Deployment Lead, Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) - Platform

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

5d•$207,000 - $294,000•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team partners with customers to turn research breakthroughs into production systems. The Platform team turns promising use cases into repeatable solutions that can be delivered at scale. The Deployment Lead is a foundational role that shapes new solutions and leads them from customer validation through launch and repeatable adoption. The role combines product judgment with hands-on customer deployment experience to identify valuable problems and define a path to scale. The Deployment Lead will also help build the function, defining its scope and ways of working in an ambiguous environment. The role partners with FDEs, Product, and GTM to align the roadmap, resolve shared dependencies, and balance customer commitments with reusable capabilities. Success is measured by customer and business impact, growing adoption, and solutions that field teams or partners can deliver without depending on the originating team. The position is based in San Francisco or New York City, with three days in the office per week, relocation assistance, and travel up to 50%.

Requirements

At least 5 years of product leadership or customer-facing technical delivery experience.
Experience taking technical products from discovery through production and adoption.
Ability to translate customer workflows and deployment evidence into clear product priorities.
Ability to reason through integrations, data, evaluations, and enterprise deployment constraints.
Ability to build trust and drive decisions across engineering, Product, GTM, partners, and customers.
Understanding of technical go-to-market.

Nice To Haves

Enjoys building new solutions in ambiguous environments.
Thrives in ambiguity and enjoys building new functions, creating structure where little exists, making sound decisions with incomplete information, and adapting as priorities evolve.

Responsibilities

Define clear solutions around valuable problems and shape the path to market.
Use customer and field learnings, along with market evidence, to set the next proof point, narrow scope, and recommend investment priorities.
Select design partners and use pilots to test value and repeatability.
Define quality and launch criteria.
Enable field teams and partners to scope, sell, and deliver solutions through playbooks and a supporting delivery model.
Track adoption and establish ongoing ownership as solutions scale.
Partner with FDEs, Product, and GTM to align the roadmap, resolve dependencies, and balance customer commitments with reusable capabilities.
Help build the function by defining its scope and ways of working.