About the job
About Our Team
At OpenAI, our Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team is dedicated to transforming groundbreaking research into robust production systems. We work closely with our clients to tackle significant challenges, serving as the driving force behind our most intricate large-scale projects. Our agile approach allows us to rapidly transition from prototypes to production, establishing reusable patterns that enhance our platform. We function at the nexus of deployment and development, collaborating extensively with OpenAI Research, Product, and Partnerships.
About the Position
As a Technical Deployment Lead (TDL), you will be instrumental in defining the delivery of sophisticated systems to our clients. You will oversee the construction, shipping, and adoption processes. Your role involves translating business objectives into actionable technical plans, managing daily operations across FDEs, Researchers, and Customer Engineers, and collaborating with customer teams to ensure the delivery aligns with their objectives.
You will manage the entire delivery process: engaging with customers to outline workflows and success metrics, ensuring timely shipping of components, and leading readiness and change management efforts for successful adoption. Your responsibilities will include tracking progress, managing dependencies, making sequencing decisions, and driving prototypes from initial concept through to MVP and scaling. Additionally, you will provide field insights to Product and Research to inform roadmaps and priorities.
Your success will primarily be measured by the impact of deployments that yield quantifiable value aligned with customer goals, increase adoption, and become integral to their workflows. Other success metrics include delivery reliability (meeting milestones, minimizing reopen/churn), operational efficiency (reusing patterns across deployments), sound judgment under pressure, and product impact (field feedback influencing roadmaps/architectures).
This role is characterized by a high level of trust and autonomy. To excel, you will need profound technical project management skills, a strong sense of ownership over outcomes, and an ability to immerse yourself in customer workflows while partnering with their teams to resolve complex engineering challenges swiftly.
This position is based in San Francisco. We adopt a hybrid working model, requiring three days in the office each week. Relocation assistance is available, and travel of 25%-50% is anticipated.

