Forward Deployed Engineer - Tokyo

OpenAI; United States; Hybrid; USD 114,000 - 203,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Travel opportunities

Bilingual (Japanese/English)

Job summary

OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering team partners with customers to deploy frontier models in production, owning discovery, scoping, system design, build, and rollout.

Based in Tokyo with a hybrid office schedule and relocation support, travel within Japan is expected, and the role requires bilingual fluency in Japanese and English, combining hands-on delivery with close collaboration across teams.

Responsibilities

• Own technical delivery across multiple deployments from prototype to production
• Build full-stack systems that deliver customer value and accelerate learning
• Embed with customer teams, understand their needs, and drive adoption
• Scope work, sequence delivery, and remove blockers early
• Make trade-offs between scope, speed, and quality; adjust plans
• Contribute directly in code when progress requires it
• Codify working patterns into tools, playbooks, or building blocks
• Share field feedback to help Research and Product improve models
• Keep teams moving through clarity and follow-through

Job 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

Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) lead complex end-to-end deployments of frontier models in production alongside our most strategic customers. You will own discovery, technical scoping, system design, build, and production rollout, partnering directly with customer engineering and domain teams. You will measure success through production adoption, measurable workflow impact, and eval-driven feedback that changes product and model roadmaps. You’ll work closely with our Product, Research, Partnerships, GRC, Security, and GTM teams. This role is based in Tokyo. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. Travel is expected in this role, mainly within Japan. To succeed in this position you must be bilingual fluent in both Japanese and English (spoken and written). Please note that your resume must be submitted in English, and the interview process will include conversations in both languages.

Responsibilities

• Own technical delivery across multiple deployments from first prototype to stable production
• Build full-stack systems that deliver customer value and sharpen how we learn
• Embed closely with customer teams, understand their needs, and guide adoption of what you build
• Scope work, sequence delivery, and remove blockers early
• Make trade-offs between scope, speed, and quality; adjust plans to protect delivery
• Contribute directly in the code when progress or clarity depends on it
• Codify working patterns into tools, playbooks, or building blocks that others can use
• Share field feedback that helps Research and Product understand where the models succeed and where they can improve
• Keep teams moving through clarity and follow-through

How you might thrive

You might thrive in this role if you Bri