> 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.

# Director, Product Management — Forward Deployed Engineering, AWS Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE)

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f6e94d87514d5da3

Amazon (incl AWS) posts a director FDE role to lead deployment teams in East Palo Alto, CA and 2 more, at $237,500–$350,000 base, above the staff+ FDE median of $225,000 across 388 postings with pay. Build and lead the FDE product management team Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026.

- [Amazon (incl AWS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws)

Posted Sep 16, 2026 by Amazon (incl AWS) · open on Amazon (incl AWS) careers as of Nov 8, 2026

**$237,500–$350,000** *annualized* East Palo Alto, CA +2 Full-time

Build and lead the FDE product management team

- [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Ff6e94d87514d5da3&placement=top)
- [View posting at Amazon (incl AWS)](https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/10551385/director-product-management-forward-deployed-engineering-aws-forward-deployed-engineering-fde)

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

$238K–$350K Above the median

Midpoint $294K · median $225K

This job $238K to $350K. Staff+ FDE postings, 388 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $197K to $262K, median $225K.

[Compare pay across all Amazon (incl AWS) postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/amazon-incl-aws)

### The work

Leads the deployment team

Balance **Mostly pre-sales or support**

Project stages

1. Pre-sales
2. Proof of concept (not covered)
3. Implementation
4. Operations

- **Coding**: No coding

- **Builds for**: External customers

- **Level**: Staff+

- **Role**: People manager

### What they ask for

Experience

- **15+ years** product management, including significant experience in enterprise environments

### Do you meet what the posting states?

The posting asks for 15+ years. How many do you have?

The posting reads as a staff-level role. What level are you at now?

The job is in East Palo Alto, CA · Boston, MA · +1 more. Could you work in one of these?

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**: East Palo Alto, CA · Boston, MA · Seattle, WA

- **Employment type**: Full-time

## More like this

[Blitzy](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/blitzy)

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### [Deployment Lead, FDE (SF)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/07021125b53721b9)

San Francisco, CA 6w ago

$250,000–$315,000

- [Other jobs at Amazon (incl AWS) (80)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws)

## The job description from Amazon (incl AWS)

Posted by Amazon (incl AWS) on Sep 16, 2026

*The Opportunity**

95% of enterprise technology pilots deliver zero measurable P&L impact. The technology works — the gap is in the last mile: getting production systems running inside complex enterprises where legacy infrastructure, regulated data, and organizational complexity collide. AWS is making a billion-dollar investment in Forward Deployed Engineering ("FDE") to close that gap, and we're hiring product leaders who will define what we build and why.

This is a greenfield role. You'll build a product management practice, shape an entirely new category at AWS, and establish the engagement model that delivers delightful outcomes enabling customers to transform themselves.

*The Role**
As the Director of Product Management — Forward Deployed Engineering will lead product management for FDE, building and leading the PM team that owns the end-to-end product lifecycle from customer engagement through production delivery through optimization and self-sufficiency. Your product managers embed directly inside enterprise customers — defining outcomes, writing specs, working hand-in-hand with engineering to ship production systems — and every engagement feeds back into AWS services and an underlying platform that makes the next one faster.

This is not a traditional AWS Product Management role. FDE product managers are field-facing: they live inside delivery, sit with customers, and turn engagement learnings into compounding platform value. You are the "CEO of the customer problem" — responsible for the *why* and *what*, while engineering owns the *how*.

Key job responsibilities
### Product Leadership

You own the customer outcomes. Your teams operate inside customer environments under real constraints and ambitious timelines — regulated data, brownfield infrastructure, multi-stakeholder governance. You lead the customer engagement strategy from the product side: define what a great pod PM does, allocate PM talent across engagements, ensure pods are solving the right problems, and hold executive customer relationships at the CIO/CTO level built on trust earned through delivered outcomes.

### Product & Platform Influence

You see what breaks across deployments and turn that into product direction. You influence AWS service roadmap from a position of earned authority because you've lived the deployment pain firsthand, and identify when custom pod work should graduate into platform primitives or native service capabilities.

You shape the FDE engagement model: how we scope, what we deliver, what we price, what we leave behind.

### Industry Practice & Productization

You build the domain expertise that compounds. Your teams develop industry-specific accelerators, reference architectures, and blueprints that generate pipeline for the next customer in your vertical. You define the use cases that feed qualification, pricing, and pod composition. You measure what matters: asset reuse rate, time-to-value, engagement velocity

### Go-to-Market Partnership

You partner with sales, specialists, and marketing to define pricing, packaging, and positioning. You own the commercial model for FDE engagements — how we price outcomes, what the customer buys, and how we demonstrate ROI. You build pipeline through customer stories, reference architectures

### Basic qualifications

BS/MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field
- 15+ years in product management, with significant experience in enterprise environments
- Track record building and leading product management teams through complex enterprise applications with direct customer and business impact
- Technical depth — agentic systems, AI/ML, business workflow automation, enterprise integration — ability to engage at the architecture level and roll up sleeves when the hardest problems demand it
- Experience with pricing, packaging, and go-to-market — having partnered with sales, marketing, and GTM teams to define commercial models and build pipeline
- Executive presence with C-suite customers, earned through outcomes — can run a room with a VP/CTO and translate business problems into product requirements in real time

### Preferred qualifications

Founder mentality — has built a team, product, or practice from scratch and scaled it
- Experience delivering production systems inside large enterprise customer environments: regulated data, legacy infrastructure, organizational complexity, multi-party governance
- Has built industry-specific solutions or vertical practices at scale — creating reusable assets that became a competitive moat
- Builder-leader who ships alongside the team, is energized by customer problems, and operates where the customer sees your results in real-time
- Has owned a feedback loop between field/deployment teams and a product/platform org — knows how to turn deployment pain into roadmap priorities with data and earned credibility

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, CA, East Palo Alto - 273,100.00 - 350,000.00 USD annually
USA, MA, Boston - 237,500.00 - 321,300.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 237,500.00 - 321,300.00 USD annually

[View posting at Amazon (incl AWS)](https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/10551385/director-product-management-forward-deployed-engineering-aws-forward-deployed-engineering-fde)

## About Amazon (incl AWS)

Online retail, third-party marketplace, Prime/ads/devices, and AWS — the world's largest cloud platform powering startups and enterprises.

Public · 5000+ people

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- [Compare staff+ FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/staff)
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