Senior Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering

Handshake•San Francisco, CA

23h•$255,000 - $300,000•Onsite

About The Position

Handshake AI is seeking a Senior Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering to lead a team of 10 engineers focused on high-priority, customer-facing work for Handshake AI's most strategic partners. This role is a player-coach position, requiring technical leadership and people management. The ideal candidate will stay technically engaged, writing code and designing systems, while also focusing on setting technical and operational standards, shaping strategy, and developing the team. The FDE team ships end-to-end solutions in close collaboration with researchers, operators, and partner technical teams. This role is based in San Francisco, CA, with a 5-day/week in-office requirement.

Requirements

8+ years of engineering, solutions engineering, or technical delivery experience, with meaningful depth in backend, fullstack, or systems work.
2+ years leading high-performing technical teams, with a track record of developing strong ICs and managers.
Proven experience leading customer-facing technical teams where success depended on credibility, clarity, and execution.
Obsessed with operating alongside the team: reviewing designs, challenging assumptions, and stepping in when problems get ambiguous or high-stakes.
Fluent across engineering and business context, equally comfortable debating architecture with engineers and aligning outcomes with sales, product, and customer leaders.
Excellent communicator who can modulate the message across technical and non-technical audiences; strong executive presence in the room and in writing.
Still codes regularly and wants to keep coding, technical credibility is non-negotiable in this role.
Sharp instincts on prioritization and portfolio management across many concurrent, high-stakes engagements.

Nice To Haves

Experience with AI/ML product integrations or production reliability in AI systems.
Familiarity with distributed systems and backend architecture at scale.
Experience building reusable platforms or internal tooling from bespoke customer solutions.
Background working with operations-heavy or research-adjacent organizations.

Responsibilities

Own the technical strategy and delivery quality across all of FDE's highest-priority customer engagements.
Stay close to the craft, contribute to architecture, design reviews, and production solutions on the most complex accounts.
Lead and develop a team of 10+ FDEs, including Tech Lead Managers, set the bar, unblock, and grow the next generation of technical leaders.
Serve as the executive technical point of contact for Handshake AI's most strategic partners; build deep trust through credibility, clarity, and execution.
Define and evolve the FDE operating model, how the team scopes, staffs, ships, and measures success across engagements.
Identify patterns across the portfolio and drive the development of reusable platforms, tooling, and internal infrastructure that multiply team output.
Partner closely with Sales, Research, and Product to shape how new customer relationships are structured and handed off.
Own capacity planning, hiring, and organizational design for the FDE function as it scales.