Director, Forward Deployed Engineering

BetterUp4 days ago

Location

United States (Hybrid)

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 237,600 – 330,000

Level

Director

Role

Director of Engineering

Posted

Jun 25, 2026

Full TimeDirector

The role

Summary

Director of Forward Deployed Engineering at BetterUp, where you'll lead enterprise-facing technical teams that embed with strategic Fortune 100 customers to translate executive requirements into production software at scale. This builder-leader role combines hands-on technical depth across distributed systems, APIs, integrations, and cloud platforms with people leadership and cross-functional stakeholder management. You'll own end-to-end delivery for marquee accounts, grow a high-performing FDE team comfortable in both boardrooms and codebases, and shape AI strategy that creates competitive advantage in customer outcomes.

What you'll do

Own Technical Delivery for Strategic Enterprise Accounts: Lead Forward Deployed Engineering engagements end-to-end, from initial customer stakeholder scoping and prototype development through production rollout and handoff to core platform teams. Manage technical commitments for BetterUp's largest and most strategically important customers, ensuring delivery meets aggressive timelines while maintaining enterprise-grade quality standards and security compliance.

Serve as Technical Bridge Between Field and Platform: Translate customer feedback and real-world deployment insights into durable platform capability improvements. Synthesize field signals from customer engagements and feed validated learnings back into the core product roadmap, creating a feedback loop that elevates platform strategy and enables faster future customer implementations.

Build and Lead High-Performance FDE Team: Hire, develop, and retain forward-deployed engineers who excel in customer-facing, high-ambiguity environments. Set technical rigor standards, establish team culture and values, provide coaching and mentorship to team members, and create pathways for career advancement while building trust-based team dynamics that attract top engineering talent.

Execute Rapid Delivery Without Compromising Security: Ship prototypes and enterprise integrations on aggressive timelines while maintaining stringent security protocols, data governance standards, and enterprise-readiness requirements. Balance speed-to-value with compliance rigor, establishing clear guardrails and governance models that scale across multiple concurrent customer engagements.

Partner Across Organizational Functions: Collaborate closely with product, sales engineering, security, compliance, and platform leadership teams to unblock customer deals, de-risk delivery commitments, and remove organizational impediments. Serve as a connector and escalation point that ensures cross-functional coordination on complex, high-visibility customer projects.

Operate as Technical Executive in Customer Environments: Establish credibility directly with customer engineering teams and C-level executive stakeholders through demonstrated technical depth and strategic business acumen. Represent BetterUp's technical vision and capabilities in customer working sessions, steering committee meetings, and escalations; earn trust through technical and operational excellence.

Shape Functional AI Strategy and Adoption: Define and implement AI strategy that aligns with business objectives and creates measurable competitive advantage for FDE teams and enterprise customers. Build organizational muscle for continuous AI learning, embed experimentation into FDE operating rhythms, and establish governance frameworks that enable responsible AI scaling in regulated, enterprise contexts.

Influence Cross-Functional AI Best Practices: Partner with IT, Legal, and Security to establish enterprise AI governance frameworks. Influence peer directors and engineering leaders to adopt AI-augmented practices that improve collaboration, accelerate delivery, and enhance customer outcomes while maintaining compliance and data security standards.

What we look for

Technical

Distributed Systems ArchitectureDeep understanding of designing and operating distributed systems, including concepts like consistency models, fault tolerance, load balancing, service-oriented architecture, and microservices patterns relevant to enterprise software.

API Design and Enterprise IntegrationsExpertise in designing RESTful and modern APIs, integration patterns, webhook systems, and middleware solutions. Understanding of integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS), ETL workflows, and connector frameworks used in enterprise software deployments.

Identity, Provisioning, and Access ManagementKnowledge of identity and access management (IAM) systems, single sign-on (SSO), SAML, OAuth, API authentication, and user provisioning workflows. Understanding of directory services, role-based access control, and federated identity patterns.

Full-Stack Web DevelopmentAbility to architect and contribute across the entire software stack, including frontend technologies, backend services, databases, and infrastructure. Familiarity with modern development frameworks, component architectures, and state management patterns.

Cloud Architecture and DevOpsHands-on experience with cloud infrastructure-as-code, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), CI/CD pipelines, monitoring and observability, and cloud security patterns. Ability to design scalable, resilient, and cost-effective cloud architectures.

Security and Data GovernancePractical knowledge of application security, data protection, encryption, secure coding practices, compliance frameworks, and security architecture patterns. Understanding of how to balance agility with security in fast-paced environments.

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related FieldPreferred educational foundation in computer science, software engineering, mathematics, or related technical discipline. Alternative paths with demonstrated equivalent technical depth through bootcamps, certifications, and professional experience are considered.

