Forward Deployed Engineering Manager, AWS Forward Deployed Engineering

About the role

A Forward Deployed Engineering Manager (FDE Manager) leads a pod of FDEs embedded within strategic enterprise customers, owning delivery execution, engineering quality, and team development for their scope. FDE Managers own pod-level outcomes — they ensure their team delivers production AI systems that meet customer expectations, develop their engineers' careers, and contribute to the broader FDE practice's engineering standards. FDE Managers operate at pod/multi-pod scope. They lead 5–15 engineers, own technical delivery across one or more concurrent customer engagements, and define what "great" looks like for their team. They represent the FDE team to customer engineering leaders and AWS stakeholders, balancing delivery execution with people development.

Responsibilities

• Lead FDE pod delivery. Own delivery across one or more customer engagements. Staff and structure the team for optimal customer coverage. Define execution cadences and ensure consistent engineering quality across active programs. Requires 30–50% travel.
• Guide technical direction. Provide technical oversight for customer AI programs within your scope. Review architecture decisions and ensure alignment with customer needs and AWS best practices. Resolve technical blockers and escalate strategically when needed.
• Own production excellence for your team. Ensure operational standards, evaluation frameworks, and production readiness criteria are met for AI systems your team builds. Drive improvements that raise the operational bar within your scope.
• Build and develop the team. Hire, develop, and retain FDE talent. Coach junior FDEs toward independence and career growth. Drive performance management and create development plans. Contribute to hiring bar and calibration standards.
• Accelerate customer adoption. Identify opportunities to expand AI adoption within your customer engagements. Ensure learnings are codified into reusable patterns and fed back into the broader FDE practice.

Basic qualifications

• 3+ years of engineering team management experience
• 7+ years of Software Engineer, Software Developer, or related occupational experience
• Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field
• 3+ years of experience working in an Agile, startup, or rapidly scaling environment
• Experience communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leadership
• Experience with agentic and spec-driven development (developing AI agents a plus)
• Experience building or deploying AI/ML applications in production environments at scale

Preferred qualifications

• Experience working with teams that build and scale end-to-end production systems
• Experience working in customer production environments
• Background leading engineering teams in a startup, high-growth, or rapidly scaling environment
• Prior experience with React, TypeScript, Python, and/or Go
• Experience managing delivery across multiple concurrent customer programs
• 3+ years of leadership development and talent management experience

Pay

Base salary ranges by location (USD annually):

• Mountain View, CA: $212,700 – $287,700
• San Francisco, CA: $212,700 – $287,700
• Boston, MA: $184,900 – $250,200
• New York, NY: $203,400 – $275,200
• Arlington, VA: $184,900 – $250,200
• Herndon, VA: $184,900 – $250,200
• Bellevue, WA: $184,900 – $250,200
• Seattle, WA: $184,900 – $250,200