Director Forward Deployed Engineering

Weekday•Santa Clara, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Forward Deployed Engineering will define the strategy, operating model, and execution standards for a globally scaling Forward Deployed Engineering function. This hands-on leadership role sits at the intersection of engineering, product, and go-to-market. The director will lead the global FDE function, directly manage engineers in the U.S., and work with regional leadership across EMEA and APAC. The role combines team leadership and customer engagement with architectural guidance and collaboration with commercial and product leaders to turn complex customer requirements into scalable solutions. The company is a fast-growing B2B technology business building enterprise software. It focuses on helping organizations adopt new capabilities, solve complex technical challenges, and achieve measurable business outcomes, with a strong emphasis on action, quality, and customer success.

Requirements

8+ years of experience across engineering, solutions engineering, technical consulting, or technical delivery.
2+ years of experience leading high-performing technical teams.
Significant experience leading customer-facing technical teams where credibility, technical depth, and strong execution are essential.
Hands-on leadership approach, including coaching engineers, reviewing designs, solving difficult problems, and navigating ambiguity.
Ability to operate across technical and commercial environments, including discussing architecture with engineers and aligning business outcomes with sales, product, and customer executives.
Excellent communication and presentation skills, including adapting complex technical concepts for technical and non-technical audiences.
Experience working with APIs, integrations, and modern SaaS platforms.
Ability to balance immediate customer requirements with scalable, repeatable solutions.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience as a Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or Technical Consultant.
Experience with developer tools, enterprise SaaS, HR technology, or other API-first or integration-heavy platforms.
Experience building or scaling a Forward Deployed Engineering or Solutions Engineering organization.
Experience operating in globally distributed or matrixed organizations.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and grow a team of Forward Deployed Engineers responsible for technical customer engagements across pre-sales and post-sales.
Partner with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Customer Success to understand complex customer requirements and design effective solutions.
Translate customer-specific needs and technical learnings into insights that influence the broader product roadmap.
Provide hands-on technical leadership across APIs, integrations, platform capabilities, and solution architecture.
Improve the quality of technical demonstrations, proofs of concept, workshops, and onsite customer engagements.
Review technical designs, challenge assumptions, and support complex or high-stakes customer situations when needed.
Create repeatable playbooks, delivery standards, processes, and best practices so the FDE organization can operate effectively at scale.
Build relationships with senior technical and business stakeholders and act as a trusted advisor on strategic customer engagements.
Directly manage U.S.-based engineers and work with regional leadership across EMEA and APAC.