Experience

12+ Years Software Engineering ExperienceMinimum 12 years of hands-on and leadership experience building production software systems, with demonstrated progression through individual contributor and management roles at increasing responsibility levels.

4+ Years Leading Engineering TeamsMinimum 4 years managing engineering teams as a manager-of-managers or demonstrated strong senior individual contributor to leader trajectory. Experience scaling teams, building culture, and developing engineering talent at both individual and organizational levels.

Customer-Facing or Forward-Deployed Engineering BackgroundProven track record delivering complex software in customer-embedded settings such as FDE roles, solutions engineering, or professional services with substantive engineering depth. Direct experience managing ambiguous customer requirements and translating them into working implementations under tight timelines.

Enterprise Systems and Integration ExpertiseStrong hands-on technical foundation spanning multiple domains including user interface development, distributed systems architecture, API design and integrations, identity management, provisioning systems, and other enterprise requirements. Demonstrated ability to architect solutions that meet scalability, security, and compliance needs.

Cloud Platform ProficiencyExperience architecting and deploying applications on major cloud platforms including AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform. Understanding of cloud-native design patterns, containerization, managed services, and cost optimization.

Operating with Ambiguity and Delivering RapidlyDemonstrated ability to thrive in high-ambiguity environments where requirements are vague and stakeholder needs must be discovered through investigation. Track record of shipping prototypes and production features on aggressive timelines while maintaining quality and security standards.

Enterprise Governance and Compliance KnowledgeSound judgment and practical experience with enterprise concerns including security architecture, data governance, compliance frameworks (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, etc.), and scalability requirements. Ability to navigate compliance conversations with customer security and legal teams.

Stakeholder Management and Executive CommunicationExcellent stakeholder management skills with credibility and influence across diverse audiences including customer engineers, enterprise architecture teams, and senior business leaders. Strong communication abilities that translate technical concepts for non-technical executives and technical depth for engineering teams.

Skills

Required skills

Technical Leadership and MentoringAbility to lead engineers through technical mentorship, code reviews, architectural guidance, and professional development while maintaining high technical standards and fostering a culture of continuous learning.

Cross-Functional CollaborationExpertise in working effectively across product, sales, security, legal, and platform teams. Skill in building relationships, influencing without direct authority, and coordinating complex organizational efforts toward customer delivery outcomes.

Rapid Prototyping and MVP DevelopmentAbility to quickly scope technical requirements, prioritize features, make trade-offs between speed and quality, and deliver minimum viable products that solve customer problems on compressed timelines.

Customer-Centric Problem SolvingSkill in understanding customer business objectives, translating them into technical requirements, managing customer expectations, and delivering solutions that create measurable value and strengthen relationships.

Enterprise Software ArchitectureDeep knowledge of designing systems that meet enterprise requirements including scalability to thousands of users, high availability, disaster recovery, security and compliance, and operational monitoring.

Team Building and ScalingDemonstrated ability to identify and recruit engineering talent, build strong team culture, establish clear expectations and career development paths, and scale operations across multiple concurrent projects and customer engagements.

Ambiguity NavigationComfort working in ill-defined situations where requirements evolve, making good decisions with incomplete information, communicating clearly with stakeholders about trade-offs and constraints, and maintaining team momentum through uncertainty.

AI-Augmented EngineeringFamiliarity with AI tools and workflows such as AI-assisted code generation, LLM-powered documentation, prompt engineering, and autonomous agents. Comfort incorporating AI into engineering processes and helping teams establish responsible AI practices.

Nice to have

Composable and Configurable Architecture ExperienceBackground designing or working with composable product architectures, configurable platforms, modular system design, and governance models that enable customer customization at scale while maintaining platform integrity.

Fortune 100 and Regulated Industry ExperienceDirect experience working with very large enterprise customers in regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, government, or insurance. Knowledge of compliance requirements, procurement cycles, and enterprise security standards.

Forward-Deployed Practice BuildingExperience establishing, scaling, or leading forward-deployed engineering practices from early stage through maturity. Understanding of business models, team structures, and operational patterns that make FDE organizations successful and sustainable.

AI-Native Engineering WorkflowsExposure to modern AI-native engineering practices, agentic tooling, autonomous workflows, prompt engineering frameworks, and emerging patterns in AI-augmented software development and operations.

Human-Centered Product ExperienceBackground in human performance, organizational development, coaching, wellness, or talent development. Understanding of how software tools enable human transformation and impact employee engagement and well-being outcomes.

Enterprise SaaS Product ExperienceExperience building or scaling SaaS products in B2B enterprise markets, understanding product-led growth, customer success models, and the technical and operational challenges of multi-tenant platforms.