Forward Deployed Engineering Manager - NYC, Hybrid

Fdetimes; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Hybrid work model (3 days in office)

Travel up to 25%

Job summary

OpenAI's Forward Deployed Engineering team seeks a foundational FDE manager in New York City to lead a team delivering production systems with frontier models. You will own end-to-end delivery outcomes while collaborating with Product, Research, Sales, and GTM to align fieldwork with strategic priorities.

You will mentor engineers, drive high-stakes deployments with clarity and urgency, and codify best practices into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs that scale OpenAI and our developer

Qualifications

• Ten+ years of engineering or technical delivery experience.
• At least 2 years managing FDE or customer-facing engineers.
• Led high-pressure technical projects from prototype to production.
• Proficiency writing and reviewing production-grade code in Javascript or Python.
• Ability to simplify complex work and make fast, sound decisions under pressure.
• Provide clear feedback to improve team performance.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of FDE delivering production systems with frontier models.
• Own end-to-end delivery outcomes through clarity, speed, coordination, and technical quality.
• Codify what works into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs that create leverage for both OpenAI and our wider developer community
• Notice early indicators and raise them with urgency, whether in product behavior, customer environments, or delivery practices
• Use judgement to distinguish what requires action and what does not
• Set a high bar for FDE performance and support each person’s growth through direct, actionable feedback
• Define how we staff and support field teams that can scale without added complexity

Skills

Engineering leadership

FDE management

Frontend/backend coding

Decision making under pressure

Team empowerment

Ambiguity navigation

Feedback for product/research

Trust and mentorship

Job description

OpenAI's Forward Deployed Engineering team seeks a foundational FDE manager in New York City to lead a team delivering production systems with frontier models. You will own end-to-end delivery outcomes while collaborating with Product, Research, Sales, and GTM to align fieldwork with strategic priorities.

You will mentor engineers, drive high-stakes deployments with clarity and urgency, and codify best practices into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs that scale OpenAI and our developer