Senior Forward-Deployed AI Engineering Leader

Amazon Web Services (AWS); Jersey City (NJ); On-site; USD 242,000 - 328,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon Web Services, Inc. is seeking a Senior Forward Deployed Engineering Manager to lead 15–30+ engineers across multiple customer engagements, shaping delivery models and engineering standards.

You will scale the FDE organization, drive production excellence, and influence strategic decisions with AWS leadership at scale. You will partner with executives to align technical direction with business goals, build teams, and define talent strategies while maintaining a focus on operational

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

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.

Skills

Engineering management

Software development

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS

Advanced degree preferred

Job description

Amazon Web Services, Inc. is seeking a Senior Forward Deployed Engineering Manager to lead 15–30+ engineers across multiple customer engagements, shaping delivery models and engineering standards.

You will scale the FDE organization, drive production excellence, and influence strategic decisions with AWS leadership at scale. You will partner with executives to align technical direction with business goals, build teams, and define talent strategies while maintaining a focus on operational