Director of Product Management, Forward Deployed & Strategy
Application analysis
Director of Product Management, Forward Deployed & Strategy at Scale AI is a forward deployed ai company 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: Government / DoD context, Senior scope.
About Scale AI
This company is building AI products where forward deployed engineers translate capabilities into customer outcomes quickly. The role is anchored in New York, NY, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Signals in the listing
Stand out for Director of Product Management, Forward Deployed & Strategy
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Director of Product Management, Forward Deployed & Strategy to a specific customer or deployment you owned — Scale AI 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.
- State clearance status clearly up front (active, expired, or eligible) and mention any prior NIPR/SIPR, IL5, or government cloud accreditation work — recruiters filter on this early.
- This role is tied to New York, NY — mention willingness to work on-site with customers and any existing ties to that market (clients, partners, or domain knowledge).
Stand out at Scale AI
- Demonstrate rapid prototyping with a concrete example — Scale AI will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Demonstrate customer discovery with a concrete example — Scale AI will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Expect questions about real deployments, safety tradeoffs, and how you partner with customers on week one.
- Read recent engineering blog posts, product launches, and customer stories on scale.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
Role Summary
Lead a high-stakes team of Product Managers responsible for successful delivery and integration of Scale products into complex customer environments. Own the feedback loop that converts bespoke field wins into scalable, repeatable product strategy, partnering deeply with Sales/GTM and EPD (Eng/Product/Design).
Core
Responsibilities
Hire, mentor, and deploy PMs across strategic accounts (e.g., Fortune 100, government). Identify patterns across deployments; decide which bespoke solutions should move from custom to core product. Primary product partner to Sales/GTM leadership to align roadmap with market demand. Provide strategic + technical oversight to unblock high-priority deployments in “red zones.” Champion the voice of the field within internal EPD teams.
Ideal Background
10+ years of product leadership, including 4+ years managing Product Management teams. Experience in forward-deployed models or top-tier technical consulting / implementation. High technical IQ: comfort with APIs, data pipelines, SQL; understands how data quality affects model performance. Extreme ownership + systems thinking; navigates complex stakeholder landscapes from engineers to C-suite. PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.
About Us:
At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications. We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status. We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [email protected]. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information. We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision. PLEASE NOTE: We collect, retain and use personal data for our professional business purposes, including notifying you of job opportunities that may be of interest and sharing with our affiliates. We limit the personal data we collect to that which we believe is appropriate and necessary to manage applicants’ needs, provide our services, and comply with applicable laws. Any information we collect in connection with your application will be treated in accordance with our internal policies and programs designed to protect personal data. Please see our privacy policy for additional information.