Director, Forward Deployed Engineering

BetterUp

2d•$237,600 - $330,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Forward Deployed Engineering is where BetterUp’s platform meets the hardest, highest-value enterprise problems. You’ll lead the team that embeds with our largest and most strategic customers—translating ambiguous, executive-level requirements into working software, fast. This is a builder-leader role: you’ll set technical direction, own delivery across marquee accounts, and grow a team that is equally comfortable in a customer’s boardroom and in the codebase. Our team thrives at the intersection of human expertise and AI capability. As an AI-forward company, adaptation and continuous learning are part of our daily work. We're looking for teammates who are excited to evolve alongside technology – people who experiment boldly, share their discoveries openly, and help define best practices for AI-augmented work. BetterUp Inc. provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, genetics, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, BetterUp Inc. complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

Requirements

12+ years in software engineering, with 4+ years leading engineering teams (manager-of-managers, or a strong senior-IC-to-lead trajectory).
Track record delivering complex software in customer-facing or forward-deployed settings—FDE, solutions engineering, or professional services with real engineering depth.
Strong hands-on technical foundation: distributed systems, APIs and integrations, identity and provisioning (SSO/SCIM), and cloud platforms (AWS and/or Azure).
Demonstrated ability to operate amid ambiguity—taking vague, executive-level asks and producing working software on tight timelines.
Excellent stakeholder skills: credible with both customer engineers and senior business leaders.
Sound judgment on enterprise concerns: security, data governance, compliance, and scalability.

Nice To Haves

Experience with composability / configurable-product architectures and group-level governance models.
Background working with very large enterprise customers (Fortune 100 / regulated industries).
Experience standing up or scaling an FDE / forward-deployed practice from early stage.
Exposure to AI-native engineering workflows and agentic tooling.

Responsibilities

Own technical delivery for strategic enterprise accounts. Lead FDE engagements end to end—from scoping with customer stakeholders through prototype, production rollout, and handoff to core platform teams.
Be the bridge between field and platform. Turn what you learn in the field into durable platform capability; feed real customer signal back into the roadmap.
Build and lead a high-trust team. Hire, develop, and retain forward-deployed engineers who thrive in customer-facing, high-ambiguity environments. Set the bar for technical rigor and customer judgment.
Move fast without breaking trust. Ship prototypes and integrations on aggressive timelines while maintaining security, data-governance, and enterprise-readiness standards.
Partner across the org. Work hand-in-glove with product, sales engineering, security, and platform leadership to unblock deals and de-risk delivery commitments.
Operate as a technical executive in the room. Earn credibility directly with customer engineering and executive stakeholders; represent BetterUp’s technical vision in working sessions and escalations.
Shape functional AI strategy that aligns with business objectives and creates measurable competitive advantage for your teams and customers.
Build organizational muscle for continuous AI learning by embedding experimentation into operating rhythms across FDE engagements.
Partner with IT, Legal, and Security to establish governance frameworks that enable responsible AI scaling in enterprise contexts.
Influence peer directors to adopt AI practices that improve cross-functional collaboration and customer outcomes.