Forward Deployed Team Lead (Enterprise AI Applications)

Fractal; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401(k) plan

Paid holidays (11) and parental leave

PTO

Job summary

Fractal, a strategic AI partner for Fortune 500 clients, seeks a Forward Deployed Team Lead in San Francisco Bay Area. This delivery-focused leadership role guides embedded teams delivering AI software projects for enterprise clients, translating direction into executable plans and ensuring commitments are met.

You will supervise a delivery team, review architectures, and maintain trusted client relationships while balancing technical oversight with delivery efficiency.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years in software delivery, including 3+ years managing engineering teams or delivery workstreams.
• Proven track record managing enterprise software delivery end-to-end: plans, milestones, risks, cross-functional dependencies, and clear stakeholder reporting.
• Experience operating in a client-facing or embedded delivery model—comfortable working as the counterpart to a client-side manager who sets overall direction.
• Comfortable in both executive-level conversations and deep technical design reviews.
• Working familiarity with enterprise data environments (cloud data warehouses, REST/GraphQL APIs, ERP/CRM platforms), major clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP), and modern deployment practices (CI/CD, containerization).

Responsibilities

• Delivery management: Own the plan, milestones, risks, and dependencies for the Fractal workstream.
• Client partnership: Align on priorities continuously, execute direction faithfully, escape early, avoid surprises.
• Team leadership: Lead forward-deployed engineers, assign work, manage performance, coach, remove blockers.
• Stakeholder communication: Run working sessions, brief sponsors, write status updates read by senior stakeholders.
• Scope and execution ownership: Manage the statement of work, what's in scope, and reusable capabilities.
• Technical oversight: Review designs, validate estimates, make trade-off calls with the team.
• Quality and production readiness: Enforce enterprise security/compliance from dev to production.
• Account growth and development: Identify expansion opportunities and support renewals.

Skills

Delivery management

Team leadership

Client partnership

Technical review

Stakeholder communication

Education

BS/MS in CS/Engineering

Tools

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP)

CI/CD

Containerization

REST/GraphQL APIs

ERP/CRM platforms

Job description

Forward Deployed Team Lead (AI Solutions)

Fractal is a strategic AI partner to Fortune 500 companies with a vision to power every human decision in the enterprise. Fractal is building a world where individual choices, freedom, and diversity are the greatest assets. An ecosystem where human imagination is at the heart of every decision. Where no possibility is written off, only challenged to get better. We believe that a true Fractalite is the one who empowers imagination with intelligence. Fractal has been featured as a Great Place to Work by The Economic Times in partnership with the Great Place to Work® Institute and recognized as a ‘Cool Vendor’ and a ‘Vendor to Watch’ by Gartner.

Please visit Fractal | Intelligence for Imagination for more information about Fractal

Note: This position is not eligible for Immigration Sponsorship at this time.

***Please also note that this role is specifically located in the San Francisco Bay Area and requires 100% onsite availability.If you are not local, we provide weekly travel or relocation.***

About the Role:

This is a delivery management role first, and a technical role second. We are looking for a manager with strong technical skills—not an engineer who happens to manage. As a Forward Deployed Team Lead, you will lead Fractal's embedded delivery team for a leading enterprise AI software client and their customers across domains and solutions. This is a project lead role that owns overall project direction; you operate as their day-to-day delivery counterpart, running the Fractal team, translating direction into an executable plan, and ensuring every commitment is met. Your success is measured by how predictably and transparently your team delivers and by how much trust you earn from the client's leadership. You'll bring enough technical depth to review architectures, pressure-test estimates, and keep engineers unblocked but your primary job is to manage the delivery, the team, and the relationship.

Responsibilities:

• Delivery management. Own the plan, milestones, risks, and dependencies for the Fractal workstream. When something slips, know first and flag first.
• Client partnership. Operate as the trusted deputy to the client's project lead—align on priorities continuously, execute their direction faithfully, escape early, and never let them be surprised.
• Team leadership. Lead the Fractal forward-deployed engineers on the account: work assignment, performance management, coaching, and removing blockers so the team ships.
• Stakeholder communication. Run working sessions, brief executive sponsors, and write clean status updates that senior stakeholders will actually read.
• Scope and execution ownership. Execute on the statement of work. Manage what's in scope, what's a one-off, and what should become a reusable capability—in alignment with the client's project lead.
• Technical oversight. Review designs and code direction, validate estimates, and make informed trade-off calls with the team. Deep enough to be credible in a design session; hands-on when the situation demands it.
• Quality and production readiness. Hold the team to enterprise security and compliance requirements (SOC 2, ISO 27001, data residency, etc.) from dev through UAT into production.
• Account growth and development. Partner with Fractal client partners and engagement leadership to identify expansion opportunities—surfacing new use cases, supporting renewal conversations, and ensuring successful delivery converts to a long-term client relationship.

Qualifications:

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years in software delivery, including 3+ years managing engineering teams or delivery workstreams (engineering manager, delivery manager, or technical program/project manager).
• Proven track record managing enterprise software delivery end-to-end: plans, milestones, risks, cross-functional dependencies, and clear stakeholder reporting.
• Experience operating in a client-facing or embedded delivery model—comfortable working as the counterpart to a client-side manager who sets overall direction.
• Comfortable in both executive-level conversations and deep technical design reviews.
• Working familiarity with enterprise data environments (cloud data warehouses, REST/GraphQL APIs, ERP/CRM platforms), major clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP), and modern deployment practices (CI/CD, containerization).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Delivery leadership at a consulting firm or professional services organization with a forward-deployed or embedded-team motion.
• Experience managing deployments of enterprise AI/ML platforms (e.g., C3 AI, Palantir Foundry, or similar) or data-heavy enterprise applications at scale.
• Experience in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare/life sciences, manufacturing, energy) where compliance and change management are part of the delivery.
• Formal delivery credentials (PMP, SAFe, or equivalent agile delivery experience) paired with a genuine engineering background.

Pay:

The wage range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. At Fractal, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is: $120,000 - $180,000. In addition, you may be eligible for a discretionary bonus for the current performance period.

As a full-time employee of the company or as an hourly employee working more than 30 hours per week, you will be eligible to participate in the health, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability plans in accordance with the plan documents, which may be amended from time to time. You will be eligible for benefits on the first day of employment with the Company. In addition, you are eligible to participate in the Company 401(k) Plan after 30 days of employment, in accordance with the applicable plan terms. The Company provides for 11 paid holidays and 12 weeks of Parental Leave. We also follow a “free time” PTO policy, allowing you the flexibility to take the time needed for either sick time or vacation.

Fractal provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.