> 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. # Head of Deployed Engineering Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f2bf39c185070fc9 Fieldguide posts a director FDE role to lead deployment teams, remote, hiring in California, at $240,000–$390,000 base, above the staff+ FDE median of $225,000 across 388 postings with pay. Leads customer-facing engineering deployments for major audit firms, combining hands-on production software development with building and coaching a forward deployed engineering team. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [Fieldguide](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/fieldguide) Posted Oct 13, 2026 by Fieldguide · open on Ashby as of Nov 8, 2026 **$240,000–$390,000** + equity Remote, hiring in California Full-time Leads customer-facing engineering deployments for major audit firms, combining hands-on production software development with building and coaching a forward deployed engineering team. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Ff2bf39c185070fc9&placement=top) - [View posting at Fieldguide](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/fieldguide/06670a3b-e69a-41fa-8c46-df118b462420/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 $240K–$390K Above the median Midpoint $315K · median $225K This job $240K to $390K. Staff+ FDE postings, 388 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $197K to $262K, median $225K. ### The work Leads the deployment team Balance **Mixed** Project stages 1. Pre-sales (not covered) 2. Proof of concept 3. Implementation 4. Operations (not covered) - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: External customers - **Level**: Staff+ - **Role**: People manager ### What they ask for Experience - **8+ years** leadership experience in forward deployed, deployment, solutions, or customer engineering Background - **Solutions and customer engineering** - **Forward deployed 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**: San Francisco, CA - **Work arrangement**: Remote - **Remote work restrictions**: USA; San Francisco, CA also available - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Pay**: ## More like this [Serval](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/serval) ### [Deployment Leadership](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/2cf4f2be614e9158) San Francisco, CA On-site 5mo ago $250,000–$400,000 [Chalk](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/chalk) ### [Director, Forward Deployed Engineering](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/47c6797aead04cf6) San Francisco, CA On-site 2mo ago $300,000–$350,000 [Doppel](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/doppel) ### [Deployment Lead, FDE (SF)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/07021125b53721b9) San Francisco, CA 6w ago $250,000–$315,000 - [Other jobs at Fieldguide (1)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/fieldguide) ## The job description from Fieldguide Posted by Fieldguide on Oct 13, 2026 ### About Us Fieldguide is establishing a new state of trust for global commerce and capital markets through automating and streamlining the work of advisory, audit, and tax practitioners at the world's largest CPA firms. Put simply, we build software for the people who enable trust between businesses. We’re headquartered in San Francisco, CA and backed by top investors including Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Bessemer Venture Partners, 8VC, Floodgate, Y Combinator, DNX Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Justin Kan, Elad Gil, and more. We value diversity — in backgrounds and in experiences. We need people from all backgrounds and walks of life to help build the future of audit and advisory. Fieldguide’s team is inclusive, driven, humble and supportive. We are deliberate and self-reflective about the kind of team and culture that we are building, seeking teammates that are not only strong in their own aptitudes but care deeply about supporting each other's growth. As a growth stage startup employee, you’ll have the opportunity to build out the future of business trust. We make audit practitioners’ lives easier by eliminating up to 50% of their work and giving them better work-life balance. If you share our values and enthusiasm for building a great culture and product, you will find a home at Fieldguide. **About the Role** Our forward deployed engineers (FDEs) work alongside practitioners at the world's largest audit firms. They build prototype agents on those firms' real workflows and ship production code. One current problem is producing verifiable citations from dense Excel workbooks, because an auditor has to trace every conclusion back to the exact evidence. Our Head of Deployed Engineering role will start as a player-coach role where you will need to be hands on as we build and scale this effort. At the start, you'll be working directly in customer deployments, writing production code and solving the hardest technical problems yourself. You'll also build and lead the team around you. As the team grows, your focus will move toward leadership, but