Director, Forward Deployed Engineer

Talkdesk•Seattle, WA

About The Position

The Director of Forward Deployed Engineering is the executive leader responsible for bridging the gap between our core AI product capabilities and the real-world, complex requirements of our largest enterprise customers. You will lead a high-caliber team of engineers who build, integrate, and deploy production-grade Customer Experience Automation (CXA) and Agentic AI solutions. This role requires a unique blend of strategic organizational leadership, deep technical expertise in AI/ML, and a "customer-first" mindset. You will ensure that every deployment is a technical success while feeding critical field insights back to the core Product and Engineering teams to influence the long-term roadmap.

Requirements

Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, AI/ML, or a related technical field.
Experience: Minimum of 9–12 years of experience in software engineering or professional services, including at least 5 years in a significant leadership role (Manager or above) managing customer-facing technical teams.
AI/ML Domain Expertise: Deep understanding of Agentic AI Architecture , including multi-agent orchestration, prompt engineering, and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation).
Technical Depth: Strong architectural knowledge of systems integration (APIs, webhooks, message queues) and the ability to review production-grade code in Python, Javascript, or Typescript.
Field Experience: Proven track record of delivering high-stakes technical projects in complex enterprise environments (e.g., Healthcare, Financial Services, or CCaaS).
Leadership Skills: Exceptional ability to motivate and grow a team of high-performing, autonomous "hybrid" engineers who excel at both coding and client interaction.
Strategic Thinking: Demonstrated success in turning one-off customer solutions into scalable, repeatable engineering patterns.
Communication: Mastery in translating "deep tech" AI concepts into business value for executive stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Strategic Field Leadership: Lead the global Forward Deployed Engineering department to successfully design and deliver complex Agentic AI and CXA deployments for Tier-1 enterprise customers.
Operational Excellence: Develop and execute the FDE operational strategy, defining the "golden path" for deployments, ensuring scalability, security, and high performance across all client environments.
Cross-Functional Bridge: Serve as the primary liaison between Sales, Product Management, and Core Engineering. Ensure the field team is aligned with the product roadmap while advocating for features that solve recurring customer pain points.
Technical Governance: Identify and mitigate complex technical risks in the field. Ensure the team maintains technical excellence, following best practices for RAG systems, API integrations, and secure data architecture.
Roadmap Influence: Synthesize field learnings into reusable solution patterns. Deliver "high-signal" feedback to core teams to proactively influence the development of the Talkdesk platform.
Team Development & Mentorship: Hire, manage, and mentor a team of FDEs. Foster a culture of high-stakes problem solving and continuous learning in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Executive Technical Authority: Act as the ultimate technical escalation point for customers. Build high-trust relationships with customer CTOs and VPs of Engineering during the most critical phases of the lifecycle.
Budget & Resource Management: Manage the FDE budget and resource allocation, balancing the need for pre-sales technical support with post-sales deployment execution.

Benefits

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life and Disability Insurance, Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
401(k) plan
Talkdesk offers an uncapped paid time off program, subject to manager approval and consistent with business needs.
Talkdesk offers 14 paid holidays each year.
Employees have uncapped paid time off, subject to manager approval and consistent with business needs.

Stand Out From the Crowd

Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.

Upload and Match Resume