Engineering Program Manager 5

Adobe•San Jose, CA

13d•Onsite

About The Position

Changing the world through digital experiences is what Adobe’s all about. We give everyone—from emerging artists to global brands—everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences! We’re passionate about empowering people to create beautiful and powerful images, videos, and apps, and transform how companies interact with customers across every screen. We’re on a mission to hire the very best and are committed to creating exceptional employee experiences where everyone is respected and has access to equal opportunity. We realize that new ideas can come from everywhere in the organization, and we know the next big idea could be yours! The Adobe Digital Experience (DX) Cloud, Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) & Applications (Apps) Portfolio seeks a Program Management Leader for the Forward Deployed Engineer Program - a team of technically adept engineers and problem-solvers who work directly with customers to deploy our platforms, operationalize critical workflows, and deliver measurable outcomes. You will partner with the Engineering Leader to build and scale the FDE operating model, ensuring our teams are positioned to solve our customers’ hardest problems. This is a highly cross-functional leadership role that blends program strategy, technical depth, operational excellence, and direct customer mission impact. You will partner closely with Engineering, Product, Customer Success, Support, and Field leadership to ensure FDE engagements consistently deliver value, accelerate adoption, and surface product opportunities grounded in real-world use.

Requirements

10–15+ years of program leadership experience in technical, engineering, or customer-deployed environments.
Experience leading technical deployment programs that involve solution architecture and field engineering.
Demonstrated ability to ship complex products or solutions in ambiguous, high-pressure environments with incomplete information.
Strong command of enterprise architectures, cloud platforms, data pipelines, integrations, and multi-product ecosystems.
Ability to navigate deeply technical conversations and facilitate alignment between engineering teams and non-technical customer executives.
Track record of owning outcomes end-to-end , not just managing tasks or milestones.
Superb written/verbal executive communication skills, especially under uncertainty or customer concern.
Bachelor’s/ Master’s degree or equivalent experience in a technical field or commensurate work experience.

Nice To Haves

Background in Forward Deployed Engineering, Solution Architecture, TPM leadership, or technical field organizations.
Director level experience
Experience working with complex, distributed systems or highly regulated industries (e.g., finance, public sector, retail, healthcare).
Experience building programs from the ground up or leading transformation of engineering deployment models.

Responsibilities

Lead and Evolve the FDE Program
Develop a clear long-term strategy for the FDE Program that strengthens our ability to operate in ambiguous, critical environments.
Define the engagement lifecycle—from intake and scoping through field deployment, measurement of impact, and long-term sustainment.
Build and refine the FDE operating model, including deployment patterns, staffing frameworks, leveling, onboarding, and technical training.
Drive Execution Across Complex, High-Stakes Engagements
Oversee the execution of multi-phase engineering deployments that require navigating complex data, architecture, and integration challenges.
Provide strategic oversight for engagements where FDEs are embedding directly with customer teams to design, build, and operationalize solutions.
Partner with field leadership to ensure FDE support aligns to account strategy, mission outcomes, and renewal readiness.
Own Customer Outcomes
Serve as an executive escalation point for high-visibility implementations, resolving obstacles that require cross-org coordination or executive alignment.
Ensure every FDE engagement drives measurable value—accelerated adoption, operational efficiencies, reduced risk, or transformation of customer workflows.
Lead executive communications around program status, risks, and customer mission impact.
Bridge Engineering, Product, and Real-World Deployment
Partner with Product & Engineering leadership to bring deployment insights—feature gaps, blueprint needs, scaling patterns—into roadmap prioritization.
Establish systematic feedback loops between FDEs and engineering teams so product decisions reflect real-world customer conditions.
Ensure the FDE program becomes a central mechanism for validating new features, patterns, and architectural guidelines.
Establish Operational Rigor & Cross-Functional Governance
Own the operational cadence for the FDE program: quarterly planning, capacity forecasting, hiring plans, budget management.
Lead risk governance, ensuring issues are surfaced early, resourced correctly, and resolved with clarity and accountability.
Build a global strategy for scaling the program across geographies to support strategic accounts worldwide.