Forward Deployed Engineering Manager - Enterprise AI Leader

United States Digital Space LLC; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

United States Digital Space LLC is seeking a founding Leader for Forward Deployed Engineering to scale enterprise AI deployments with Claude. You will hire and mentor a high-performing team, set standards for customer engagements, and build repeatable playbooks to drive measurable impact.

You’ll collaborate with Sales, Product, and Engineering to translate field insights into product direction while maintaining a strong hands-on presence when needed.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, solutions architecture, or a technical customer-facing role such as forward deployed engineering or consulting.
• 2+ years of people management experience within a services/post-sales/FDE organization with a track record of hiring, developing, and retaining strong engineers.
• Experience building organizations from 0→1, not just inheriting an existing one.
• Executive presence with the ability to move fluidly between strategic conversations with senior stakeholders and hands-on debugging sessions with engineers.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; translate technical complexity into clear narratives.

Responsibilities

• Hire, develop, and retain a world-class team of Forward Deployed Engineers; set a high bar for talent and customer instincts.
• Conduct regular 1:1s, provide technical mentorship, and invest in career growth of each team member.
• Staff and oversee customer engagements across your team's portfolio, balancing customer needs, team development, and business priorities.
• Collaborate with account teams and Engagement Managers during pre-sales to qualify engagements and scope work.
• Review architectures and code, ensuring high-quality, production-ready solutions.
• Stay hands-on enough to lead technical discovery sessions and prototype solutions.
• Build repeatable playbooks and internal knowledge bases to capture field learnings.
• Define team OKRs tied to customer success and product adoption.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to translate field insights into product improvements.
• Travel to customer sites as needed (25-50%).

Skills

Software engineering

Solutions architecture

Forward deployed engineering

Consulting

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Job description

United States Digital Space LLC is seeking a founding Leader for Forward Deployed Engineering to scale enterprise AI deployments with Claude. You will hire and mentor a high-performing team, set standards for customer engagements, and build repeatable playbooks to drive measurable impact.

You’ll collaborate with Sales, Product, and Engineering to translate field insights into product direction while maintaining a strong hands-on presence when needed.