Platform Engineering Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE)
About the team OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) org sits at the intersection of product, engineering, research, and go-to-market. We take frontier platform capabilities into the real world with design partners, turning raw customer signal into shipped software, repeatable patterns, and durable products.
What this role actually needs.
Platform Engineering Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) at OpenAI in San Francisco. UpJobz keeps this listing high-signal for applicants targeting serious high-tech roles across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. About the team OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) org sits at the intersection of product, engineering, research, and go-to-market. We take frontier platform capabilities into the real world with design partners, turning raw customer signal into shipped software, repeatable patterns, and durable products.
Day-to-day expectations
A clear list of the work this role is designed to cover.
- Guide a focused portfolio of platform bets: Steer direction for a small number of high-signal problems, with clear hypotheses, success criteria, sequencing, and measurable adoption outcomes.
- Build and validate with customers: Ensure the team ships working software with design partners, instruments usage and outcomes, and iterates quickly based on real-world adoption and constraints.
- Co-develop with long-term owners: Partner early with B2B Platform (and other durable owners) to align on architecture, interfaces, security/governance requirements, and handoff criteria, staying engaged through validation and the path to scale.
- Maintain a high engineering bar: Set and enforce standards for design, code quality, testing, observability, and operational readiness appropriate for enterprise use.
- Grow and develop the team: Coach and develop engineers through direct feedback, clear expectations, and durable team mechanisms that reinforce execution and ownership.
- Operate with high judgment and influence: Make clear tradeoffs under ambiguity, communicate decisions crisply across stakeholders, and drive outcomes through partnership rather than formal authority.
What a strong candidate brings
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- Maintain a high engineering bar: Set and enforce standards for design, code quality, testing, observability, and operational readiness appropriate for enterprise use.
- Grow and develop the team: Coach and develop engineers through direct feedback, clear expectations, and durable team mechanisms that reinforce execution and ownership.
- Operate with high judgment and influence: Make clear tradeoffs under ambiguity, communicate decisions crisply across stakeholders, and drive outcomes through partnership rather than formal authority.
- Bring 8+ years of engineering experience , including 2+ years managing high-performance engineers
- Are deeply customer-obsessed and can partner credibly with senior stakeholders while keeping a high bar for delivery and technical rigor.
- Naturally act as a shepherd: you elevate and refine others’ ideas, sharpen hypotheses, and make disciplined “scale vs pause” calls with clear reasoning.
Why people would want this job
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Next moves
- Tailor your resume around ai and llm instead of sending a generic application.
- Use the first two bullets of your application to connect your background directly to platform engineering manager, forward deployed engineering (fde) is a high-signal hybrid role in san francisco, and it is most realistic for united states residents.
- Open the role quickly if it fits and bookmark three similar jobs before you leave the page.
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- $302K - $335K is visible, so calibrate your application around the posted range.
- Use united states residents as part of your positioning so the recruiter does not have to infer it.
- Show concrete examples of succeeding in hybrid environments.
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