Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - Seattle

About this role

OpenAI seeks a Forward Deployed Engineer to lead end-to-end production deployments of frontier AI models with strategic customers in Seattle. You'll own the full lifecycle from discovery through rollout, working across engineering, product, and customer teams to drive adoption and inform product development.

What you'll do

• Lead technical delivery of complex AI model deployments from prototype to stable production
• Build full-stack systems that deliver measurable customer value and enable learning
• Embed with customer teams to understand needs, guide adoption, and gather field feedback
• Scope work, sequence delivery, and remove blockers while managing trade-offs between scope, speed, and quality
• Contribute directly to production-grade code when needed for progress or clarity
• Share customer insights with Research and Product teams to drive model and roadmap improvements

What they're looking for

• 5+ years of engineering or technical deployment experience with customer-facing work
• Production-grade code development in Python, JavaScript, or similar stacks
• Experience building or deploying LLM and generative model systems
• Full-stack system design and delivery in fast-moving, ambiguous environments
• Clear communication with engineers, product teams, and stakeholders
• Risk identification and rapid decision-making under pressure
• Complexity simplification and problem decomposition
• Project scoping and delivery sequencing

Benefits

• Hybrid work model (3 days in office per week)
• Based in Seattle with relocation assistance offered
• Opportunity to work on frontier AI technology with strategic customers
• Direct impact on product and research roadmaps
• Collaboration with OpenAI's Product, Research, and Security teams