Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering- NYC

OpenAI; United States; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Hybrid work

Travel up to 25%

Job summary

OpenAI's Forward Deployed Engineering team seeks a foundational FDE manager in New York City to lead high-stakes customer deployments and drive end-to-end value delivery. You will build and grow a team that ships production systems with frontier models, coordinating with Product, Research, Sales, and GTM to translate field work into roadmap inputs.

You will codify best practices, raise urgent indicators, and set a high performance bar, while mentoring individuals to scale delivery without added

Qualifications

• 10+ years of engineering or technical delivery experience.
• 2+ years managing high-performing FDE or customer delivery teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of FDE delivering production systems with frontier models.
• Own end-to-end delivery outcomes through clarity, speed, tight coordination, and technical quality.
• Codify what works into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs.
• Notice early indicators and raise them with urgency in product behavior or delivery practices.
• Use judgement to distinguish what requires action and what does not.
• Define how we staff and support field teams that can scale without added complexity.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Technical delivery

Cross-functional collaboration

Stakeholder management

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

As a foundational FDE manager, you’ll lead FDE through high-stakes, ambiguous customer deployments and own technical and business value outcomes end to end. You’ll grow a team that can operate under pressure and help OpenAI learn from the field. You’ll partner closely with Product, Research, Sales, and GTM to ensure fieldwork informs roadmap priorities, drives new exploration, and supports safe deployment at scale. Your decisions will influence how OpenAI is trusted by the customers closest to our deployment work. Your success will be measured by how consistently your team ships, how clearly you deliver signal to Research and Product, and how durable your team and delivery model prove to be.

Location and work model

This role is based in New York City We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. This role also will require travel up to 25%.

Responsibilities

In this role you will Lead and grow a team of FDE delivering production systems with frontier models Own end-to-end delivery outcomes through clarity, speed, tight 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.

Qualifications

You might thrive in this role if you Bring 10+ years of engineering or technical delivery experience, including 2+ years managing high-performing FDE or cust