Lead Forward Deployed Engineer

The Team: You will be joining the newly formed Forward Deployment Engineering (FDE) team within Adobe's Digital Experience organization. As part of a key innovation initiative, our mandate is to bridge the gap between product engineering and real-world implementation. We are a team of world-class AI and traditional engineers dedicated to solving the most complex challenges for the world's largest companies, ensuring they extract maximum value from the Adobe ecosystem.

The Opportunity: This is an opportunity to be a technical ambassador for Adobe. You will split your time between deep technical work and on-site collaboration with the engineering teams of global industry leaders. If you are passionate about customer empathy and technical excellence, this role offers the best of both worlds: the excitement of a startup-style environment with the resources and scale of Adobe. Come help us build the future of digital experiences, one customer success story at a time.

What You'll Do:

• Implement A2A integration patterns (APIs, webhooks, event streams, connectors) so customers can plug our AI capabilities into their existing applications and workflows.
• Create reusable SDKs, templates, and reference implementations that reduce friction for customers adopting our AI features.
• Act like a data analyst for model behavior :
  • Query logs and metrics (SQL, notebooks, dashboards) to understand how models and prompts are performing in production.
  • Investigate failure modes, edge cases, and drift (e.g., low-quality responses, latency spikes, low adoption).
  • Segment metrics by customer, cohort, use case, or configuration to find patterns and opportunities.
• Design and maintain evaluation pipelines for AI features:
  • Define success metrics and guardrails.
  • Set up offline and online evaluation (test sets, acceptance thresholds, user rating flows, A/B tests).
• Instrument AI features with strong observability and testing:
  • Logging of inputs/outputs with privacy in mind.
  • Traces/timelines of model calls, retrieval steps, and downstream effects.
  • Dashboards and alerts for quality, performance, and usage.

• Design and implement AI-backed services and APIs in Python using PyTorch or similar frameworks .

• Work with customer-facing teams (Customer Success, Solutions, Forward Deployed) to:
  • Turn customer feedback and production data into prioritized improvements.
  • Provide clear, data-backed insights on what's working, what's not, and why.
• Join customer calls and workshops to:
  • Understand their systems, integration constraints, and success criteria.
  • Guide them on how best to use our APIs, SDKs, and observability tools.
• Act as a bridge between customer needs and internal product/engineering, ensuring what we build is usable, measurable, and scalable across many customers.

What You Bring:

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with 2+ years working with ML/AI or LLM-based applications .
• An inventive mind that is looking for the best solutions to the most interesting problems. This involves a build-first mentality that seeks answers in the practical application.
• A strong sense of mentorship and team building to grow everyone's roles.
• Current understanding of the state of AI and are aggressively keeping up on the latest developments . You should be able to articulate the benefits of different architectural options.
• Expertise in Python , including hands-on work with PyTorch or similar frameworks (TensorFlow, JAX, etc.).
• Familiarity with A2A (application-to-application) integration patterns :
  • REST/gRPC APIs, webhooks, queues, or event-driven systems.
  • Authentication, rate limits, and basic reliability patterns.
• Comfortable with data-analyst-style work :
  • Writing SQL and working with analytics tools/notebooks.
  • Building or interpreting dashboards (e.g., metrics for model quality, latency, usage).
  • Turning data into clear, actionable recommendations.

• Be willing to dive into implementation with a customer to make sure they are maximizing their use of AI.

• Experience with at least one cloud platform (AWS / GCP / Azure) and standard dev tooling (Git, CI/CD, Docker).
• Exposure to LLM applications (RAG, agents, prompt pipelines) and their evaluation.
• Experience with logging/observability stacks (e.g., OpenTelemetry, Prometheus/Grafana, Datadog, etc.).
• Familiarity with MLOps/LLMOps concepts: evaluation harnesses, prompt/version management, feature flags, or canary rollouts.
• Proficiency in Java/Scala, along with associated frameworks.
• Proven track record of shipping production features and iterating based on real-world feedback.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical details and data insights to customers and non-ML stakeholders.
• Comfortable with 10%-25% travel to build relationships with customers

Desired Extras:

• Published technical writing or other communication
• A background in SaaS software
• Prior work in customer-facing technical roles or close collaboration with Customer Success / Solutions / Forward Deployed Engineering teams.
• Marketing or CRM domain knowledge

About Adobe

Adobe empowers everyone to create through innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity, productivity and personalized customer experiences. Adobe's industry-leading offerings including Adobe Acrobat Studio, Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, Creative Cloud, Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Manager, and GenStudio enable people and businesses to turn ideas into impact, powered by AI and driven by human ingenuity.

Our 30,000+ employees worldwide are creating the future and raising the bar as we drive the next decade of growth. We're on a mission to hire the very best and believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. At Adobe, we believe that great ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. The next big idea could be yours.


Let's Adobe together

At Adobe, we believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. Learn more about Adobe life, including our values and culture, focus on people, purpose and community, Adobe for All, comprehensive benefits programs, the stories we tell, the customers we serve, and how you can help us advance our mission of empowering everyone to create.

Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Learn more.

Adobe aims to make our Careers website and recruiting process accessible to any and all users. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation to navigate our website or complete the application process, email View email address on click.appcast.io or call View phone number on click.appcast.io.


AI Use Guidelines for Interviews:
Our interviews are designed to reflect your own skills and thinking. The use of AI or recording tools during live interviews is not permitted unless explicitly invited by the interviewer or approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation. If these tools are used inappropriately or in a way that misrepresents your work, your application may not move forward in the process.

At Adobe, we empower employees to innovate with AI - and we look for candidates eager to do the same. As part of the hiring experience, we provide clear guidance on where AI is encouraged during the process and where it's restricted during live interviews. See how we think about AI in the hiring experience.

Expected Pay Range:

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $159,200 -- $301,600 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.

In California, the pay range for this position is $208,300 - $301,600

At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).

In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.

State-Specific Notices:

California:

Fair Chance Ordinances

Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and "fair chance" ordinances.

Colorado:

Application Window Notice

There is no deadline to apply to this job posting because Adobe accepts applications for this role on an ongoing basis. The posting will remain open based on hiring needs and position availability.

Massachusetts:

Massachusetts Legal Notice

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.