Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - SF

About the teamOpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering team partners with customers to turn research breakthroughs into production systems. We operate at the intersection of customer delivery and core platform development. About the roleForward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) lead complex end-to-end deployments of frontier models in production alongside our most strategic customers. You will own discovery, technical scoping, system design, build, and production rollout, partnering directly with customer engineering and domain teams. You will measure success through production adoption, measurable workflow impact, and eval-driven feedback that changes product and model roadmaps. You’ll work closely with our Product, Research, Partnerships, GRC, Security, and GTM teams. This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. We offer relocation assistance. Travel up to 50% is required. In this role you willOwn technical delivery across multiple deployments from first prototype to stable productionBuild full-stack systems that deliver customer value and sharpen how we learnEmbed closely with customer teams, understand their needs, and guide adoption of what you buildScope work, sequence delivery, and remove blockers earlyMake trade-offs between scope, speed, and quality; adjust plans to protect deliveryContribute directly in the code when progress or clarity depends on itCodify working patterns into tools, playbooks, or building blocks that others can useShare field feedback that helps Research and Product understand where the models succeed and where they can improveKeep teams moving through clarity and follow-through You might thrive in this role if youBring 5+ years of engineering or technical deployment experience that includes customer-facing workHave scoped and delivered complex systems in fast-moving or ambiguous environmentsWrite and review production-grade code across frontend and backend using Python, JavaScript, or comparable stacksHave built or deployed systems powered by LLMs or generative models and understand how model behaviour affects product experienceSimplify complexity and make fast, sound decisions under pressureCommunicate clearly with engineers, product teams, and customer stakeholdersSpot risks early and adjust without slowing downModel calm and judgment when the stakes are highAbout OpenAIOpenAI 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