technical and strategic recommendations to resolve their issues.

Collaboration and customization: Your work will focus on technical solutions that enable you to customize ElevenLabs’ products to meet each client’s needs and address their specific challenges. You’ll also act as an advocate for these tools, helping clients understand the breadth of their capabilities so they can maximize their returns.

Contribute to AI strategy: Use your insights and experiences with customers to recommend and spec out new AI solutions to help ElevenLabs market to specific industries. Your customer experience can inform the next generation of AI products and tools.

Core Responsibilities

While forward-deployed engineers fill a fairly specific need, startups like ElevenLabs often ask their team members to go beyond their normal range of duties. Here are some of the general tasks you’ll be asked to complete for this role:

Act as an advocate for ElevenLabs’ tools, helping customers understand their potential and their customizability. This can include presentations, demos, and collaboration with client engineering teams.
Develop a deep understanding of each client’s technical and organizational issues and needs, and come up with effective and technically sound proposals to help solve them.
Own the development of new client- and industry-specific tools developed to address customer issues and pain points.
Use your experiences to help ElevenLabs design new features and products that meet industry and client needs. Help increase the value of ElevenLabs’ offerings by developing new and powerful customizations.

Compensation

There’s not enough data available for what software engineers at ElevenLabs make on average for total compensation. Our estimate is that they pay competitively with other startups at their stage.

Job Requirements

Experience

ElevenLabs has no hard experience requirements, but you must have specific technical skills, particularly in Python and API integration. Their interview questions are fairly difficult, and you will need to have a strong track record as a self-motivated worker.

They also do not require you to have career experience working with customers, but they do specify that you will need to know how to communicate and collaborate with customers, understand their technical specifications, and propose solutions.

Education

Their jobs page does not list any specific education requirements. You will be asked questions about past projects, and these may include projects you worked on in school.

Resources

FAQs

How long is the ElevenLabs Forward Deployed Engineer interview process?

As a startup, ElevenLabs tends to move quickly, and candidates have reported getting an offer 4 to 5 weeks after starting the process.

Do I need AI experience to work at ElevenLabs?

While AI work experience is not a requirement, you are expected to have a solid understanding of audio AI, API integration, and some knowledge of how AI models work. This can include unpaid work such as personal projects, hackathons, and student projects.

Does ElevenLabs have internships?

ElevenLabs does not currently offer internships.

Does ElevenLabs offer remote work opportunities?

ElevenLabs is a remote-first company that has offices in Bangalore, Dublin, London, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Warsaw. Forward-deployed engineers are sometimes asked to work in a specific region because their work will require direct collaboration with clients there.

How long should I wait after a rejection before reapplying to ElevenLabs?

They do not provide a specific timeline on their site, but the best practice is to wait at least 6 months to a year before reapplying. If you were rejected for a specific reason, such as relocation issues, you can reapply sooner if that reason changes.