Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - Seattle

Sourced from justjobs.com

OpenAI's Forward Deployed Engineering team partners with strategic customers to deploy frontier models into production. FDEs own discovery, technical scoping, system design, build, and production rollout of complex end-to-end AI deployments. The role sits at the intersection of customer delivery and core platform development, feeding field insights back into product and model roadmaps. Based in Seattle with a hybrid model of 3 days per week in office and up to 50% travel.

• Own technical delivery across multiple deployments from first prototype to stable production
• Build full-stack systems that deliver customer value
• Embed with customer teams to understand needs and guide adoption
• Scope work, sequence delivery, and remove blockers early
• Make trade-offs between scope, speed, and quality
• Contribute directly in code when progress or clarity depends on it
• Codify working patterns into tools, playbooks, and reusable building blocks
• Share field feedback to help Research and Product improve models

• 5+ years of engineering or technical deployment experience including customer-facing work
• Experience scoping and delivering complex systems in fast-moving or ambiguous environments
• Production-grade frontend and backend coding in Python, JavaScript, or comparable stacks
• Experience building or deploying systems powered by LLMs or generative models
• Strong communication with engineers, product teams, and customer stakeholders
• Ability to simplify complexity and make fast, sound decisions under pressure