> 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. # Lead Forward Deployed Engineer Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/75b9eec8a84d5e58 Eliza posts a FDE role to lead deployment teams, remote, hiring in Oregon with no pay posted. Leads delivery quality and technical direction across multiple concurrent client accounts, serving as the senior technical presence while coaching engineers on live engagements. Read from the employer’s posting on November 6, 2026. - [Eliza](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/eliza) Posted Jul 28, 2026 by Eliza · open on Ashby as of Nov 6, 2026 Pay not posted Remote, hiring in Oregon Full-time Leads delivery quality and technical direction across multiple concurrent client accounts, serving as the senior technical presence while coaching engineers on live engagements. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2F75b9eec8a84d5e58&placement=top) - [View posting at Eliza](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/eliza/e11af7c2-cd83-4120-9f40-b7cae851872a/application) 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 Staff+ FDE postings, 388 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $197K to $262K, median $225K. ### The work Leads the deployment team Balance **Mostly pre-sales or support** Project stages 1. Pre-sales (not covered) 2. Proof of concept (not covered) 3. Implementation 4. Operations (not covered) - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: Both - **Level**: Staff+ - **Role**: Technical lead ### What they ask for Experience - **8+ years** software engineering Background - **Software engineering** ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting asks for 8+ years. How many do you have? The posting reads as a staff-level role. What level are you at now? The work is remote from the US. Can you work from the US? 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**: Remote, OR - **Work arrangement**: Remote - **Employment type**: Full-time ## More like this [Huron](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/huron) ### [AICC Senior Technical Lead, Forward Deployed Engineering (Senior Manager)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/7e288c85b9241b78) Chicago, IL Remote 4mo ago $165,000–$190,000 [Nimble Gravity](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/nimble-gravity) ### [Director, Forward Deployed Engineering ](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/7105150c48eeeef4) US Remote 2w ago Pay not posted [Taktile](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/taktile) ### [Director of Forward Deployed Engineering, NORAM](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/98b85fdb54aa5074) New York, NY Hybrid 7w ago $300,000–$360,000 - [Other jobs at Eliza (6)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/eliza) ## The job description from Eliza Posted by Eliza on Jul 28, 2026 ### Lead Forward Deployed Engineer ### About Us Eliza is a technology services company and Advanced-tier OpenAI partner that’s dedicated to helping organizations build and deploy cutting-edge AI solutions. From generative AI and custom LLM integrations to predictive analytics and intelligent automation, we work across industries to bring real-world AI applications to life. Our projects combine deep technical expertise with hands-on client collaboration to solve high-impact problems. ### Role Overview The **Lead Forward Deployed Engineer (Lead FDE)** owns delivery excellence across a portfolio of client accounts. The closest analogy is a coach: you are accountable for how the team performs in the field. You set the standard, guide technical direction across engagements, develop the engineers doing the work, make delivery adjustments in-flight, and ensure clients trust both the team and the outcome. Where a Senior FDE goes deep on one hard problem, a Lead FDE holds the quality bar across several at once—without becoming the bottleneck. That means knowing when to coach someone through a problem and when to step in yourself, and having the technical credibility to do either. You will review critical architecture before it reaches clients, and you will give the engineers on your accounts the direct, specific feedback that actually makes them better. This is a field leadership role. Your focus is delivery, technical direction, and developing the team on live client work—not administrative process. ### Key Responsibilities ### 1. Own Portfolio Delivery Quality - Maintain a clear view of delivery status, risks, blockers, and priorities across assigned accounts. - Ensure each engagement has a practical execution plan, clear ownership, and an appropriate technical path. - Hold every account team to Eliza's quality bar. - Intervene early when delivery quality, pace, client confidence, or execution discipline is at risk. - Keep delivery aligned to client outcomes, engagement scope, and business priorities. ### 2. Set Technical Direction Across Engagements - Guide solution architecture and technical decision-making across multiple concurrent engagements. - Review critical work before it is shared with clients. - Ensure technical decisions are pragmatic, maintainable, and appropriate for each client's environment. - Help teams make clear tradeoffs between speed, quality, scope, and client value. - Identify when an engagement needs additional technical expertise or senior escalation. ### 3. Coach and Develop the Field Team - Coach the engineers on your accounts