Forward Deployed Engineer

Runpod is the AI Developer Cloud used by more than one million developers, from indie researchers to teams running frontier models in production. The platform has processed more than 20 billion inference requests. $100M Series A closed June 2026. The Director of Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) & Technical Support leads two of Runpod's most customer-critical functions. The FDE team sits at the intersection of Solutions Engineering and Forward Deployed Engineering, serving as trusted technical advisors who assess customer environments, architect solutions, and own technical outcomes from pre-sales through deployment. Responsibilities: Lead and scale both the FDE and Technical Support teams. Own the FDE engagement lifecycle: technical discovery, environment assessment, solution architecture, PoC validation, and deployment guidance. Set the standard for how FDEs operate: trusted advisors first, hands-on contributors where the situation calls for it. Own the field feedback loop by synthesizing patterns from FDE engagements into product input. Run Technical Support across all tiers (Tier 1-3) with defined SLA/SLO frameworks. Requirements: 10+ years in technical customer-facing roles with at least 4 years leading a team in cloud infrastructure, SaaS, or AI/ML. Deep technical fluency in GPU compute and AI/ML infrastructure; hands-on coding ability (Python, Docker/Kubernetes). Compensation: $200,000-$300,000 plus equity, 100% medical/dental/vision, flexible PTO.