Senior Forward Deployed Engineer

Adobe Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 177,900 - 257,550; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus and equity opportunities

Health benefits

Flexible work environment

Job summary

Adobe Inc. is seeking a Technical Ambassador to join its Forward Deployment Engineering team in San Jose, California. This role combines deep technical work with collaboration with global engineering teams. You'll implement AI capabilities and improve customer integration with our tools.

Candidates should have 8+ years of software engineering experience, with a solid understanding of machine learning concepts. This position offers great benefits and the opportunity to contribute significantly to innovative projects in the digital experience space.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with 2+ years in ML/AI.
• Expertise in Python, especially with frameworks like PyTorch.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to derive actionable insights.

Responsibilities

• Implement APIs and integration patterns for AI applications.
• Design evaluation pipelines and define success metrics.
• Work closely with customers to optimize AI tool usage.

Skills

Software engineering experience

Machine Learning/AI expertise

Python programming

Data analysis skills

Experience with cloud platforms

Strong communication skills

Tools

PyTorch

SQL

Docker

Git

Job description

The Team:

You will be joining the newly formed Forward Deployment Engineering (FDE) team within Adobe's Digital Experience organization. As part of a key innovation initiative, our mandate is to bridge the gap between product engineering and real‑world implementation. We are a team of world‑class AI and traditional engineers dedicated to solving the most complex challenges for the world's largest companies, ensuring they extract maximum value from the Adobe ecosystem.

The Opportunity:

This is an opportunity to be a technical ambassador for Adobe. You will split your time between deep technical work and on‑site collaboration with the engineering teams of global industry leaders. If you are passionate about customer empathy and technical excellence, this role offers the best of both worlds: the excitement of a startup‑style environment with the resources and scale of Adobe. Come help us build the future of digital experiences, one customer success story at a time.

What You'll Do:

• Implement A2A integration patterns (APIs, webhooks, event streams, connectors) so customers can plug our AI capabilities into their existing applications and workflows.
• Create reusable SDKs, templates, and reference implementations that reduce friction for customers adopting our AI features.
• Act like a data analyst for model behavior:
  • Query logs and metrics (SQL, notebooks, dashboards) to understand how models and prompts are performing in production.
  • Investigate failure modes, edge cases, and drift (e.g., low‑quality responses, latency spikes, low adoption).
  • Segment metrics by customer, cohort, use case, or configuration to find patterns and opportunities.
• Design and maintain evaluation pipelines for AI features:
  • Define success metrics and guardrails.
  • Set up offline and online evaluation (test sets, acceptance thresholds, user rating flows, A/B tests).
• Instrument AI features with strong observability and testing:
  • Logging of inputs/outputs with privacy in mind.
  • Traces/timelines of model calls, retrieval steps, and downstream effects.
  • Dashboards and alerts for quality, performance, and usage.
• Design and implement AI-backed services and APIs in Python using PyTorch or similar frameworks.

• Work with customer‑facing teams (Customer Success, Solutions, Forward Deployed) to:
  • Turn customer feedback and production data into prioritized improvements.
  • Provide clear, data‑backed insights on what's working, what's not, and why.
• Join customer calls and workshops to:
  • Understand their systems, integration constraints, and success criteria.
  • Guide them on how best to use our APIs, SDKs, and observability tools.
• Act as a bridge between customer needs and internal product/engineering, ensuring what we build is usable, measurable, and scalable across many customers.

What You Bring:

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with 2+ years working with ML/AI or LLM‑based applications.
• An inventive mind that is looking for the best solutions to the most interesting problems. This involves a build‑first mentality that seeks answers in the practical application.
• A strong sense of mentorship and team building to grow everyone's roles.
• Current understanding of the state of AI and are aggressively keeping up on the latest developments. You should be able to articulate the benefits of different architectural options.
• Expertise in Python, including hands‑on work with PyTorch or similar frameworks (TensorFlow, JAX, etc.).
• Familiarity with A2A (application‑to‑application) integration patterns:
  • REST/gRPC APIs, webhooks, queues, or event‑driven systems.
  • Authentication, rate limits, and basic reliability patterns.
• Comfortable with data‑analyst‑style work:
  • Writing SQL and working with analytics tools/notebooks.
  • Building or interpreting dashboards (e.g., metrics for model quality, latency, usage).
  • Turning data into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Be willing to dive into implementation with a customer to make sure they are maximizing their use of AI.
• Experience with at least one cloud platform (AWS / GCP / Azure) and standard dev tooling (Git, CI/CD, Docker).
• Exposure to LLM applications (RAG, agents, prompt pipelines) and their evaluation.
• Experience with logging/observability stacks (e.g., OpenTelemetry, Prometheus/Grafana, Datadog).
• Familiarity with MLOps/LLMOps concepts: evaluation harnesses, prompt/version management, feature flags, or canary rollouts.
• Proficiency in Java/Scala, along with associated frameworks.
• Proven track record of shipping production features and iterating based on real‑world feedback.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical details and data insights to customers and non‑ML stakeholders.
• Comfortable with 10%–25% travel to build relationships with customers.

Desired Extras:

• Published technical writing or other communication
• A background in SaaS software
• Prior work in customer‑facing technical roles or close collaboration with Customer Success / Solutions / Forward Deployed Engineering teams.
• Marketing or CRM domain knowledge

This role is eligible for bonus and equity.

Expected Pay Range:

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $139,000–$257,550 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process. In California, the pay range for this position is $177,900–$257,550. In Washington, the pay range for this position is $161,700–$234,150.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Learn more.