Manager, Forward Deployed Engineer (Tokyo)

About the role

As a foundational FDE manager, you’ll lead Forward Deployed Engineering through high‑stakes, ambiguous customer deployments and own technical and business value outcomes end‑to‑end. You’ll grow a team that can operate under pressure while helping OpenAI learn from the field.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of FDE delivering production systems with frontier models.
• Own end‑to‑end delivery outcomes through clarity, speed, tight coordination, and technical quality.
• Codify successful practices into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs for OpenAI and the broader developer community.
• Notice early indicators in product behavior, customer environments, or delivery practices and raise them with urgency.
• Use judgement to distinguish what requires action and what does not.
• Set a high bar for FDE performance and support each person’s growth through direct, actionable feedback.
• Define staffing and support models for field teams that can scale without added complexity.

Required profile

• 8+ years of engineering or technical delivery experience, including 2+ years managing high‑performing FDE or customer‑facing engineers.
• Proven track record leading high‑pressure technical projects from prototype to production.
• Experience writing and reviewing production‑grade code across frontend and backend.
• Ability to simplify complex work and make fast, sound decisions under pressure.
• Talent for elevating team performance through clarity rather than process.
• Comfort operating with urgency in ambiguous or evolving environments.
• Skill translating field experience into sharp, actionable feedback for Product and Research.
• Capability to build deep trust with a team by modeling calm, focus, and sound judgement.

What we offer

• Hybrid work model with three days per week in the Tokyo office.
• Relocation assistance for new employees.
• Travel up to 40% of the time, primarily local.