Head of Forward Deployed Engineering
Remote • Foster City, CA • FullTime
Posted 1mo ago
Remote Work Policy
Fully remote
Employment Type
FullTime
Categories
Applied AI Engineer
About the job
Replit is seeking a Head of Forward Deployed Engineering to build and lead a team focused on helping enterprise customers operationalize Replit within their organizations. This role operates at the intersection of engineering, product, and customer transformation, requiring engineers to embed with customers, solve complex technical challenges, build production systems, and shape the future of AI-native software development adoption. Unlike traditional post-sales roles, Forward Deployed Engineers are software engineers who build production systems and deploy AI-native workflows directly with customers, turning their challenges into reusable platform capabilities. The team will be at the forefront of using AI agents, automation, and Replit itself to accelerate customer outcomes, demanding strong technical depth, product intuition, customer understanding, and the ability to thrive in ambiguous, high-velocity environments.
Responsibilities
- Build and lead the Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) organization, including hiring, developing, and defining standards for the team.
- Foster a team culture centered on speed, ownership, pragmatism, and customer impact.
- Develop systems and tooling to enable team scalability without excessive process.
- Partner with engineering leaders, product teams, and executives at strategic enterprise customers.
- Help customers redesign workflows around AI-native software development.
- Lead complex technical engagements involving integrations, infrastructure, agents, automation, and internal developer platforms.
- Unblock high-stakes deployments and facilitate customer transition from experimentation to production adoption.
- Lead teams in building real applications and workflows within customer environments.
- Drive rapid prototyping and iteration cycles with customers.
- Provide architectural, debugging, implementation, and live build support when necessary.
- Identify repeatable customer implementation patterns and translate them into reusable platform capabilities.
- Collaborate with Product and Engineering to integrate customer learnings into the core platform.
- Contribute production-ready code, tooling, integrations, and reference architectures to enhance enterprise adoption.
- Establish feedback loops between customer environments and Replit's internal product development.
- Partner with Sales, Field Engineering, and Product on strategic accounts to drive business impact.
- Improve customer adoption, expansion, retention, and deployment velocity.
- Serve as an executive escalation point for critical customer situations.
- Contribute to defining how Replit scales enterprise adoption globally.
Requirements
- 12+ years of experience in engineering, infrastructure, developer tools, applied AI, or customer engineering.
- Experience leading Forward Deployed Engineering, Applied AI, Solutions Architecture, or Strategic Engineering teams.
- Deep curiosity and strong instincts regarding AI-native software development and its impact on engineering workflows.
- Proven experience leading high-performing technical organizations.
- Strong technical judgment and ability to engage credibly with senior engineers and executives.
- Experience building and shipping production systems in fast-paced environments.
- Strong product instincts and systems thinking capabilities.
- Comfort operating with ambiguity and minimal process.
- Excellent communication and customer leadership skills.
- Strong sense of ownership and urgency.
Benefits
- Competitive Salary & Equity
- 401(k) Program with a 4% match (US Only)
- Health, Dental, Vision and Life Insurance
- Short Term and Long Term Disability
- Paid Parental, Medical, Caregiver Leave
- Flexible Time Off (FTO) + Holidays
- Commuter Benefits (In-Office Only)
- Monthly Wellness Stipend
- Autonomous Work Environment
- In Office Set-Up Reimbursement (In-Office Only)
- Quarterly Team Gatherings
- In Office Amenities (In-Office Only)