About the job
About Our Team
At OpenAI, our Forward Deployed Engineering team collaborates closely with clients to transform groundbreaking research into operational systems. We thrive at the intersection of customer success and fundamental platform development.
About the Role
We are seeking a Technical Deployment Lead (TDL) to play a pivotal role in defining the delivery of sophisticated systems to our customers. In this founding position, you will take charge of the entire process from construction to deployment and integration. Your role will involve translating business objectives into actionable technical strategies, overseeing daily operations across Forward Deployed Engineers, Researchers, and Customer Engineers, and working with client teams to ensure that deployments align with their targets.
This is not a managerial position; however, you will be responsible for end-to-end delivery: collaborating with clients to outline processes and criteria for success, ensuring timely component delivery, and leading readiness and change management initiatives for effective adoption. You will monitor progress, manage dependencies, prioritize tasks, and drive prototypes from concept through to Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and scaling efforts. Furthermore, you will relay insights from the field to Product and Research teams, helping to shape our roadmap and priorities.
Your success will be primarily evaluated based on impact, deployments that provide tangible value aligned with customer objectives, foster adoption, and become integral to their operations. Additional success metrics include reliability of delivery (meeting milestones with minimal rework), operational efficiency (reusing patterns across projects), decision-making under pressure, and product influence (field feedback that informs roadmaps and architecture).
This role offers a high degree of trust and autonomy. Achieving success requires profound technical project management skills, a strong sense of ownership for outcomes, and the ability to immerse yourself in customer workflows to tackle complex engineering challenges swiftly.
This position is based in Tokyo, utilizing a hybrid work model of three days in the office, and we provide relocation assistance. Expect to travel up to 25-50% of the time.
Your Responsibilities Include:
Developing the technical delivery plan for multiple interconnected projects, translating business goals into a structured roadmap with key milestones, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
Managing daily engineering execution. Overseeing and facilitating delivery efforts across OpenAI’s Forward Deployed and client teams. Ensure progress remains unimpeded and appropriately sequenced, making real-time decisions regarding scope and priority to safeguard critical paths.
Collaborating with client teams to implement production deployments and enhance adoption. Engaging closely with clients to ensure successful implementations and strategic growth.
