Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - Seattle

About The Team

OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering team partners with customers to turn research breakthroughs into production systems. We operate at the intersection of customer delivery and core platform development.

About The Role

Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) lead complex end-to-end deployments of frontier models in production alongside our most strategic customers. You will own discovery, technical scoping, system design, build, and production rollout, partnering directly with customer engineering and domain teams.

You will measure success through production adoption, measurable workflow impact, and eval-driven feedback that changes product and model roadmaps. You’ll work closely with our Product, Research, Partnerships, GRC, Security, and GTM teams.

This role is based in Seattle. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. We offer relocation assistance. Travel up to 50% is required.

In this role you will

Own technical delivery across multiple deployments from first prototype to stable production

Build full-stack systems that deliver customer value and sharpen how we learn

Embed closely with customer teams, understand their needs, and guide adoption of what you build

Scope work, sequence delivery, and remove blockers early

Make trade-offs between scope, speed, and quality; adjust plans to protect delivery

Contribute directly in the code when progress or clarity depends on it

Codify working patterns into tools, playbooks, or building blocks that others can use

Share field feedback that helps Research and Product understand where the models succeed and where they can improve

Keep teams moving through clarity and follow-through

You might thrive in this role if you

Bring 5+ years of engineering or technical deployment experience that includes customer-facing work

Have scoped and delivered complex systems in fast-moving or ambiguous environments

Write and review production-grade code across frontend and backend using Python, JavaScript, or comparable stacks

Have built or deployed systems powered by LLMs or generative models and understand how model behaviour affects product experience

Simplify complexity and make fast, sound decisions under pressure

Communicate clearly with engineers, product teams, and customer stakeholders

Spot risks early and adjust without slowing down

Model calm and judgment when the stakes are high

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Compensation Range: $162K - $280K