IndexForward deployed engineer
Forward deployed engineer
A forward deployed engineer sits with a customer and makes the product work in that environment: integrations, evals, and the unglamorous gaps between a demo and a deployment. OpenAI hires for this under its careers board.
Updated 2026-09-27
One public listing is the Forward Deployed Engineer, San Francisco posting. Titles and cities change. Search OpenAI careers for “forward deployed” before you assume a single req is open.
What the work is
- You write code and you sit in the customer’s stack, not only in an internal repo
- The success metric is a deployment, not a model card
- Travel and on-site time are part of the job at firms that use this title, including OpenAI’s listing
- It is not the same req as a research residency or a new-grad internship
Compensation is on the posting or in the recruiter conversation. A guide that prints a salary the posting does not print is guessing.
Questions
What is a forward deployed engineer?
An engineer assigned to a customer so the product ships in that customer’s environment. At OpenAI, the live description is the careers posting.
Is the San Francisco role still open?
Only if that URL still accepts applications. Req pages close. Check the board.
Related notes
- OpenAI careers
OpenAI jobs are posted at openai.com/careers. ChatGPT careers are the same list. Applications go through that board, not through ChatGPT.
- OpenAI Frontier
OpenAI Frontier is the enterprise platform for running agents across a company. It is not a ChatGPT Plus feature and not a model name.
- OpenAI internships
OpenAI internships are listed under Emerging Talent on the careers site. Intern, internship, and internships are the same board.