based on their real engagement work, not abstractions. - Provide direct, timely, actionable feedback on technical execution, client communication, ownership, and judgment. - Help team members improve how they frame tradeoffs, manage ambiguity, and drive work to completion. - Run milestone retrospectives so teams learn from each phase of an engagement and adjust. - Recognize when someone is ready for more responsibility, and when someone needs more support. - Keep the team focused, motivated, and aligned around client outcomes. ### 4. Maintain Client Confidence - Serve as the senior technical and delivery presence for clients across your portfolio. - Ensure client communication is clear, credible, and appropriately proactive. - Surface risks early and manage expectations with discipline. - Help clients understand the path from problem definition to shipped outcome. - Partner with account and commercial leadership so delivery realities are reflected in account strategy. ### 5. Establish Execution Discipline - Define the right operating cadence for each account: internal reviews, client checkpoints, technical reviews. - Ensure work is broken down clearly and assigned to accountable owners. - Track commitments, decisions, blockers, and client feedback. - Create enough structure for teams to move quickly without unnecessary process. - Keep teams focused on outcomes rather than activity. ### 6. Manage Delivery Risk and Escalation - Identify technical, staffing, scope, timeline, and client-alignment risks across the portfolio. - Decide when to coach the team through an issue versus when to intervene directly. - Escalate material risks to executive and account leadership with a clear recommendation. - Help the business distinguish between delivery issues, resourcing issues, scope issues, and client-alignment issues. ### Qualifications ### Required - 8+ years of software engineering experience, with meaningful time in client-facing or field delivery roles. - Demonstrated ownership of delivery quality across multiple concurrent engagements or accounts. - Deep hands-on technical credibility: strong Python, production AI/ML delivery, and sound architectural judgment. You still read the code. - Proven experience developing engineers through direct, specific, timely feedback. - Excellent executive and technical communication—credible with a client CTO and with an engineer on the same day. - Deep comfort with modern cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), CI/CD, and production deployment practices. - Strong commercial awareness: you understand how delivery decisions affect account health and business outcomes. ### Preferred - Substantial production experience with LLMs (e.g., Anthropic, OpenAI, Cohere), vector search, retrieval-augmented generation, or agentic systems. - Prior consulting, professional services, or engagement leadership experience in a technical services environment. - Familiarity with MLOps practices and tooling (e.g., MLflow, Weights & Biases, SageMaker). - Working knowledge of enterprise security, data privacy, and compliance constraints. - Experience scaling delivery standards across a growing team without becoming the bottleneck. ### What We Offer - Competitive compensation (salary + deployment bonuses or client uplift incentives). - Equity options in a growing AI services company. - Fully remote work - Remote work perks include a WFH stipend and monthly lifestyle stipend - Real ownership of a client portfolio and the team delivering it. - A leadership role that keeps you technical and in the field. - Flexibility to work across industries and problem domains. - A collaborative, mission-driven team passionate about the real-world impact of AI. [View posting at Eliza](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/eliza/e11af7c2-cd83-4120-9f40-b7cae851872a/application) ## About Eliza Eliza helps enterprises adopt AI and build, evaluate, and optimize production AI systems through embedded engineering services. ## Similar jobs [Scout AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/scout-ai) ### [GTM Customer Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/d07a2a79ab832de6) US Remote 4w ago $150,000–$180,000 [Fieldguide](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/fieldguide) ### [Senior Manager, Deployed Engineering](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/fed674fdd8484b71) San Francisco, CA Remote 3w ago $210,000–$305,000 [Cisco](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/cisco) ### [Director, Solutions Engineer Forward Deployed - Splunk (Remote)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/42f94fc86921f66e) New York, NY Remote 3w ago $307,600–$468,200 [Qualified Health](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/qualified-health) ### [Director, Data Modernization](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/e6420374ec05b274) US Remote 4mo ago $190,000–$230,000 [Cadre AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/cadre-ai) ### [Staff Forward Deployed AI Engineer | San Diego, CA](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/b144c00238ccf58c) San Diego, CA Hybrid 3mo ago $165,000–$200,000 - [Compare staff+ FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/staff) - [Similar jobs that lead deployment teams](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?role=leadership) Hiring at Eliza and want this page changed or removed? 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