Platform Engineering Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE)

In this role you will

• Guide a focused portfolio of platform bets: Steer direction for a small number of high-signal problems, with clear hypotheses, success criteria, sequencing, and measurable adoption outcomes.
• Build and validate with customers: Ensure the team ships working software with design partners, instruments usage and outcomes, and iterates quickly based on real-world adoption and constraints.
• Co-develop with long-term owners: Partner early with B2B Platform (and other durable owners) to align on architecture, interfaces, security/governance requirements, and handoff criteria, staying engaged through validation and the path to scale.
• Maintain a high engineering bar: Set and enforce standards for design, code quality, testing, observability, and operational readiness appropriate for enterprise use.
• Grow and develop the team: Coach and develop engineers through direct feedback, clear expectations, and durable team mechanisms that reinforce execution and ownership.
• Operate with high judgment and influence: Make clear tradeoffs under ambiguity, communicate decisions crisply across stakeholders, and drive outcomes through partnership rather than formal authority.

You might thrive in this role if you

• Bring 8+ years of engineering experience, including 2+ years managing high-performance engineers
• Are deeply customer-obsessed and can partner credibly with senior stakeholders while keeping a high bar for delivery and technical rigor.
• Naturally act as a shepherd: you elevate and refine others’ ideas, sharpen hypotheses, and make disciplined “scale vs pause” calls with clear reasoning.
• Excel at cross-functional execution, forming tight partnerships with engineering, product, research, and GTM teams to deliver outcomes without needing formal authority.
• Can build inclusive team mechanics – rotations, mentorship, and scoped ownership – that increase collaboration across teams rather than creating a gated platform group.