Senior Forward-Deployed AI Engineering Leader

Amazon; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 220,000 - 298,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon Web Services, Inc. seeks a Senior Forward Deployed Engineering Manager to lead 15–30+ engineers across multiple strategic enterprise customer programs.

You will define the delivery model, engineering standards, and talent strategy for the FDE practice at scale, and set the technical direction across concurrent engagements. This org-level role requires building scalable teams, shaping production readiness, and partnering with AWS leaders and customer executives to drive measurable business

Qualifications

• 10+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 5+ years of engineering organization management experience (managing managers or large teams)
• 8+ years of leading design or architecture of new and existing systems
• Experience defining technical strategy and delivery standards for an engineering organization
• Experience managing teams across multiple concurrent programs or product lines
• Experience managing engineering teams in customer-facing or forward-deployed environments at scale
• Experience building or leading organizations delivering production AI or ML platforms
• Track record of developing engineering managers and senior technical leaders
• Experience representing engineering to executive leadership (VP/C-suite level)
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; comfort working in customer-facing environments
• Experience influencing product roadmaps through engineering and customer insights
• Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent; advanced degree preferred

Responsibilities

• Lead the FDE delivery organization. Own delivery across multiple customer engagements and FDE pods. Staff and structure teams for optimal customer coverage. Define engagement models, staffing strategies, and delivery cadences. Ensure consistent engineering quality across all active programs. Requires 30 – 50% travel.
• Define technical strategy and standards. Set the technical direction for the most complex customer AI programs spanning your organization. Align technical strategy with adjacent AWS teams. Be a key influencer for strategic decisions, bringing technology and industry context to business decisions. Resolve escalations and drive closure with peers, Directors, and stakeholders.
• Own production excellence at organizational scale. Define operational standards, evaluation frameworks, and production readiness criteria for AI systems across your organization. Establish mechanisms that ensure AI systems remain healthy across all active engagements. Drive improvements that enable the organization to insist on the highest operational excellence standards.
• Build and scale the team. Hire, develop, and retain FDE talent across levels. Coach and develop FDE Managers. Drive performance management, succession planning, and organizational health. Create the talent pipeline for the FDE practice. Define hiring bar and calibration standards.
• Accelerate transformation at portfolio level. Identify systemic opportunities to expand AI adoption across multiple customer organizations. Create accelerators and reusable platforms that reduce time-to-value. Influence AWS product roadmaps based on patterns observed across customers. Feed learnings back into AWS at the organizational level.

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

Job description

Amazon Web Services, Inc. seeks a Senior Forward Deployed Engineering Manager to lead 15–30+ engineers across multiple strategic enterprise customer programs.

You will define the delivery model, engineering standards, and talent strategy for the FDE practice at scale, and set the technical direction across concurrent engagements. This org-level role requires building scalable teams, shaping production readiness, and partnering with AWS leaders and customer executives to drive measurable business