Forward Deployed Software Engineer - SF

OpenAI; United States; Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Travel up to 50%

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking customer-focused software engineers to build custom software leveraging OpenAI APIs for real customer problems. As an FDSWE, you will design scalable solutions with OpenAI Forward Deployed Engineers across Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success to deliver impact.

You will work hands-on with customers’ teams, coding and guiding projects to completion, while collaborating with Research and Product teams to incorporate feedback and improve delivery quality.

Qualifications

• Experience with software engineering in customer-facing roles.

Responsibilities

• Embed with strategic customers to understand business and technical needs.
• Design, architect, and develop full-stack solutions for production deployments.
• Prepare scopes of work and project plans for prototypes and deployments.
• Collaborate with multiple internal teams to ensure smooth customer experiences and feedback.
• Share best practices and insights to scale the Front Deployed Engineering function.

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

We are looking for customer-focused software engineers to build effective custom software that leverages OpenAI’s APIs to solve real customer problems. As an FDSWE, you will work with our customers and OpenAI Forward Deployed Engineers to design and implement scalable solutions that solve their most difficult problems.

You will design abstractions to solve customer problems, and then use them to scale our speed and quality of delivery across all Forward Deployed engagements. You will collaborate closely with Sales, Solutions Engineering, Solutions Architects, and Customer Success Managers who work on the same account. You will also work with our Research and Applied Product and Engineering teams to provide insightful customer feedback.

This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. We offer relocation assistance. Travel up to 50% is required.

• Embed deeply with strategic customers to understand their business challenges and technical requirements in detail.
• Design, architect, and develop full-stack solutions using an experiment-driven, iterative approach.
• Prepare detailed scopes of work and project plans for both proof-of-concept prototypes and full production deployments.
• Work hands‑on with customers' technical teams as a technical expert and trusted advisor, coding side‑by‑side to drive projects to completion on their infrastructure.
• Collaborate with Product, Research and Applied teams to ensure seamless customer experiences, project success and actionable product feedback.
• Contribute to internal knowledge bases, codifying best practices and sharing insights gained from customer engagements to scale the Forward Deployed Engineering function.
• You’ll thrive in th