> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt. # Senior/Principal Lead Delivery Engineer — Automotive Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/27f62ce9c80d4125 Luminary posts a senior FDE role to build what the customer runs in San Mateo, CA with no pay posted. Leads end-to-end delivery of Physics AI engagements for automotive OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers, and EV/ADAS innovators, from scoping through production workflow integration. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [Luminary](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/luminary) First seen Oct 24, 2026 · open on Rippling as of Nov 8, 2026 Pay not posted San Mateo, CA On-site Full-time Leads end-to-end delivery of Physics AI engagements for automotive OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers, and EV/ADAS innovators, from scoping through production workflow integration. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2F27f62ce9c80d4125&placement=top) - [View posting at Luminary](https://ats.rippling.com/luminarycloud/jobs/a8cdf59f-56d1-4318-8c93-c47d3c1479f8) Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so. ## At a glance ### Posted base pay Not posted Senior FDE postings, 1,864 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $160K to $220K, median $190K. ### The work Builds what the customer runs Balance **Mixed** Project stages 1. Pre-sales 2. Proof of concept (not covered) 3. Implementation 4. Operations (not covered) Travel **Up to 25%** - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: External customers - **Level**: Senior - **Role**: Technical lead ### What they ask for Experience - **5+ years** technical role in a relevant industry - **10+ years** technical role in a relevant industry ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting asks for 5+ years. How many do you have? The posting reads as a senior role. What level are you at now? The job is in San Mateo, CA. Could you work there? Which of these have you used in production? Answer each one. Nothing is saved or sent. [What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths) ## Conditions - **Location**: San Mateo, CA - **Work arrangement**: On-site - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Travel**: Up to 25% ## More like this [Autoscience Institute](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/autoscience-institute) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/a9012b69fa44776f) Menlo Park, CA On-site 3w ago Pay not posted [Periodic Labs](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/periodic-labs) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer, Physics & Simulation](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f51097ef995e7154) Menlo Park, CA On-site 5mo ago $250,000–$350,000 [Campfire](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/campfire) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f935f5733b809a63) San Francisco, CA On-site 5w ago $180,000–$220,000 - [Other jobs at Luminary (6)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/luminary) ## The job description from Luminary ### JOIN THE REVOLUTION IN ENGINEERING INNOVATION Luminary helps engineering companies be more competitive by getting to market faster, creating better products, and reducing development risk. We do this through our Physics AI platform — the fastest and easiest way to build and deploy models that understand and instantly predict physical reality with precision. Our customers span industries from automotive and aerospace to defense, industrial, semiconductors, and energy — ranging from hyper-growth startups to Fortune 100 enterprises. Luminary is a Series B company headquartered in San Mateo, California. ### YOUR IMPACT As the Senior/Principal Lead Delivery Engineer for Automotive, you own customer outcomes end-to-end for Luminary's engagements with OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers, and EV/ADAS innovators. You are a dual hat — project manager and product manager — leading a value delivery team across Applications Engineering, Applied AI/ML, Data & Platform, and product engineering in a matrix structure. You translate the hardest problems in vehicle design, propulsion, electrification, and manufacturing into Physics AI solutions, and partner with the GTM team on account engagement and growth. ### WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own end-to-end customer outcomes across new and existing automotive accounts — from discovery and use case scoping through model development, deployment, and embedding into customer engineering workflows. - Author Statements of Work (SOWs), educate customers on the engagement plan, and own delivery accountability against them. - Lead a value delivery team in a matrix structure: Applications Engineers, Applied AI/ML Scientists, Data and Platform Engineers, and selected product engineers. Set technical direction, sequence the work, remove blockers. - Operate as a dual hat — project manager and product manager — running sprints, milestones, and risk while also choosing the right use cases and shaping the product intuition for what to build next. - Stay hands-on-keyboard where it matters. Debug a model, restructure a data pipeline, prototype a workflow integration. Lead from the front, not from slides. - Embrace co-engineering: work side-by-side with customer engineers on use case development, sharing knowledge and building trust through visible, collaborative work. - Partner with the GTM team on new account engagement, GTM-to-delivery handoff, and account growth. - Bring market and customer signal back to Product and Research, directly shaping Luminary's roadmap for automotive use cases. ### WHAT YOU BRING - 5–10 years of experience in a technical role in a relevant industry (engineering, simulation, R&D, advanced engineering, technical program management, or applied AI/ML). Principal-level candidates have an extensive track record in automotive. - Multi-physics fluency across automotive disciplines: structural mechanics, crash/safety, NVH, thermal management, battery systems, aerodynamics, electromagnetics, or multi-physics optimization. Generalist depth across several disciplines is more valuable here than world-class depth in one. - Strong hands-on engineering chops — Python, scripting, simulation tools, and AI/ML workflows. Comfortable diving into code, models, or simulation setups when needed. - Working knowledge of AI/ML applied to engineering — surrogate modeling, neural operators, physics-informed ML, or digital twins. - Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional technical teams without direct authority. You influence through clarity, credibility, and outcomes. - Product instinct: a track record of choosing the right problems to solve and shipping things that get used — not just demos that get cited. - Customer-facing presence: equally credible explaining a physics model to a chief engineer and walking a customer roadmap with Luminary leadership. - Self-starter mentality, comfortable with ambiguity, persistent through iteration. You question what you are asked to do and prioritize what actually moves the needle. - Willing to travel 10–25% to customer sites. ### PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS - Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Mechanical, Aerospace, Electrical Engineering, or related field. - Prior experience at automotive OEMs (e.g., Tesla, Ford, GM, BMW, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Rivian, Lucid), Tier-1 suppliers (e.g., Bosch, Continental, ZF, Magna, Aptiv), or enterprise software companies serving automotive engineering. - Familiarity with software-defined vehicle (SDV) architectures and how simulation/AI integrates into next-generation vehicle development. - Track record of deploying ML or simulation tooling into production engineering workflows (not just research demos). [View posting at Luminary](https://ats.rippling.com/luminarycloud/jobs/a8cdf59f-56d1-4318-8c93-c47d3c1479f8) ## About Luminary Luminary provides a full-stack Physics AI platform that connects engineering data, model development, validation, and production deployment. Series B ## Similar jobs [Nominal](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/nominal) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer, AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/dec8d400dcdba3a8) New York, NY · San Francisco, CA · +3 more 4w ago Pay not posted [West Monroe](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/west-monroe) ### [Senior Applied AI Engineer/Architect](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/8a4b60dcc900fac7) Boston, MA · Chicago, IL · +7 more 4mo ago $225,000–$304,200 [Fastino Labs](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/fastino-labs) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/da8fc44ab966dc80) San Francisco, CA Hybrid 2w ago Pay not posted [Databricks](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/databricks) ### [Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - Digital Native Business ](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/d7d1858268bd328d) San Francisco, CA 7w ago $182,000–$250,208 [Caylent](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/caylent) ### [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer | New York or San Francisco (Onsite)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/ac5fd29248cce193) New York, NY · San Francisco, CA On-site 2w ago $136,000–$216,000 - [Compare senior FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/senior) - [Similar jobs in SF Bay Area](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?region=sf-bay-area) - [Similar jobs that build what the customer runs](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?role=builds-for-customers) Hiring at Luminary and want this page changed or removed? 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