Forward Deployed Engineering Manager

Coda Search│Staffing; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 205,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Bonus

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Coda Search is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineering Manager in downtown Chicago. You’ll lead a forward deployed team, decide what belongs in the platform, and stay hands-on with integrations while guiding a growing customer base.

You’ll report to the CEO, scale delivery across multiple accounts, and help shape the tooling that makes deployments repeatable. Equity upside and a performance bonus accompany a hybrid, 2-days-on-site schedule.

Qualifications

• Experience leading engineers in customer-facing work.
• Product-minded with focus on root cause rather than one-off fixes.
• Hands-on with integrations, APIs or data pipelines.
• Turned custom work into reusable platform capabilities.
• Strong documentation and runbooks to scale the team.
• Bonus: ERP integrations, EDI, or supply chain software experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead the forward deployed team from kickoff through full adoption.
• Define what belongs in the platform vs. account-specific builds.
• Build and scale configuration management across ERPs and partner programs.
• Set engineering processes for scoping, reviewing, testing and deployment.
• Apply AI to generate configuration, data mappings, tests and docs.
• Stay hands-on: review code, debug integrations, and contribute when needed.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, implementation and customer success.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Customer-facing

Product mindset

Hands-on engineering

Reusable tooling

Documentation / runbooks

ERP integrations exposure

Tools

APIs

Data pipelines

ERP integrations

Job description

Coda Search is proud to partner with a venture-backed B2B supply chain software company on a Forward Deployed Engineering Manager hire. The role is based in downtown Chicago and is open to candidates in the Chicago metro area who can be on-site two days per week.

Comp

roughly around $175,000 (negotiable depending on experience) + bonus + meaningful equity package

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits including H/V/D, 401(k) match, PTO * other ancillary benefits

Location

Downtown Chicago, IL (Hybrid, 2 days on-site per week)

What's in it for you?

• A direct line to the top: You'll report to the CEO and help shape how the company scales delivery as its customer base grows.
• Build the system behind the team: You'll decide how customer engineering work gets scoped, built, and reused, and you'll build the tooling that makes it repeatable.
• Leadership that still builds: This seat suits a leader who wants to keep their hands in the code and integrations while running a team.
• Equity upside: A meaningful equity stake in a company that is growing quickly with experienced operators at the helm.
• Cross-functional reach: You'll work daily with platform engineering, product, implementation, and customer success, with real influence on what gets built.

What will your day look like?

• Lead the forward deployed team: Hire and coach a team of forward deployed engineers, each of whom owns a customer from kickoff through full adoption, and decide who covers which account.
• Stop building the same thing twice: Know what's been built across every customer implementation, spot repeated patterns early, and get common needs built once in the platform.
• Draw the line between custom and core: Decide what belongs in the shared platform and what stays account-specific, and keep that line clean with the platform team.
• Run configuration at scale: Build systems to manage, version, validate, and monitor a large and fast-growing volume of customer configurations across ERPs and partner programs.
• Set the engineering process: Define how customer engineering work is scoped, reviewed, tested, and deployed.
• Put AI to work: Use AI to generate configuration, data mappings, tests, and documentation so each engineer can cover more accounts.
• Stay hands-on: Review code, pair with engineers, debug integrations, and take an account yourself when the team is stretched.
• Track what matters: Measure hours per implementation and configuration errors, and raise risks to leadership early.

Who are you?

• You’ve led engineers in customer-facing work. Forward deployed, solutions, or implementation engineering leadership is the strongest background; broader engineering leadership with real customer exposure also fits.
• You have a product mindset. When someone says a customer needs something custom, you ask whether it really does, and you’d rather fix the root cause than ship twenty one-off builds.
• You’re technical at the core. You’ve built integrations, APIs, or data pipelines yourself, whether you came up through engineering or technical product management.
• You’ve turned custom work into something reusable. You’ve built tooling or frameworks that converted one-off customer work into configuration or platform capability.
• You write things down. You turn patterns and decisions into runbooks so the team scales.
• Bonus points for experience with ERP integrations, EDI, or supply chain software for distributors and manufacturers.

Related Terms: Forward Deployed Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineering Manager, FDE Manager, Solutions Engineering Manager, Implementation Engineering Manager, Integration Engineering Manager, Customer Engineering Manager, Engineering Manager, Technical Product Manager, Professional Services Engineering, Solutions Architect, API Integrations, Data Pipelines, ERP Integration, EDI, Supply Chain Software, B2B SaaS, Platform Engineering, Configuration Management, AI-Assisted Development, Chicago Engineering Jobs, Hybrid Engineering Jobs