Senior Director, Forward Deployed Engineering

To get the best candidate experience, please consider applying for a maximum of 3 roles within 12 months to ensure you are not duplicating efforts.Job CategorySoftware EngineeringJob DetailsAbout SalesforceSalesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.About Salesforce:We’re Salesforce, the Customer Company, inspiring the future of business with AI + Data + CRM. Leading with our core values, we help companies across every industry blaze new trails and connect with customers in a whole new way. And, we empower you to be a Trailblazer, too — driving your performance and career growth, charting new paths, and improving the state of the world. If you believe in business as the greatest platform for change and in companies doing well and doing good – you’ve come to the right place.About the Role:We are seeking a technically adept and innovative Agent Builder Leader to join our Forward Deployed Engineering Team. You will lead a high performing Agent Builder expert team to deliver Agentic solutions directly with customers. Your primary responsibility will be to provide strategic and technical leadership, fostering innovation and cultivate a culture focused on continuous improvement. As a key member of the Agentforce leadership team, you will define the standards, and operating model that allow Agentic AI capabilities, directly influencing the product roadmap for agentic adoption across our customer base.Your Impact:Strategic Leadership: Define the long-term strategy for Agentic AI deployments across industries.Drive Multi-Agent Intelligence: Establish best practices and reference architectures for Model Context Protocol (MCP), inter-agent communication, and AI orchestration within multi-agent systems.Own Agentic Development Life Cycle (ADLC): Standardize ADLC across all the engagements. Oversee project delivery and ensure the deployed agents meet customer needs while scaling robustly in enterprise production environments.Internal and External Thought Leadership: Evangelize Salesforce’s agentic architecture vision internally and with strategic customers, industry partners, and ecosystem developers.Operational Excellence: Build a high-performing team capable of delivering enterprise-ready, production-grade agentic systems.Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Sales leadership to shape the strategy and execution of Agentic AI solutions.Governance and Security Stewardship: Oversee policies for data privacy, and compliance. Partner with internal security and legal teams to enforce responsible AI practices globally.Required Qualifications:10+ years of experience in building and scaling enterprise-grade applications or enterprise AI systems, including 5+ years in leadership roles overseeing technical teams.Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with proven ability to influence and engage executive stakeholders on complex technical roadmaps with both technical and non-technical teams.Expertise in AI implementations, including RAG, vector databases, search indexes, and knowledge bases, specifically for grounding Agentforce solutions with enterprise data.Expert-level knowledge of distributed systems, event-driven architecture, and asynchronous processing principles.Current, comprehensive knowledge of the LLM landscape, including the specifications, capabilities, and ideal use cases for major foundational and frontier models relevant to enterprise AI deployment, along with the tooling ecosystem.Deep understanding of how AI agents operate within enterprise ecosystems, including the principles of multi-agent orchestration, data-driven decisioning, and autonomous action design.Ability to think strategically while remaining technically credible with Product, Engineering and Architecture teams.Ability to travel 30% of the time, as needed to customer sites.Preferred QualificationsExperience architecting data or integration solutions using MuleSoft, or Einstein GenAI Agentforce or similar platform.Industry thought leader in the convergence of AI, and enterprise integrations.Prior experience leading multi-disciplinary teams in fast-scaling or global enterprise environments.Track record of production-ready deployments in secure, regulated enterprise environments.Unleash Your PotentialWhen you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.AccommodationsIf you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates’ resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.Posting StatementSalesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions. The typical base salary range for this position is $196,700 - $299,390 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $216,370 - $329,210 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.SummaryLocation: California - San Francisco; Illinois - Chicago; New York - New YorkType: Full time