Director, Forward Deployed Engineering

Job description

Office Location: Lower Manhattan, NY (4 days per week in the office) Accrete is an agentic managed services company: an AI workforce that does high-stakes, judgement-heavy work for government and enterprise clients — at the economics of software, not labor. At the core is Accrete’s Knowledge Engine, a dynamic context graph that captures an organization’s tacit knowledge, resolves data across silos, and builds a living, auditable ground truth. Expert agents reason against that ground truth to act on complex, high-stakes decisions — not just answer questions about them. From national security to commercial operations, Accrete delivers the work on one platform, with unlimited expert agents and expert judgement. About the Role Accrete is seeking a Director, Forward Deployed Engineering to lead the function responsible for making Accrete’s platform work in complex, high-stakes customer environments. This leader will oversee the execution of forward deployed engineering across strategic deployments, ensuring that customer implementations move from discovery and prototype to stable production adoption. This role requires a leader who can manage technical delivery at scale, guide teams through ambiguity, partner with senior customer stakeholders, and work cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Research, Security, Deployment Strategy, Sales, and Customer Success. You will be accountable for building the operating model, delivery standards, staffing plans, and technical execution practices that allow Accrete to scale its deployment capacity across enterprise and government customers. The ideal candidate has deep technical judgment, experience leading customer-facing engineering teams, and a track record of delivering production systems in complex environments. This role requires strong operational leadership, executive presence, and the ability to translate field realities into product and platform priorities. Travel up to 50% may be required. What You’ll Do Lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function across strategic customer deployments, ensuring successful execution from technical discovery through production rollout. Own planning, staffing, prioritization, and delivery governance for forward deployed engineering engagements. Manage and develop FDE team members, including senior individual contributors and team leads as the organization scales. Establish repeatable deployment practices, technical standards, playbooks, and operating mechanisms that improve delivery quality and speed. Partner with Deployment Strategy to translate customer needs, business workflows, and operational requirements into executable technical delivery plans. Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Research to ensure field feedback informs platform capabilities, model improvements, and roadmap priorities. Serve as a senior technical leader in strategic customer engagements, including executive-level discussions, technical reviews, and deployment escalation management. Ensure deployments are designed for production adoption, measurable workflow impact, security, reliability, and long-term scalability. Guide teams through tradeoffs across scope, speed, quality, risk, and customer value. Identify delivery risks early and implement corrective actions to protect timelines, quality, and customer trust. Support deployments in regulated environments, including environments with complex security and infrastructure constraints. Build strong working relationships across internal teams to align commercial priorities, customer outcomes, and product execution. Define success metrics for forward deployed engineering, including production adoption, deployment velocity, reusable patterns, customer impact, and team capacity. What We’re Looking For 10+ years of experience in software engineering, technical delivery, solutions architecture, platform engineering, or related technical functions. 5+ years of experience leading engineering or technical delivery teams, preferably in customer-facing, or enterprise customers. Proven experience leading complex end-to-end deployments of production software systems. Strong technical foundation across full-stack systems, cloud or on-prem infrastructure, data integrations, APIs, and enterprise software delivery. Experience with AI, machine learning, LLM, or data-intensive systems, with an understanding of how model behavior affects product experience and customer trust. Demonstrated ability to lead broad technical functions through managers, senior ICs, or cross-functional delivery teams. Strong executive communication skills and experience partnering with C-level, senior technical, and operational stakeholders. Ability to operate in ambiguous environments, make sound tradeoffs, and drive teams toward clear outcomes. Experience building operating models, delivery processes, team structures, and technical standards for scaling organizations. Strong judgment in balancing customer needs, product direction, security requirements, and engineering quality. Ability to travel up to 50% based on customer and deployment needs. Preferred Qualifications Prior experience leading Forward Deployed Engineering, Solutions Engineering, Field Engineering, Deployment Engineering, or similar teams. Familiarity with retrieval systems, knowledge graphs, semantic search, agentic workflows, or enterprise AI platforms. Experience scaling a technical services or field engineering function in a high-growth startup environment. Salary Range: 240k-300k The salary range provided reflects the estimated compensation for this role based on the expected qualifications and experience level. The final offer may vary depending on factors such as skills, experience, and alignment with role requirements. Core Values & Expectations: Impact You take full ownership and accountability for your work, consistently seeing projects through from inception to completion with a strong bias for action. Proactively identifying challenges, you drive solutions rather than waiting for direction, and hold yourself and others to the highest standards for delivering results. With strategic thinking and a problem-solving mindset, you make informed decisions leveraging data and expertise, always looking for ways to improve processes, optimize workflows, and enhance outcomes beyond your immediate responsibilities. Collaboration You work seamlessly across teams, prioritizing shared goals and team success over individual credit. Engaged listening and open, candid communication are at the heart of your approach, ensuring alignment and synergy throughout the organization. You value diverse perspectives, seeking input from others to drive better results. By treating colleagues with respect and professionalism, you help build a culture of trust, supporting each other through challenges, celebrating successes, and constructively addressing conflicts to strengthen relationships and improve outcomes. Passion for AI & Innovation You are deeply excited about the transformative potential of AI and committed to contributing to a company shaping the future of work. With curiosity and a growth mindset, you continuously seek to learn, adapt, and stay at the forefront of new developments. Your enthusiasm for innovation drives you to explore new ideas, challenge the status quo, and find creative solutions that deliver meaningful impact. You approach your work with energy and a desire to advance both technology and the way we work. Company Benefits Competitive Salary: Aligned with experience and market standards Comprehensive Insurance: Health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family 401(k) Plan: Build your financial future with our retirement savings plan Flexible PTO & Hybrid Work: Take time off when needed and enjoy remote flexibility per company guidelines Growth & Development: Access professional learning opportunities and career advancement support Onsite Perks: Enjoy catered lunches, snacks, and a fully stocked kitchen Team Bonding: Company-sponsored happy hours and social events to connect and unwind Accrete is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.