Director of Forward Deployed Engineering

What You Will Do

• Build, lead, and develop the Forward Deployed Engineering team, including hiring standards, training, career development, and compensation.
• Define the engagement model: how engagements are scoped, staffed, sequenced, and measured, and which accounts qualify for embedded support.
• Own delivery excellence for strategic customer engagements, from discovery and technical scoping through production deployment and stabilization.
• Establish the commercial model for professional services, including packaging, pricing, capacity planning, and resource allocation across competing customer priorities.
• Stay hands-on where it matters: architecture reviews, system design, and unblocking critical engagements alongside your team.
• Define clear handoff protocols between Forward Deployed Engineering, Sales Engineering, Customer Success, and partners.
• Codify field learnings into repeatable playbooks, reference architectures, and delivery patterns that scale beyond individual engagements.
• Synthesize customer insights into product feedback for Engineering and Product, and report delivery outcomes and customer impact to Field Engineering and executive leadership.

About You

• 10+ years in software engineering, forward deployed engineering, or technical consulting roles, with at least 5 years leading customer-facing engineering or delivery teams in a high-growth environment.
• Experience building a team, function, or service line from zero, including hiring, methodology, and operating model.
• Strong background in modern web technologies (JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, cloud infrastructure) with the ability to review code and whiteboard architectures credibly.
• Experience building or deploying LLM-powered applications and an understanding of how model behavior shapes product decisions.
• Commercial acumen: you have scoped, priced, and delivered technical engagements for enterprise customers and understand utilization, margin, and capacity tradeoffs.
• Demonstrated success embedding with customer engineering teams to deliver complex production systems.

Bonus If You

• Have built with Vercel, Next.js, AI SDK, or v0.
• Have led forward deployed or embedded engineering teams at an AI-native or developer platform company.
• Have owned a professional services P&L or defined services pricing and packaging from scratch.
• Are comfortable representing the function externally at conferences, customer executive briefings, or large-scale events.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation package, including equity.
• Inclusive Healthcare Package.
• Learn and Grow - we provide mentorship and send you to events that help you build your network and skills.
• Flexible Time Off.
• We will provide you the gear you need to do your role, and a WFH budget for you to outfit your space as needed.

The San Francisco, CA base pay range for this role is $240,000 -$300,000 plus bonus. Actual salary will be based on job-related skills, experience, and location. Compensation outside of San Francisco may be adjusted based on employee location. The total compensation package may include benefits, equity-based compensation, and eligibility for a company bonus or variable pay program depending on the role.