Director, Forward Deployed Engineering

Details

Nebius is building a full-stack AI cloud platform supporting developers and enterprises from data and model training through production deployment. The platform includes GPU orchestration, inference optimization, compute, storage, networking, applied AI, data pipelines, and agent development environments.

The Director of Forward Deployed Engineering will build and scale the organization responsible for helping leading AI companies succeed on the Nebius platform. This includes recruiting exceptional FDEs, establishing the operating model, ensuring technical excellence, and converting partner engagements into product improvements and reusable platform assets. The role sits at the intersection of engineering leadership, AI platform architecture, ecosystem partnerships, and product strategy.

The role is fully remote within the United States.

Responsibilities

Organization Building and Talent

• Build, hire, and develop a world-class Forward Deployed Engineering organization across AI applications, inference, infrastructure, and data.
• Define the talent bar, team structure, career paths, and leadership expectations for the function.
• Coach engineers and managers toward greater independence while maintaining a consistently high technical standard.
• Build an organization and leadership system that scales without depending on individual heroics.

Operating Model and Technical Excellence

• Establish scalable operating models for partner engagement, technical scoping, architecture reviews, escalation, and delivery health.
• Set the technical bar for integrations, proofs of concept, reference architectures, and partner assessments produced by the team.
• Review architectures across AI applications, managed inference, cloud infrastructure, and data platforms, bringing in deeper experts where needed.
• Balance speed with engineering quality and ensure the team builds production-quality work rather than disposable demonstrations.

Executive and Ecosystem Leadership

• Engage credibly with founders, CTOs, senior engineering leaders, and enterprise technical executives as Nebius's senior FDE leader.
• Build trusted relationships across AI platforms, cloud providers, ISVs, open source communities, and strategic technology partners.
• Represent Forward Deployed Engineering in platform planning, ecosystem strategy, and executive investment decisions.
• Create a strong external technical presence through workshops, reference architectures, open source work, events, and developer advocacy.

Field-to-Product and Reusable Leverage

• Treat partner engagements as a continuous product discovery engine and convert field learning into roadmap priorities and shipped platform improvements.
• Ensure every engagement creates reusable value through platform capabilities, reference architectures, tooling, benchmarks, documentation, or automation.
• Prevent the function from becoming one-off consulting work by setting clear boundaries and rewarding reusable outcomes.
• Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to address recurring friction and improve the experience for customers beyond the original engagement.

Requirements

• 12–18+ years of experience across engineering, solutions architecture, customer engineering, field engineering, or forward deployed engineering.
• 3–7+ years leading technical field organizations, including experience building a new function or materially scaling an existing team.
• A strong record of hiring, coaching, and scaling Customer Engineering, FDE, Solutions Architecture, or Field CTO teams.
• Earlier hands-on engineering experience in cloud, infrastructure, AI, or developer platforms.
• Technical judgment to review and elevate architectures across AI applications, inference, infrastructure, and data platforms.
• A proven track record of converting customer and partner feedback into shipped platform improvements.
• Executive presence and credibility as a trusted advisor to founders, CTOs, and enterprise technical executives.
• Experience leading across cloud providers, AI platforms, ISVs, open source communities, and strategic technology partners.
• The ability to hire experts, evaluate their work, and set a high technical standard without needing to be the deepest specialist in every domain.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong relationships across the AI and cloud ecosystem.
• Public technical leadership through talks, workshops, reference architectures, open source projects, or developer advocacy.
• Experience building a Forward Deployed Engineering, Customer Engineering, or Field Engineering organization from zero to one.
• Experience scaling a technical field organization across regions or ecosystem domains without lowering the hiring or engineering bar.
• Experience as a founder, VP Engineering, Field CTO, Head of Customer Engineering, or early FDE leader.
• Experience leading production architecture and execution for demanding AI application, training, inference, or platform workloads.

Benefits

• 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and families.
• 401(k) plan with up to 4% company match and immediate vesting.
• 20 weeks of paid parental leave for primary caregivers and 12 weeks for secondary caregivers.
• Remote work reimbursement of up to $85 per month for mobile and internet.
• Company-paid short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance.
• Career growth and learning opportunities.
• Flexibility and ownership.
• Collaborative and innovative culture.
• Opportunity to work on impactful AI projects.
• International environment and talented teams.

Compensation

Base compensation range: $270,800–$310,000 USD.

Applicants must be authorized to work in the country in which they apply and must provide proof of employment eligibility as a condition of hire. Nebius is an equal opportunity employer.