Forward Deployed Engineer - Zurich
Remote • Zurich, Switzerland • FullTime
Posted 8h ago
Remote Work Policy
Fully remote
Employment Type
FullTime
Categories
Applied AI Engineer
About the job
OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering team partners with customers to turn research breakthroughs into production systems, operating at the intersection of customer delivery and core platform development. Forward 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. Success will be measured through production adoption, measurable workflow impact, and evaluation-driven feedback that influences product and model roadmaps. You’ll work closely with our Product, Research, Partnerships, GRC, Security, and GTM teams.
Responsibilities
- Own technical delivery across multiple deployments from first prototype to stable production.
- Build full-stack systems that deliver customer value and enhance learning.
- Embed closely with customer teams to understand needs and guide adoption of built solutions.
- Scope work, sequence delivery, and proactively remove blockers.
- Make trade-offs between scope, speed, and quality, adjusting plans to ensure delivery.
- Contribute directly to code when progress or clarity depends on it.
- Codify working patterns into reusable tools, playbooks, or building blocks.
- Share field feedback to inform Research and Product teams about model performance and areas for improvement.
- Maintain team momentum through clarity and consistent follow-through.
Requirements
- 5+ years of engineering or technical deployment experience, including customer-facing work.
- Experience scoping and delivering complex systems in fast-moving or ambiguous environments.
- Proficiency in writing and reviewing production-grade code across frontend and backend using Python, JavaScript, or comparable stacks.
- Experience building or deploying systems powered by LLMs or generative models, with an understanding of how model behavior impacts product experience.
- Ability to simplify complexity and make fast, sound decisions under pressure.
- Clear communication skills with engineers, product teams, and customer stakeholders.
- Ability to identify risks early and adjust plans without compromising speed.
- Capacity to model calm and sound judgment in high-stakes situations.
Benefits
- Relocation assistance