Founding Head of Forward Deployed Engineering

Invoca•San Francisco, CA

19h

About The Position

Invoca is hiring a Founding Head of Forward Deployed Engineering (Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering) to build and lead a team of engineers embedded in the company’s Go-to-Market motion. The role owns the function that uses technical expertise to influence deals and deliver successful customer onboarding. Responsibilities include hiring and coaching Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs), prioritizing engineering support across opportunities and accounts, and serving as the escalation point for strategic or at-risk deals and implementations. The position begins as a player-coach role and transitions to full people management as the team grows. Success is measured through pipeline influence, customer outcomes, and the health and development of the team. The FDE team operates between R&D and Go-to-Market, working within customers’ environments to help them get maximum value from Invoca’s agentic AI products. The team leads technical evaluations and helps simplify the complexity of building on Invoca’s platform into solutions that work for customers. The role partners with Sales, Solutions Engineering, Customer Success, Product, and Engineering leadership to establish FDE involvement and handoffs, create repeatable processes and reusable assets, and communicate prioritized feedback from customers to product teams. It also manages staffing and capacity planning and reports team impact using business outcomes such as influenced deals, time-to-value, and win rates on technically contested deals. The role involves up to 50% on-site work with customers during implementation. The position offers a base salary of $200,000–$275,000, with bonus and/or commission eligibility where applicable, and participation in the company’s stock option program. Invoca describes its compensation and benefits as designed to support employees’ health, families, growth, and life outside work. U.S.-based teammates receive health benefits starting on their first day of employment.

Requirements

Prior experience as a Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or in a similar customer-facing technical role.
People management experience or clear evidence of technical, customer-facing leadership, such as leading projects, mentoring, or informal team leadership.
Strong business judgment to assess which deals warrant engineering support, often with incomplete information.
Ability to work across Sales, Product, and Engineering, including the ability to say no when stakeholder priorities conflict.
Track record of turning one-off customer work into repeatable processes and reusable assets.
Excellent executive communication skills, including the ability to represent the function’s impact to sales and company leadership.

Responsibilities

Hire, coach, and manage a team of Forward Deployed Engineers, establishing expectations for excellence in customer-facing technical work.
Triage and prioritize FDE deployment across the deal pipeline and customer accounts.
Serve as the senior technical escalation point on strategic or at-risk deals and implementations, stepping in personally when needed.
Partner with Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success leadership to define FDE involvement in sales and onboarding and establish handoffs.
Build the team’s operating rhythm, including processes for scoping proofs of concept, debriefing wins and losses, and capturing and sharing reusable assets.
Aggregate field feedback into prioritized requests for Product and Engineering leadership.
Report team impact using business outcomes, including deals influenced, customer time-to-value, and win rates on technically contested deals.
Manage headcount planning and team capacity, including decisions about when and where to grow the team and what specializations are needed.
Work on-site with customers, up to 50% of the time, during implementation to build trust and accelerate delivery.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision coverage beginning on the first day of employment for U.S.-based teammates.
Mental wellbeing support and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
Wellness subsidy reimbursable toward gym memberships, fitness classes, and more.
Flexible paid time off.
20 U.S. paid holidays, including a winter break.
Up to 12 weeks of 100% paid family leave for baby bonding, adoption, and caring for family members.
Up to 12 weeks of 100% paid medical leave for childbirth and medical needs.
Access to enterprise-grade AI tools, including leading LLMs and agentic AI workflow solutions.
Annual professional development reimbursement of up to $1,000 per fiscal year for learning, certifications, conferences, and other opportunities.
401(k) plan through Fidelity with company match of up to 4%.
Company-wide and team recognition programs, including President’s Club and quarterly and departmental awards.
Sabbatical after seven years of service.
Stock option program for all employees.
Bonus and/or commission eligibility, where applicable.