> 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. # Deployment Lead, Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) - Platform Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/d9231e5d0ab9372b OpenAI posts a FDE role to plan what the customer deploys first in San Francisco, CA and 1 more, at $207,000–$294,000 base, above the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,864 postings with pay. The foundational Deployment Lead in OpenAI’s FDE Platform team shapes customer-validated technical solutions from discovery through launch, adoption, and repeatable delivery. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) First seen Oct 19, 2026 · open on Ashby as of Nov 8, 2026 **$207,000–$294,000** + equity San Francisco, CA +1 Hybrid Full-time The foundational Deployment Lead in OpenAI’s FDE Platform team shapes customer-validated technical solutions from discovery through launch, adoption, and repeatable delivery. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Fd9231e5d0ab9372b&placement=top) - [View posting at OpenAI](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/openai/bc80a3ae-1e69-4a8d-8366-77fcdd56ff61/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 $207K–$294K Above the median Midpoint $251K · median $190K This job $207K to $294K. Senior FDE postings, 1,864 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $160K to $220K, median $190K. [Compare pay across all OpenAI postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/openai) ### The work Plans what the customer deploys first Balance **Mixed** Project stages 1. Pre-sales 2. Proof of concept 3. Implementation 4. Operations Travel **Up to 50%** - **Builds for**: Both - **Level**: Senior - **Role**: Technical lead ### What they ask for Experience - **5+ years** product leadership or customer-facing technical delivery Background - **Solutions and customer engineering** - **Implementation and data engineering** Tools - **artificial intelligence** ### 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 Francisco, CA · New York, NY. Could you work in one of these? Answer each one. Nothing is saved or sent. [What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths) ## Conditions - **Location**: San Francisco, CA · New York, NY - **Work arrangement**: Hybrid - **Remote work restrictions**: Based in San Francisco or New York City; 3 days in the office per week. - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Travel**: Up to 50% - **Pay**: ## More like this [Hebbia](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/hebbia) ### [Forward Deployed Product Manager](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/5281f28199211273) New York, NY On-site 9d ago $180,000–$320,000 [Databricks](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/databricks) ### [Sr. Deployment Strategist, FDE - Digital Native Business](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/857350fa0750d7c2) San Francisco, CA 6w ago $219,765–$302,220 [Salesforce](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/salesforce) ### [Deployment Strategist (Mid/Senior Levels)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/233c182f95f3a859) San Francisco, CA · Bellevue, WA · +8 more Remote 4mo ago $134,750–$316,750 - [Other jobs at OpenAI (52)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) ## The job description from OpenAI ### About the Team OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team partners with customers to turn research breakthroughs into production systems. Within FDE, the Platform team turns promising use cases into repeatable solutions to deliver at scale. ### About the Role As a foundational Platform Deployment Lead (DL), you’ll shape new solutions and lead them from customer validation through launch and repeatable adoption. You’ll combine product judgment with hands-on customer deployment experience to identify valuable problems and define a path to scale. You’ll also help build the function, navigating significant ambiguity to define its scope and ways of working. You’ll partner with FDEs, Product, and GTM to align the roadmap, resolve shared dependencies, and balance customer commitments with reusable capabilities. Success means measurable customer and business impact, growing adoption, and building solutions that field teams or partners can deliver without depending on the originating team. This role is based in San Francisco or New York City, with 3 days in the office per week, relocation assistance, and travel up to 50%. ### In this role, you will - Define clear solutions around a valuable problem and shape the path to market. - Use customer, field learnings, and market evidence to set the next proof point, narrow scope, and recommend where to invest. - Select design partners and use pilots to test value and repeatability. - Define quality and launch criteria. - Enable field teams and partners to scope, sell, and deliver the solution using playbooks and building the support model they need. - Track adoption and establish ongoing ownership as solutions scale. ### You might thrive in this role if you - Bring 5+ years of product leadership or customer-facing technical delivery experience. - Have taken technical products from discovery through production and adoption. - Translate customer workflows and deployment evidence into clear product priorities. - Can reason through integrations, data, evaluations, and enterprise deployment constraints. - Thrive in ambiguity and enjoy building new functions: creating structure where little exists, making sound decisions with incomplete information, and adapting as priorities evolve. - Build trust and drive decisions across engineering, Product, GTM, partners, and customers. - Understand technical go-to-market and enjoy building new solutions in ambiguous environments. ### 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. We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement. Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations. To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link. OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy 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. [View posting at OpenAI](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/openai/bc80a3ae-1e69-4a8d-8366-77fcdd56ff61/application) ## About OpenAI Builds frontier AI models and ships them through ChatGPT consumer and enterprise products, Codex, and developer APIs. Late-stage private · 5000+ people ## Similar jobs [Minerva](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/minerva) ### [Forward Deployed Marketer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/2fd783454e8c4def) New York, NY On-site 5w ago $200,000–$240,000 [Moment](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/moment) ### [Deployment Strategist ](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/66d258c0d56058df) New York, NY On-site 5mo ago $200,000–$300,000 [Sierra](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/sierra) ### [Strategist, Agent Development (Spanish speaking)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/af12fb2cd8f338a3) San Francisco, CA On-site 2mo ago $200,000–$290,000 [Decagon](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/decagon) ### [Senior Agent Product Manager, Healthcare](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/8f9c10de005fb11c) New York, NY On-site 2mo ago $200,000–$285,000 [Lightfield](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/lightfield) ### [Deployment Strategist](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/99e691095b205253) San Francisco, CA Hybrid 2w ago $170,000–$250,000 - [Compare senior FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/senior) - [Similar jobs in New York metro](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?region=nyc-metro) - [Similar jobs that plan what the customer deploys first](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?role=strategist) Hiring at OpenAI and want this page changed or removed? 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