Anthropic· Applied AI· San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY; Seattle, WA
Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering
Classified Tasks (31)
Automate 0%Augment 42%Human-Only 58%
Augment (13)
AI assists, human decides
1 Hire a world-class team of Forward Deployed Engineers.
leadership
9 Staff customer engagements across the team's portfolio.
operational
10 Oversee customer engagements and make resource allocation decisions balancing customer needs, team development, and business priorities.
leadership
12 Scope work and inform statements of work during the pre-sales process.
operational
13 Review technical architectures and code produced by FDEs for production readiness and quality.
technical
15 Prototype solutions for customer problems.
technical
16 Debug complex production issues alongside the team.
technical
18 Build repeatable playbooks, starter repositories, and integration templates.
technical
19 Create and maintain an internal knowledge base capturing field learnings.
administrative
20 Define team OKRs that tie to customer success and product adoption goals.
leadership
23 Translate field insights into product improvements and influence product direction.
analytical
27 Ensure the team ships high-quality, production-ready code and production AI applications that solve real customer problems.
technical
31 Define standards, playbooks, and operational practices for FDE management at Anthropic.
leadership
Human-Only (18)
Requires human judgment
2 Develop the technical skills and customer instincts of FDE team members.
leadership
3 Retain FDE talent through career development and mentorship.
leadership
4 Set a high technical and operational bar for customer engagements.
leadership
5 Conduct regular one-on-one meetings with team members.
leadership
6 Provide technical mentorship to engineers on the team.
leadership
7 Invest in the career growth of each team member.
leadership
8 Create an environment that enables FDEs to perform at their best.
leadership
11 Collaborate with account teams and Engagement Managers during pre-sales to qualify engagements.
communication
14 Lead technical discovery sessions with customers.
technical
17 Pair with team members on technical work when necessary.
technical
21 Create operational cadences such as standups, retrospectives, and engagement reviews.
operational
22 Partner cross-functionally with Sales, Product, and Engineering to shape service for strategic customers.
communication
24 Serve as the voice of the customer in internal planning.
communication
25 Travel to customer sites as needed (25-50%), particularly during engagement kickoffs and for highest-priority engagements.
operational
26 Work closely with Engagement Managers to coordinate delivery logistics and stakeholder management.
communication
28 Ensure the team grows technically through training, mentorship, and hands-on work.
leadership
29 Represent Anthropic at customer sites and in customer environments.
communication
30 Build and scale the Applied AI Forward Deployed Engineering practice.
leadership
Job description
About Anthropic Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems. About the role Anthropic is building the Applied AI team to help the world's most ambitious organizations adopt Claude in ways that are transformative, safe, and lasting. Our Forward Deployed Engineers embed directly with strategic customers to ship production AI applications that solve real business problems. As this practice grows, we need a founding leader to build and scale it. As the first FDE Manager, you'll own the team that sits at the frontier of enterprise AI deployment. You'll hire and develop a high-performing team of FDEs, set the technical and operational bar for customer engagements, and build the playbooks that turn one-off successes into repeatable patterns. You'll work hand-in-hand with Engagement Managers who own delivery logistics and stakeholder management, while you ensure your team is shipping quality code, growing technically, and representing Anthropic at the highest level in customer environments. This is a player-coach role with a strong bias toward leadership. You'll stay close enough to the technical work to review architectures, debug production issues, and pair with your team when it matters — but your primary impact will come from the people you hire, the standards you set, and the culture you create. You'll partner cross-functionally with Sales, Product, and Engineering to shape how Anthropic serves its most strategic customers, and your team's field insights will directly influence product direction. This role requires someone who thrives in ambiguity and is energized by building from zero to one. You'll be defining what good looks like for FDE management at Anthropic — there is no existing playbook to follow. Responsibilities Hire, develop, and retain a world-class team of Forward Deployed Engineers. Set a high bar for technical talent and customer instincts. Conduct regular 1:1s, provide technical mentorship, and invest in the career growth of each team member. Create an environment where FDEs do the best work of their careers. Staff and oversee customer engagements across your team's portfolio, making resource allocation decisions that balance customer needs, team development, and business priorities. Collaborate with account teams and Engagement Managers during the pre-sales process to qualify engagements, scope work, and inform statements of work. Review technical architectures and code produced by your FDEs, ensuring the team ships high-quality, production-ready solutions that solve real customer problems. Stay hands-on enough to lead technical discovery sessions, prototype solutions, and debug complex issues alongside your team when needed. Build repeatable playbooks, starter repositories, integration templates, and an internal knowledge base that captures what your team learns in the field. Define team OKRs that tie to customer success outcomes and product adoption goals. Create operational cadences — standups, retros, engagement reviews — that keep the team aligned. Partner with Product and Engineering to translate field insights into product improvements. Serve as the voice of the customer in internal planning. Travel to customer sites as needed (25-50%), particularly during engagement kickoffs and for your team's highest-prior