Technical Deployment Lead, Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) - SF

Details

OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team turns research breakthroughs into production-grade systems. The team works closely with customers to solve high-leverage problems, move prototypes into production, and surface reusable patterns that shape the platform. It operates at the intersection of deployment and development, partnering with OpenAI Research, Product, and Partnerships.

As a Technical Deployment Lead, you will define how OpenAI delivers complex systems to customers. You will own how systems are built, shipped, and adopted; translate business outcomes into technical plans; run day-to-day execution across FDEs, Researchers, and Customer Engineers; and partner with customer teams to ensure delivery supports their goals.

You will own delivery end-to-end, from mapping customer workflows and success criteria through production deployment, readiness, and change management. You will track progress, manage dependencies, make sequencing decisions, and drive 0-to-1 prototypes through MVP and scale. You will also share field insights with Product and Research to guide roadmaps and priorities.

Success will be measured by deployments that deliver measurable value against customer goals, drive adoption, and become critical to customer workflows. Additional measures include delivery reliability, operating leverage through reusable patterns, judgment under pressure, and product impact.

This role is based in San Francisco and follows a hybrid work model requiring three days in the office per week. Travel of 25%–50% is required.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical delivery plan for multiple interdependent workstreams, translating business objectives into roadmaps with milestones, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
• Run day-to-day engineering execution across OpenAI FDE and customer teams.
• Track and drive delivery, remove blockers, sequence work, and make real-time scope and priority trade-offs to protect the critical path.
• Embed with customer teams to land production deployments and drive adoption.
• Map workflows, shape tools and integrations, translate requirements into delivery plans, and lead onboarding, adoption, and change management.
• Partner with Product and Research so platform components and research workstreams support deployment goals on time.
• Codify solution patterns and evaluations, extract reusable patterns, and package field signals to improve products and models.
• Own value cases and return on investment by setting impact hypotheses, baselines, and key performance indicators; conduct pre- and post-deployment measurement; and report to executive sponsors.

Requirements

• 7+ years of customer-facing technical delivery leadership.
• A track record of successfully leading large, complex, high-stakes customer engagements where outcomes depended on tight coordination and fast decision-making, ideally involving AI.
• Ability to excel in high-ambiguity environments and simplify complex, dynamic work.
• Ability to move between system-level understanding and execution-level detail, including diving into customer workflows and data, mapping constraints, sketching architectures, and moving ambiguous problems to shipped systems.
• Strategic thinking and pattern-matching ability, with the capacity to recognize broader trends across deployments and connect customer needs to scalable, reusable solutions.
• Strong technical fluency and sequencing instincts, including confidence discussing technical details, pressure-testing architectures, and making trade-offs.
• Experience shipping AI/LLM systems, with an understanding of solution patterns, integration basics, and production pitfalls.
• Executive presence and the ability to explain complex technical trade-offs to business leaders and convert strategy into day-to-day technical execution.
• Expertise in at least one major sector, such as healthcare, energy, financial services, semiconductors, or IT.

Benefits

• Equity, performance-related bonuses for eligible employees, and medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts, pre-tax flexible spending accounts, and commuter expenses.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental, medical, and caregiver leave.
• Paid time off, paid company holidays, office closures, and paid sick or safe time.
• Mental health and wellness support.
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage.
• Annual learning and development stipend.
• Daily office meals and eligible meal delivery credits.
• Relocation support for eligible employees.
• Additional taxable fringe benefits, including charitable donation matching and wellness stipends.
• OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.