Founding Head of Forward Deployed Engineering

Invoca; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Paid time off

401(k) plan with company match

Job summary

Invoca seeks a Founding Head of Forward Deployed Engineering to build and lead a team embedded in our GTM motion. You will hire, coach, and prioritize engineering support for deals, acting as the escalation point when needed to accelerate implementations.

You’ll partner with Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success to align the FDE function with the sales and onboarding motion, and you’ll scale the team while maintaining impact on pipeline and customer outcomes.

Qualifications

• Prior experience in a customer-facing technical role similar to a forward deployed engineer or solutions engineer.
• People management experience or clear evidence of leadership in technical, customer-facing capacity.
• Strong business judgment to prioritize deals worth engineering effort.
• Comfort operating at the intersection of Sales, Product, and Engineering.
• Track record turning bespoke customer work into repeatable processes and assets.
• Excellent executive communication, capable of reporting impact to sales and leadership.

Responsibilities

• Hire, coach, and manage a team of Forward Deployed Engineers; set the bar for customer-facing technical excellence.
• Prioritize deployment across the deal pipeline to allocate engineering support.
• Serve as senior technical escalation point on strategic deals and implementations.
• Collaborate with Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success to define FDE integration into the GTM motion.
• Establish operating rhythms for PoCs, debriefs, and reusable assets.
• Convey field insights to product/engineering with prioritized asks.
• Report team impact in business terms: deals influenced, time-to-value, win rates.
• Plan headcount and capacity across locations and specializations.
• Support up to 50% on-site engagement with customers during implementation.

Skills

Forward Deployed Engineer

Solutions Engineer

People management

Business judgment

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

Deal pipeline leadership

Technical escalation

Job description

About Invoca

Invoca is the revenue execution and platform leader that helps marketing, commerce, and contact center teams turn every conversation into revenue. Through its AI agents, Invoca engages, qualifies, and converts customers across SMS and voice, orchestrating seamless buyer journeys and measurable, profitable growth. With over 300 employees, 2,000+ customers, and $100M in revenue, the company continues to lead the category it created. Invoca's AI vision centers on using trustworthy, first-party data to deliver intelligent, authentic, and empathetic AI — connecting digital and human experiences to build lasting customer relationships. Invoca has raised $184M from leading investors, including Upfront Ventures, Accel, Silver Lake Waterman, H.I.G. Growth Partners, and Salesforce Ventures.

About the Team

The Forward Deployed Engineering team sits at the intersection of R&D and Go To Market — deployed against the deals and accounts where technical depth changes the outcome. FDEs sit inside the customer's world to ensure the customer gets maximum value from Invoca’s agentic AI products. Leading the technical evaluation, the FDE’s job is to absorb the complexity of building on Invoca's platform and hand the customer something simple that just works, instead of listing a set of decisions the customer has to make themselves.

About the Role

We're looking for a Founding Head of Forward Deployed Engineering (Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering) to build and lead the team of engineers embedded in our Go-to-Market motion. You'll own the function that turns technical credibility into closed deals and successful onboardings — hiring and coaching FDEs, prioritizing which deals and accounts get engineering muscle, and being the escalation point when a deal or implementation needs more than an individual contributor can carry alone.

This is a player-coach role early on and a full people-management role as the team scales. You'll be judged as much on pipeline influence and customer outcomes as on team health and growth.

What You'll Do

• Hire, coach, and manage a team of Forward Deployed Engineers; set the bar for what "great" looks like in a customer-facing technical role

• Triage and prioritize FDE deployment across the deal pipeline — deciding which opportunities and accounts warrant dedicated technical support, and when

• Act as the senior technical escalation point on strategic or at-risk deals and implementations, stepping in personally when the stakes are highest

• Partner with Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success leadership to define where FDEs plug into the sales and onboarding motion, and where the handoffs are

• Build the operating rhythm for the team: how PoCs get scoped, how wins and losses get debriefed, how reusable assets get captured and shared instead of rebuilt every time

• Own the feedback loop from field to product — aggregate what your team is hearing across dozens of deals into a small number of sharp, prioritized asks for product and engineering leadership

• Report on team impact in terms the business cares about: deals influenced, time-to-value for new customers, win rates on technically contested deals

• Manage headcount planning and capacity — knowing when the team needs to grow, and where geographically or by specialization

• Up to 50% on-site with customers — embedded during implementation to build trust and accelerate delivery

What You'll Need

• Prior experience as a Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or similar customer-facing technical role — you've done the job you're now managing

• People management experience, or clear evidence of leadership in a technical, customer-facing capacity (leading projects, mentoring, informal team leadership)

• Strong business judgment — you can tell the difference between a deal worth throwing engineering time at and one that isn't, often with incomplete information

• Comfort operating at the intersection of Sales, Product, and Engineering, including comfort saying no to stakeholders in any of those functions when priorities conflict

• Track record of turning messy, one-off customer work into repeatable process and reusable assets

• Excellent executive communication — you'll regularly represent this function's impact to sales and company leadership

What Success Looks Like

• Your team is the reason technically contested deals get won, and everyone in Sales knows it

• New customers reach value faster because onboarding is repeatable, not reinvented every time

• Product roadmap decisions visibly reflect patterns your team surfaced from the field

• FDEs on your team are growing — into senior ICs, into product, into GTM leadership — and people want to join the team

Compensation, Benefits & Perks:

At Invoca, we believe great work starts with taking care of our people. That's why we offer competitive compensation and benefits designed to support your health, your family, your growth, and your life outside of work. For teammates in the U.S., health benefits begin on your first day of employment.

Compensation

• Base Salary: $200,000-275,000*

• Variable Compensation: Bonus and/or commission eligibility, where applicable.

• Equity: All employees are invited to share in Invoca's success through our stock option program.

*Actual compensation will depend on factors including experience, skills, and location.

Benefits & Perks

Health & Wellbeing

• Day-One Health Benefits – Medical, dental, and vision coverage begins on your first day of employment for U.S.-based teammates.

• Mental Wellbeing – Access to mental wellbeing support and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

• Wellness Subsidy – Reimbursement that can be applied toward gym memberships, fitness classes, and more.

Time Away

• Flexible Time Off – We encourage a healthy work-life balance. Our flexible paid time off policy gives you the flexibility to recharge and take time away when you need it.

• Paid Holidays – Invoca provides 20 U.S. paid holidays, including a winter break, giving you time to rest, recharge, and spend time with friends and family.

• Paid Family Leave – Up to 12 weeks of 100% paid leave for baby bonding, adoption, and caring for family members.*

• Paid Medical Leave – Up to 12 weeks of 100% paid leave for childbirth and medical needs.*

Growth & Career

• Enterprise-Grade AI Tools – Access to industry-leading enterprise AI tools, including leading LLMs and agentic AI workflow solutions to help you maximize productivity and work more effectively.

• Professional Development – Annual reimbursement of up to $1,000 per fiscal year to support learning, certifications, conferences, and other professional development opportunities.

Financial Benefits

• 401(k) – Invoca offers a 401(k) plan through Fidelity with a company match of up to 4%.*

Recognition & Community

• Recognition Programs – We celebrate great work through company-wide and team recognition programs, including President's Club and quarterly and departmental awards recognizing innovation, execution, and customer impact.

• InVacation (Sabbatical) – As a thank-you to our long-term team members, we offer a sabbatical after seven years of service.

*Some benefits may vary for teammates outside the U.S. based on local laws, regulations, and country-specific offerings.