Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering
Application analysis
Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering at OpenAI is a forward deployed ai research lab role for engineers who want customer-facing technical work with real deployment ownership.
Reading this role
This Forward Deployed Engineer role centers on embedded customer delivery — discovery, prototyping, integration, and production rollout. Key signals from the listing: Senior scope.
About OpenAI
OpenAI ships frontier models to real customers through small, high-trust engineering teams. Forward deployed roles sit between product, research, and enterprise buyers. The role is anchored in San Francisco, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Signals in the listing
Stand out for Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering to a specific customer or deployment you owned — OpenAI hires for shipped outcomes, not tool lists.
- Prepare a 5-minute “week one on site” plan: who you would meet, what you would inspect in their stack, and what artifact you would deliver by day five.
- Show you can go from discovery notes → working integration → production checklist without needing a large internal team.
- This role is tied to San Francisco — mention willingness to work on-site with customers and any existing ties to that market (clients, partners, or domain knowledge).
Stand out at OpenAI
- Demonstrate customer obsession with safety constraints with a concrete example — OpenAI will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Demonstrate writing and communication with a concrete example — OpenAI will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Interview loops emphasize problem decomposition, taste in product, and whether you can earn trust with technical and non-technical stakeholders quickly.
- Read recent engineering blog posts, product launches, and customer stories on openai.com — reference one explicitly in your outreach to show genuine interest.
Tailored from this listing’s title, company, and description. Always verify requirements on the company careers page before applying.
Role description
About the team
OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering team partners with customers to turn research breakthroughs into production systems. We operate at the intersection of customer delivery and core platform development.
About the role
As a foundational FDE manager, you’ll lead FDE through high-stakes, ambiguous customer deployments and own technical and business value outcomes end to end. You’ll grow a team that can operate under pressure and help OpenAI learn from the field. You’ll partner closely with Product, Research, Sales, and GTM to ensure fieldwork informs roadmap priorities, drives new exploration, and supports safe deployment at scale. Your decisions will influence how OpenAI is trusted by the customers closest to our deployment work. Your success will be measured by how consistently your team ships, how clearly you deliver signal to Research and Product, and how durable your team and delivery model prove to be. This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. This role also will require travel up to 25%. In this role you will - Lead and grow a team of FDE delivering production systems with frontier models - Own end-to-end delivery outcomes through clarity, speed, tight coordination, and technical quality - Codify what works into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs that create leverage for both OpenAI and our wider developer community - Notice early indicators and raise them with urgency, whether in product behavior, customer environments, or delivery practices - Use judgement to distinguish what requires action and what does not - Set a high bar for FDE performance and support each person’s growth through direct, actionable feedback - Define how we staff and support field teams that can scale without added complexity You might thrive in this role if you - Bring 8+ years of engineering or technical delivery experience, including 2+ years managing high-perfor