Pioneering Head of Forward-Deployed Engineering

Invoca; New York (NY); On-site; USD 200,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k) matching

Paid holidays

Sabbatical

Job summary

Invoca is seeking a Founding Head of Forward Deployed Engineering to build and lead a team of engineers embedded in our Go-to-Market motion. You’ll hire, coach, and guide FDEs, prioritizing deals and serving as the escalation point when technical risk is high, shaping how engineering supports deals and onboarding.

You’ll influence the sales process, collaborate with Sales, Solutions Eng, and Customer Success, and drive repeatable processes and reusable assets.

Qualifications

• 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 leadership in a technical, customer-facing capacity.
• Strong business judgment — you can tell the difference between a deal worth engineering time and one that isn't.
• Comfort operating at the intersection of Sales, Product, and Engineering.
• Track record turning messy customer work into repeatable processes and reusable assets.
• Excellent executive communication — you’ll regularly represent this function's impact to sales and leadership.

Responsibilities

• 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 and determine where to allocate engineering support.
• Act as senior technical escalation point on strategic or at-risk deals and implementations.
• Partner with Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success leadership to define FDE integrations into sales and onboarding.
• Define PoCs scope, debrief wins and losses, and capture reusable assets.
• Feed product and engineering with field insights to influence roadmaps and priorities.
• Manage headcount planning and capacity, including geographic or specialization needs.

Skills

FDE experience

People management

Business judgment

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

Job description

Invoca is seeking a Founding Head of Forward Deployed Engineering to build and lead a team of engineers embedded in our Go-to-Market motion. You’ll hire, coach, and guide FDEs, prioritizing deals and serving as the escalation point when technical risk is high, shaping how engineering supports deals and onboarding.

You’ll influence the sales process, collaborate with Sales, Solutions Eng, and Customer Success, and drive repeatable processes and reusable assets.