Forward Deployed Engineer - US

OpenAI Deployment Company; United States; Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Hybrid work model

Job summary

OpenAI Deployment Company is seeking a Founding Forward Deployed Engineer based in San Francisco or New York City. This role uses a hybrid model with three days in the office and requires relocation assistance, with travel up to 50% to enterprise deployments.

You will act as the technical lead on high-stakes customer engagements, own problems end-to-end, and help shape the operating model for swift, safe execution while growing the team and delivering measurable business value.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of engineering or technical delivery experience.
• 0→1 experience building reusable capabilities under ambiguity.
• Led high-pressure technical projects from prototype to production.
• Production-grade code written across frontend and backend using JavaScript or Python.

Responsibilities

• Act as the technical lead for customer engagements, owning problems end-to-end from definition to resolution.
• Operate with agency, delivering outcomes through clarity, speed, tight coordination, and high technical quality.
• Guide deployment strategy and help define DeployCo’s operating model for swift, safe execution.
• Define and build deployment primitives that increase both customer impact and engagement velocity.
• Operate as a player-coach, setting a high bar for execution while helping grow the team through direct, actionable feedback.
• Codify successful patterns into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs that create leverage for DeployCo.
• Identify early signals and escape them with urgency—whether in product behavior, customer environments, or delivery practices.

Skills

Engineering delivery

JavaScript

Python

Frontend & Backend

Communication under pressure

Tools

JavaScript

Python

Job description

About the Company

The OpenAI Deployment Company (“DeployCo”) is the deployment arm of OpenAI, purpose-built to deliver enterprise AI transformation at scale. As model capabilities accelerate, deployment has become the primary constraint to realizing AI value creation within large enterprises. DeployCo bridges that gap.

Our ambition is to build the company that defines AI deployment. We operate at the intersection of cutting-edge AI, enterprise transformation, and scaled services delivery. We partner with enterprise customers to identify where AI can transform their businesses and build solutions leveraging OpenAI’s models and products. We work with many of the world’s largest and most influential companies to solve their most complex business challenges using the latest advances in AI.

People who thrive at DeployCo get excited about ambitious and complex work. We are deep believers in the future with AI. We execute quickly, value intellectual honesty, and obsess over the solutions we build for our customers.

DeployCo is being built from the ground up as a subsidiary of OpenAI and funded with a partnership of outside investors.

About the Role

As a Founding Forward Deployed Engineer, you will operate as a technical lead on high-stakes, ambiguous customer deployments and own both technical and business value outcomes end-to-end. You will set the bar for customer engagement and deployments of our technology, helping establish the foundation for OpenAI Deployment.

You will ramp quickly toward management responsibilities and help grow a team that can operate under pressure to deliver meaningful outcomes for customers.

You will also help shape how AI can be leveraged to drive real-world impact, as well as how the team organizes to deliver that impact. You will partner closely with OpenAI’s core functions to ensure field work informs roadmap priorities, drives new exploration, and supports safe deployment at scale.

This role is based in San Francisco or New York City. We use a hybrid work model with three days per week in the office and offer relocation assistance. This role will also require up to 50% travel.

In this role, you will:

• Act as the technical lead for customer engagements, owning problems end-to-end from definition to resolution
• Operate with strong agency, delivering outcomes through clarity, speed, tight coordination, and high technical quality
• Guide deployment strategy and help define DeployCo’s operating model for swift, safe execution
• Define and build deployment primitives that increase both customer impact and engagement velocity
• Operate as a player-coach, setting a high bar for execution while helping grow the team through direct, actionable feedback
• Codify successful patterns into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs that create leverage for DeployCo
• Identify early signals and escape them with urgency—whether in product behavior, customer environments, or delivery practices

You may thrive in this role if you:

• Bring 4+ years of engineering or technical delivery experience
• Have 0→1 experience building reusable capabilities under ambiguity, and can make disciplined standardization-versus-customization decisions instead of defaulting to bespoke work
• Have led high-pressure technical projects from prototype to production
• Write and review production-grade code across frontend and backend using JavaScript or Python
• Simplify complex work and make fast, sound decisions under pressure
• Elevate team performance through clarity rather than process overhead
• Operate with urgency in ambiguous or evolving environments
• Translate field experience into clear, actionable feedback for Product and Research
• Build deep trust with teammates by modeling calm, focus, and strong judgment when it matters most