Forward Deployed Lead

Coley S Home Remodeling; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

HTEC is seeking a senior leader to own customer relationships and oversee technical delivery across AI projects. You will guide engineering teams, manage discovery sessions, and ensure alignment between promises and outcomes.

We value 10+ years in product or engineering leadership, ability to read code, and strong business sense. Expect frequent on-site client visits and a fast-moving environment focused on impact.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in product or engineering leadership roles
• Experience leading cross-functional delivery teams in fast-paced environments
• Ability to translate customer needs into clear plans for engineers and stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day customer relationship and set expectations
• Lead technical execution from requirements to deployment and support
• Deliver measurable outcomes, track milestones, and unblock teams
• Facilitate customer discovery to translate needs into actionable plans

Skills

Customer relationships

Technical oversight

Product strategy

Cross-functional leadership

Communication

Travel onsite

Job description

At HTEC, customers come to us with business problems they want to solve through AI: increasing revenue, reducing cost, and transforming customer service. Your job is to turn these problems into robust AI solutions that deliver business value.

What You'll Do

• Own the day-to-day customer relationship: Join calls, capture feedback, and keep customers informed. Maintain clear alignment between what is promised and what is delivered, acting as the trusted voice customers rely on.
• Lead technical execution: Guide projects through the full lifecycle—from requirements gathering and system design to coding, testing, deployment, and support. Serve as the technical expert in implementation decisions.
• Deliver results: Track milestones, unblock teams, push projects to completion, and overdeliver on impact so customers see measurable outcomes.
• Facilitate customer discovery: Run discovery sessions to uncover underlying needs, translate challenges into clear plans for engineers, and understand the customer's business context.

What We're Looking For

• Customer relationship experience: Understand what customers truly care about, communicate effectively in challenging situations, and build trust that withstands complexity.
• Technical oversight: Possess engineering depth to read code, participate in architecture discussions, and recognize risky technical decisions. Have completed the full cycle from concept to deployment.
• Product and commercial sense: Act as an embedded insider, learn the customer's business, and make sharp calls on what to build, sequence, and expand. Identify product bottlenecks versus execution or change-management issues, say no when necessary, and provide evidence-backed feedback to engineering.
• A flexible mindset: Be resourceful, hands‑on when needed, and committed to getting the job done. Thrive in situations with constantly changing requirements and conflicting objectives.
• Relevant experience: 10+ years in product or engineering leadership roles where execution and customer trust were critical. Experience leading cross‑functional delivery teams in fast‑moving, high‑stakes environments.
• Communication skills: Translate between product, technical, and business stakeholders, ensuring everyone understands what is built and why it matters.
• Problem‑solving orientation: Navigate ambiguity, identify blockers early, and devise creative solutions to keep projects moving forward.
• Comfort with travel and frequent on‑site client visits to maintain presence and impact.

A Typical Day Could Look Like This

• Own one or more customer projects, such as an AI content moderation system or automated customer support solution.
• Morning stand‑ups with your team to review progress, address blockers, and align on priorities.
• Customer call with a CTO, executive team, or product lead to discuss progress, gather feedback on demos, and align next steps.
• Update your PRD based on new insights, clarifying requirements for the engineering team.
• Afternoon focused time to update project timelines, prepare for upcoming demos, and coordinate user flows with designers.
• Quick sync with the tech lead to discuss trade‑offs and ensure expectations align with feasibility.
• Possibly join a prospective customer call to understand needs and help scope potential projects.

Important Context

• Customer engagement is key: Interact closely with client teams, deeply understand constraints, and ensure solutions fit real needs.
• Variety over predictability: Work across different customers, industries, and AI applications, encountering new challenges and learning opportunities.
• Balance of autonomy and collaboration: Own relationships and delivery while collaborating daily with engineering teams.
• Professional services context: Build for clients, requiring adaptability, strong relationship skills, and comfort with changing priorities.
• Remote and in‑person collaboration: While remote, the team thrives on collaboration and open communication; every member is expected to embody this mindset.

Our Principles

• Show, don’t only tell: Excellence is our standard in code and language.
• Eat our own dogfood: We practice what we preach and use AI wherever possible.
• We are one team: People and relationships give us our competitive advantage.