Technical Deployment Lead, Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE)- Platform
Used Tools & Technologies
Not specified
Required Skills & Competences
Tag name is followed by "@" symbol and proficiency level value.
About proficiency levels:
- 1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;
- 3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;
- 7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;
- 10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.
Security @ 4
Leadership @ 4
Scoping @ 4
Communication @ 7
Audit @ 4
AI @ 4
Change Management @ 4
- 1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;
- 3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;
- 7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;
- 10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.
Details
OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) org sits at the intersection of product, engineering, research, and go-to-market. The FDE Platform team is a leverage function that scales FDE impact to OpenAI’s platform and products by embedding with customer-tagged FDE pods to aid in architecting, product shaping, refactoring, and building. This founding Technical Deployment Lead (TDL) role is accountable for making the earliest design partner deployments successful, from initial scoping and success criteria through production adoption and demonstrated value. The role is ops-heavy and technically deep: you will drive alignment across OpenAI and customer stakeholders, run delivery across interdependent workstreams, and ensure enterprise constraints are handled proactively.
This role is based in San Francisco or New York City. The team uses a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. Relocation assistance is offered. Travel up to 50% is required.
Responsibilities
- Define pilot scope and success criteria: partner with customer sponsors and technical leads to translate goals into a concrete plan, measurable outcomes, and clear acceptance criteria.
- Own the delivery plan across work streams: build and run integrated milestones, dependencies, and execution rhythms across Applied, platform engineers, and customer teams.
- Drive stakeholder alignment and decision-making: lead internal and external working sessions, keep tradeoffs explicit, unblock decisions, and escalate crisply when needed.
- Ensure enterprise readiness from day one: pressure-test security posture, permissions and access boundaries, audit-ability, and deployment/infra requirements as part of the delivery plan.
- Manage production adoption and value realization: drive onboarding, enablement, and change management so deployments land in real workflows and deliver measurable impact.
- Run multiple deployments with rigor: maintain clear status, risks, and mitigations across concurrent pilots, and continuously adjust plans to protect outcomes.
- Convert learnings into actionable next steps: synthesize what worked and what broke into clear requirements, sequencing proposals, and improvements to the platform delivery approach.
Requirements
- 5+ years leading complex, customer-facing technical delivery where you owned outcomes end-to-end in high-ambiguity environments.
- Deep credibility with senior technical stakeholders; able to whiteboard architectures, reason about enterprise deployment constraints, and go in the weeds when required.
- Strong instincts for enterprise security and governance, including permissions/RBAC, audit trails, data access boundaries, and rollout safety.
- Ops-first background (e.g., platform delivery leadership, technical program/delivery leadership, product/engineering operations) with a track record of driving execution through matrixed teams.
- Executive presence and strong communication skills to align sponsors, make tradeoffs legible, and keep teams focused on the critical path under pressure.
About OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The company emphasizes safety and inclusive perspectives in product development. OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.
Benefits
- Base salary range: $198,000 – $335,000 (additional total compensation includes equity and potential performance bonuses).
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
- Pre-tax accounts (Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, commuter expenses).
- 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
- Paid parental leave and additional paid medical/caregiver leave.
- Paid time off (flexible PTO for exempt employees) and 13+ paid company holidays.
- Mental health and wellness support; employer-paid basic life and disability coverage.
- Annual learning and development stipend.
- Daily meals in offices and meal delivery credits as eligible.
- Relocation support for eligible employees.