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Deployment Lead, FDE - SF

OpenAI· Forward Deployed Engineering
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San Francisco, New York City$230k - $294k + equityFull-timePosted 2w ago

About the role

OpenAI is hiring a Deployment Lead to own end-to-end delivery of complex customer deployments, translating business outcomes into technical plans and leading cross-functional execution with FDE, Researchers, and Customer Engineers. Hybrid role based in SF with travel up to 50%, relocation assistance available.

Responsibilities

  • 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.
  • Shape how we engage Financial Services customers

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of customer‑facing technical delivery leadership
  • Track record of leading large, complex, high-stakes customer engagements, ideally involving AI
  • Experience in high ambiguity environments and ability to simplify complex work
  • Ability to navigate between system-level and execution-level detail; map constraints, sketch architectures, ship solutions
  • Strategic thinking with pattern recognition and ability to connect customer needs to scalable solutions
  • Strong technical fluency and sequencing instincts; ability to discuss technical details and trade-offs
  • Experience shipping AI/LLM systems; understanding of production pitfalls and integration basics
  • Executive-level communication with the ability to translate complex trade-offs for business leadership
  • Willingness and ability to be onsite with customers (often 25-50% or more)

Skills

Required:Technical delivery leadershipProgram and project managementStakeholder management and executive communicationAI/LLM deployment experience

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
  • Pre-tax Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter advantages
  • 401(k) with employer match
  • Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birth parents) plus caregiver leave
  • Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt
  • 13+ paid company holidays and additional paid office closure days; paid sick/safe time
  • Mental health and wellness support
  • Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
  • Annual learning and development stipend
  • Daily meals in offices and meal delivery credits
  • Relocation assistance
  • Charitable donation matching and wellness stipends
Last updated Oct 8, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About OpenAI

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