Manager, Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Life Sciences

OpenAI, Inc.

Job Overview

Location

San Francisco

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• Lead and empower a high-performing team of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) dedicated to revolutionizing the Life Sciences industry through the strategic implementation of cutting-edge AI systems.
• Drive the end-to-end delivery of production-grade AI solutions across the complex and highly regulated landscape of drug discovery, development, and clinical research.
• Serve as a player-coach, actively contributing technical expertise to production systems while simultaneously guiding, mentoring, and setting the technical vision for your team.
• Foster a culture of excellence, innovation, and rigorous execution, ensuring that deployed AI systems meet the highest standards of robustness, scalability, and reliability within regulated environments.
• Own the success of your team's deployments, meticulously balancing project scope, delivery speed, system integrity, and risk management in high-stakes, critical applications.
• Develop and mentor engineers through constructive, direct feedback, establishing and upholding exceptionally high technical standards, and clearly articulating expectations for ownership and execution.
• Navigate and guide teams through complex, multi-faceted engagements that span critical areas such as data integration, workflow optimization, infrastructure deployment, security protocols, and collaboration with diverse scientific and clinical stakeholders.
• Implement and refine robust evaluation frameworks to meticulously measure the performance and quality of AI models and systems against specific, workflow-driven scientific benchmarks.
• Translate the insights gained from these evaluations into clear, actionable, and prioritized input for Product and Research teams, directly influencing the future development roadmap.
• Champion the development of repeatable deployment patterns and best practices within the Life Sciences sector, enabling scalable and efficient adoption of AI across a broad range of customers including global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms, Contract Research Organizations (CROs), and leading research institutions.
• Act as a crucial bridge between customer needs and OpenAI's core platform development, ensuring that early-stage deployments evolve into standardized, well-evaluated systems that can be reliably scaled across regulated environments.
• Deeply understand the unique challenges and opportunities within the Life Sciences R&D value chain, from early-stage target identification and molecule design to preclinical testing, clinical trial management, and post-market surveillance.
• Collaborate closely with Go-To-Market (GTM) teams to ensure successful customer onboarding, adoption, and ongoing value realization from deployed AI solutions.
• Proactively identify and mitigate technical risks associated with deploying AI in regulated settings, ensuring compliance with relevant industry standards and regulations.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of OpenAI's FDE methodologies, tools, and processes, drawing upon field experience to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
• Build strong relationships with key scientific, technical, and executive stakeholders at customer organizations, fostering trust and ensuring alignment on project goals and outcomes.
• Translate complex scientific and technical trade-offs into clear, understandable delivery plans, risk assessments, and measurable outcomes tailored to diverse audiences, including scientists, clinicians, technical teams, and executive leadership.
• Elevate the overall performance of the FDE team through exceptional clarity of purpose, sound judgment, and unwavering technical credibility.
• Transform real-world field experiences into precise, actionable feedback loops that inform and enhance the development efforts of Product, Research, and GTM teams.
• Drive the adoption of AI-powered solutions that lead to tangible improvements in research efficiency, accelerate drug development timelines, enhance diagnostic accuracy, and ultimately contribute to better patient outcomes.
• Ensure that all deployed systems are not only technically sound but also ethically aligned and contribute positively to OpenAI's mission of benefiting all of humanity.
• Foster a collaborative environment where engineers feel empowered to innovate, take ownership, and continuously learn and grow in a rapidly evolving field.
• Maintain a deep understanding of the competitive landscape and emerging trends in AI for Life Sciences to ensure OpenAI remains at the forefront of innovation.
• Contribute to the strategic planning and growth of the FDE function within the Life Sciences domain, identifying new opportunities and challenges.
• Uphold the highest standards of data privacy, security, and intellectual property protection in all customer engagements.
• Champion the responsible development and deployment of AI, ensuring safety, fairness, and transparency are paramount in all initiatives.
• Drive a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing within the team and across OpenAI.
• Be a key contributor to shaping the future of AI in Life Sciences by building impactful, production-ready systems that solve real-world problems.

🎯 Requirements

• 8+ years of progressive experience in engineering or technical delivery roles, with a minimum of 2 years in a management capacity leading high-performing, customer-facing or systems-oriented engineering teams.
• Proven track record of successfully leading complex, high-pressure technical programs from initial prototyping through sustained production use, particularly within regulated environments.
• Demonstrated experience working within or adjacent to the Life Sciences R&D, clinical research, scientific software, or regulated scientific data environments.
• Proficiency in writing and reviewing production-grade code, with the ability to guide architectural decisions across backend, data, and ML-adjacent systems.
• Strong ability to translate complex scientific and technical trade-offs into clear delivery plans, risk postures, and measurable outcomes for diverse audiences (scientific, clinical, technical, executive).
• Exceptional ability to elevate team performance through clarity of vision, sound judgment, and technical credibility.
• Experience in transforming field insights into precise, actionable feedback for Product, Research, and Go-To-Market (GTM) teams.

🏖️ Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity compensation.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Generous paid time off and holidays.
• Relocation assistance for eligible candidates.
• Opportunities for professional development and continuous learning.
• Hybrid work model with 3 days in the office per week in San Francisco.
• Travel opportunities up to 25% to engage with global clients and partners.

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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