Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Life Sciences - SF

OpenAI, Inc.

Job Overview

Location

San Francisco

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) in Life Sciences at OpenAI, you will lead end-to-end deployments of advanced AI models within regulated life sciences organizations, directly enabling scientific breakthroughs in drug discovery, clinical development, and regulatory submissions by translating complex domain needs into production-ready AI systems.
• You will own the full deployment lifecycle—from initial scoping and technical design through production adoption and launch readiness—partnering closely with domain experts in biotech, pharma, and research institutions to frame ambiguous workflow challenges into measurable system requirements, validation evidence, and acceptance thresholds that meet regulatory and operational standards.
• You will define and enforce operating standards for auditability, traceability, and inspection readiness, designing rigorous evals that measure model and system performance against workflow-specific scientific benchmarks, and using error analysis and deployment learnings to refine model selection, system architecture, and product feedback loops.
• You will distill deployment insights into reusable technical primitives—such as reference architectures, validation templates, and benchmark harnesses—that accelerate future deployments across life sciences environments and inform OpenAI’s broader model and platform roadmap.
• You will collaborate cross-functionally with Business, Research, Platform/Product, Engineering, and Security/GRC teams, acting as a critical bridge between customer needs and internal product development, ensuring that real-world deployment experiences shape safer, more effective AI systems for regulated industries.
• You will communicate complex technical tradeoffs clearly to diverse audiences—including scientists, clinicians, regulators, and executives—translating engineering decisions into credible operating procedures, measurable outcomes, and strategic recommendations that build trust and drive adoption.
• You will apply systems thinking and engineering judgment to turn deployment failures, escalations, and audit findings into improved validation artifacts, repeatable patterns, and elevated operating standards that increase reliability and compliance readiness over time.
• You will thrive in this role if you bring 6+ years of software, ML/AI, or deployment engineering experience in customer-facing roles within biotech, pharma, clinical research, or scientific software, with a proven track record of owning GenAI deployments end-to-end in ambiguous, high-stakes environments.
• You will operate as a trusted technical leader who makes sound judgments under uncertainty, improves systems through evidence-based iteration, and communicates with clarity and authority across scientific, clinical, and executive stakeholders.
• You will help define how frontier AI models can be responsibly and effectively applied in regulated life sciences workflows, contributing to OpenAI’s mission of ensuring AI benefits all of humanity through safe, impactful deployment.

🎯 Requirements

• 6+ years of software, ML/AI, or deployment engineering experience with customer-facing ownership in biotech, pharma, clinical research, scientific software, or adjacent technical domains.
• Proven experience owning customer GenAI deployments end-to-end from scoping through production adoption, including technical decision-making in ambiguous environments.
• Demonstrated ability to design evals, conduct error analysis, and generate validation evidence that refines acceptance criteria and improves system quality over time.
• Experience delivering AI systems in life sciences workflows such as discovery, clinical development, regulatory writing, submissions, or scientific operations where compliance, auditability, and reviewer expectations shaped system design.
• Strong communication skills to translate technical tradeoffs into decisions, operating procedures, and measurable outcomes for scientific, clinical, model research, technical, and executive audiences.
• Systems thinking and engineering judgment to turn failures, escalations, and audit findings into improved operating standards, validation artifacts, and repeatable deployment patterns.

🏖️ Benefits

• Hybrid work model: 3 days in the office per week in San Francisco.
• Relocation assistance provided for candidates moving to the San Francisco area.
• Travel up to 30% required to engage with customer sites and collaborate with cross-functional teams.
• Opportunity to work at the forefront of AI deployment in high-impact life sciences domains, shaping how frontier models are used in regulated environments.
• Direct influence on OpenAI’s product and model roadmap through deployment learnings and feedback to Research, Platform, and Engineering teams.
• Access to cutting-edge AI models and infrastructure, working alongside world-class researchers and engineers committed to safe and beneficial AI development.

Skills & Technologies

Hybrid

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OpenAI, Inc.

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About OpenAI, Inc.

OpenAI is a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence research and deployment company founded in 2015. It develops large-scale AI models such as GPT, DALL-E, and Codex, providing cloud APIs and consumer applications like ChatGPT. Originally established as a non-profit, it later created a capped-profit subsidiary to attract capital while maintaining its mission to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.

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