Director, Forward Deployed Engineering

Nebius is leading a new era in cloud infrastructure for the global AI economy. We are building a full-stack AI cloud platform that supports developers and enterprises from data and model training through to production deployment, without the cost and complexity of building large in-house AI/ML infrastructure. Built by engineers, for engineers, we own the hard problems across compute, storage, networking, and applied AI. Listed on Nasdaq (NBIS) and headquartered in Amsterdam, we have a global footprint with R&D hubs across Europe, the UK, North America, and Israel. Our team of 1,500+ includes hundreds of engineers with deep expertise across hardware, software, and AI R&D.

About the role

Nebius builds the infrastructure serious AI teams run on—GPU clusters, inference runtimes, agent development environments, data pipelines—all purpose-built for the most demanding AI workloads. As Director of Forward Deployed Engineering, you will build and scale the organization that ensures the world's best AI companies succeed on our platform. You will recruit exceptional FDEs, establish the operating model, ensure technical excellence, and turn partner engagements into product improvements and reusable platform assets. This role sits at the intersection of engineering leadership, AI platform architecture, ecosystem partnerships, and product strategy.

You're welcome to work remotely in the United States.

Responsibilities

• Organization Building & Talent:
  • Build, hire, and develop a world-class Forward Deployed Engineering organization across AI applications, inference, infrastructure, and data.
  • Define the talent bar, team structure, career paths, and leadership expectations for the function.
  • Coach engineers and managers toward greater independence while maintaining a consistently high technical standard.
  • Build an organization and leadership system that scales without depending on individual heroics.
• Operating Model & Technical Excellence:
  • Establish scalable operating models for partner engagement, technical scoping, architecture reviews, escalation, and delivery health.
  • Set the technical bar for integrations, proofs of concept, reference architectures, and partner assessments produced by the team.
  • Review architectures across AI applications, managed inference, cloud infrastructure, and data platforms, bringing in deeper experts where needed.
  • Balance speed with engineering quality and ensure the team builds production-quality work rather than disposable demonstrations.
• Executive & Ecosystem Leadership:
  • Engage credibly with founders, CTOs, senior engineering leaders, and enterprise technical executives as Nebius's senior FDE leader.
  • Build trusted relationships across AI platforms, cloud providers, ISVs, open source communities, and strategic technology partners.
  • Represent Forward Deployed Engineering in platform planning, ecosystem strategy, and executive investment decisions.
  • Create a strong external technical presence through workshops, reference architectures, open source work, events, and developer advocacy.
• Field-to-Product & Reusable Leverage:
  • Treat partner engagements as a continuous product discovery engine and convert field learning into roadmap priorities and shipped platform improvements.
  • Ensure every engagement creates reusable value through platform capabilities, reference architectures, tooling, benchmarks, documentation, or automation.
  • Prevent the function from becoming one-off consulting work by setting clear boundaries and rewarding reusable outcomes.
  • Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to close the loop on recurring friction and improve the experience for customers beyond the original engagement.

Requirements

• 12-18+ years of experience across engineering, solutions architecture, customer engineering, field engineering, or forward deployed engineering.
• 3-7+ years leading technical field organizations, including experience building a new function or materially scaling an existing team.
• A strong record of hiring, coaching, and scaling Customer Engineering, FDE, Solutions Architecture, or Field CTO teams.
• Earlier hands-on engineering experience in cloud, infrastructure, AI, or developer platforms.
• Technical judgment to review and elevate architectures across AI applications, inference, infrastructure, and data platforms.
• A proven track record of converting customer and partner feedback into shipped platform improvements.
• Executive presence and credibility as a trusted advisor to founders, CTOs, and enterprise technical executives.
• Experience leading across cloud providers, AI platforms, ISVs, open source communities, and strategic technology partners.
• The ability to hire experts, evaluate their work, and set a high technical standard without needing to be the deepest specialist in every domain.

Nice to have

• Strong relationships across the AI and cloud ecosystem.
• Public technical leadership through talks, workshops, reference architectures, open source projects, or developer advocacy.
• Built a Forward Deployed Engineering, Customer Engineering, or Field Engineering organization from zero to one.
• Scaled a technical field organization across regions or ecosystem domains without lowering the hiring or engineering bar.
• Experience as a founder, VP Engineering, Field CTO, Head of Customer Engineering, or early FDE leader.
• Led production architecture and execution for demanding AI application, training, inference, or platform workloads.

Benefits

• Health Insurance: 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and families.
• 401(k) Plan: Up to 4% company match with immediate vesting.
• Parental Leave: 20 weeks paid for primary caregivers, 12 weeks for secondary caregivers.
• Remote Work Reimbursement: Up to $85/month for mobile and internet.
• Disability & Life Insurance: Company-paid short-term, long-term, and life insurance coverage.

Pay

We offer competitive compensation and benefits packages. Actual compensation will be determined based on job-related factors, including experience, skills, qualifications, the level at which the candidate is hired, and geographic location, consistent with applicable law.

Base Compensation Range: $270,800 - $310,000 USD