Technical Deployment Lead, Forward Deployed Engineering; FDE - NYC

About The Team

OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team turns research breakthroughs into production‑grade systems. We embed deeply with customers to solve high‑leverage problems and act as the delivery engine for our most complex large‑scale engagements. We move quickly from prototype to production and surface reusable patterns that shape our platform. We operate at the intersection of deployment and development – working closely with OpenAI Research, Product and Partnerships.

As a Technical Deployment Lead (TDL), you will define how OpenAI delivers complex systems to customers. You will own how they are built, shipped, and adopted. You’ll translate business outcomes into a technical plan, run day‑to‑day execution across FDEs, Researchers, and Customer Engineers, and partner with customer teams to ensure delivery supports their goals.

• Own the technical delivery plan for multiple interdependent work streams. Translate business objectives into a roadmap with milestones, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
• Run day‑to‑day engineering execution. Track and drive delivery across OpenAI FDE and customer teams. Keep progress unblocked and sequenced. Make real‑time trade‑offs on scope and priority to protect the critical path.
• Embed with customer teams to land production deployments and drive adoption. Map workflows, shape tools/integrations, and translate requirements into a delivery plan. Lead onboarding, adoption, and change management.
• Partner with Product and Research so platform components and research work streams land in time to support deployment goals.
• Codify solution patterns and evals. Extract reusable patterns and package field signals to improve product and models.
• Own value cases and ROI. Set impact hypotheses, baselines, and KPIs; run pre‑/post‑deployment measurement and report to exec sponsors.

• Bring 7+ years of customer‑facing technical delivery leadership.
• Have a track record of successfully leading large, complex, high‑stakes customer engagements where customer outcomes depended on tight coordination and fast decision making, ideally involving AI.
• Excel in high‑ambiguity environments. Know how to simplify complex and dynamic work.
• Move fluidly between system‑level understanding and execution‑level detail; can dive into customer workflows/data, map constraints, sketch architectures and move ambiguous problems to shipped systems.
• Think strategically and pattern‑match. Able to step back from execution detail, recognize broader trends across deployments, and connect customer needs to scalable, reusable solutions.
• Have strong technical fluency and sharp sequencing instincts. Confident discussing technical details, pressure‑testing architectures, and making trade‑offs.
• Have shipped AI/LLM systems. You understand solution patterns, integration basics, and production pitfalls.
• You’re a translator with executive presence. You make complex technical trade‑offs legible to business leaders and convert strategy into day‑to‑day technical execution.
• Have expertise in at least one major sector (e.g., healthcare, energy, financial services, semiconductors, IT) to elevate solution framing and credibility.

Compensation Range: $198,000 – $294,000. Relocation assistance is provided. Hybrid work model: 3 days in the office per week. Travel between 25% and 50% is required.

We are an equal‑opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.