you'll always be close to the work. You'll report to our CTO/co-founder and work closely and with Product, Engineering and Customer leadership. **What You'll Do** As a player: - Lead important deployments yourself. Own technical delivery for some of our largest enterprise customers, from scoping through production. This includes single-tenant and government-cloud environments, regulated data, and audit methods that differ from firm to firm. - Write production code. Build agents, integrations and tools alongside the team, and handle the hardest technical problems directly. - Be the senior technical voice with customers. Act as a trusted advisor to partners, CIOs and audit leaders on how AI agents fit their practice. As a coach: - Build the FDE team. Hire, coach and grow strong engineers who can both build and work directly with customers. Set the bar through your own work first. - Make deployment repeatable. Turn what you learn from hands-on work into playbooks, tools and metrics that speed up time-to-value as we grow upmarket. - Turn field work into product. Spot patterns across deployments and work with Product and Engineering so solutions built for one customer become reusable platform features. ### What We're Looking For - 8+ years of leadership experience in forward deployed, deployment, solutions or customer engineering. That might mean FDE leadership at Palantir or a similar company, a Field CTO role, or leading technical work with large enterprise customers. - You still build. You've written production software recently and want to keep doing it. This role isn't a fit for someone looking for a manage-only role. - Experience leading or mentoring engineers, and excitement about building a team from an early stage. - Comfort in front of senior enterprise stakeholders, especially in regulated or complex environments. - Good judgment about building for one customer versus the platform, and the ability to push back on scope when it matters. - Excitement about bringing AI agents into high-stakes professional work. ### Bonus Points - Experience at a Big 4 firm (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) or a major consulting firm such as Accenture, McKinsey, BCG or Bain. - Knowledge of audit, accounting, risk or compliance. - Experience deploying LLM or agent-based systems in production. ### More about Fieldguide Fieldguide is a values-based company. Our values are: - Fearless - Inspire & break down seemingly impossible walls. - Fast - Launch fast with excellence, iterate to perfection. - Lovable - Deliver happiness & 11 star experiences. - Owners - Execute & run the business with ownership. - Win-win - Create mutual value & earn trust for life. - Inclusive - Scale the best ideas with inclusive teams. ### Some of our benefits include - Competitive compensation packages with meaningful ownership - Flexible PTO - 401k - Wellness benefits starting on your first day - Technology & Work from Home reimbursement - Flexible work schedules [View posting at Fieldguide](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/fieldguide/06670a3b-e69a-41fa-8c46-df118b462420/application) ## About Fieldguide AI-native engagement platform for audit and advisory firms that combines practitioner workflows, client collaboration, and domain-specific agents across regulated assurance work. Series C · 100–200 people ## Similar jobs [Assort Health](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/assort-health) ### [Head of Forward Deployed Engineering](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/1243f2ee18b869b6) San Francisco, CA Hybrid 2mo ago $210,000–$300,000 [Accenture](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/accenture) ### [Forward Deployed Engineering Manager](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/a60e7ba97aa7fff1) Arlington, VA · Milwaukee, WI · +39 more 6w ago $80,400–$316,300 [Hadrian](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/hadrian) ### [Sr. Director, Forward Deployed Engineering](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f4ea9efe32970402) SF Bay Area On-site 2w ago $300,000–$415,000 [Salesforce](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/salesforce) ### [Senior Director, Forward Deployed Engineering](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/8b65ace4a79082c1) San Francisco, CA · Chicago, IL · +1 more New · 4d ago $196,700–$329,210 [Aircall](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/aircall) ### [Director, Forward Deployed Engineering & AI GTM](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/fc7f1d0479aa37c4) New York, NY · San Francisco, CA 3mo ago $200,000–$299,000 - [Compare staff+ FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/staff) - [Similar jobs in SF Bay Area](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?region=sf-bay-area) - [Similar jobs that lead deployment teams](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?role=leadership) Hiring at Fieldguide and want this page changed or removed? Email info@nextmove.md and we take it down. Employer postings · [How we read postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/method)