Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Healthcare - Seattle
Solutions Engineer · Senior · Full Time
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Role
What you'll do.
Forward Deployed Engineer at OpenAI's healthcare division responsible for owning end-to-end deployments of AI systems within regulated healthcare organizations including payers, providers, and health systems. This role bridges customer deployment and core platform development, requiring deep technical expertise in AI/ML, healthcare infrastructure, and regulatory compliance to translate complex workflows into production solutions that drive measurable clinical and operational impact.
Responsibilities
- End-to-End Deployment Ownership: Own the complete technical lifecycle of AI system deployments within healthcare organizations, from initial customer discovery and workflow scoping through architecture design, hands-on implementation, rigorous evaluation, production deployment, adoption metrics tracking, and knowledge transfer to customer teams.
- Technical Problem Framing and Requirements Translation: Collaborate directly with customer engineers, clinical operators, and domain experts to frame ambiguous healthcare problems, define precise technical scope, and translate payer workflows, provider operations, and health-system requirements into measurable technical outcomes and success criteria.
- Production AI System Architecture and Implementation: Design and implement robust production-grade AI applications and agentic systems that seamlessly integrate with customer enterprise infrastructure, proprietary APIs, data platforms, electronic health records systems, claims management platforms, and operational tools while maintaining system reliability and performance.
- Healthcare Compliance and Security Implementation: Build secure, compliant systems incorporating appropriate safeguards for protected health information (PHI), HIPAA regulations, privacy controls, security protocols, authorization mechanisms, governance frameworks, comprehensive auditability, and other regulated-delivery requirements specific to healthcare environments.
- Evaluation and Launch Readiness Framework: Define, operationalize, and execute comprehensive evaluations including validation evidence collection, human-review workflows, escalation procedures, and launch criteria that rigorously measure both AI model quality and overall system performance against customer-specific acceptance thresholds and clinical requirements.
- Continuous System Improvement and Observability: Leverage evaluation results, detailed error analysis, comprehensive observability data, and direct customer feedback to iteratively improve system reliability, model performance, algorithm selection, workflow impact metrics, and overall production readiness for healthcare delivery.
- Reference Architecture and Knowledge Distillation: Extract and document deployment learnings into reusable reference architectures, interoperability patterns, integration standards, evaluation harnesses, healthcare security controls, and technical primitives that accelerate future deployments in regulated healthcare and enterprise environments.
- Cross-Functional Stakeholder Collaboration: Partner effectively with internal OpenAI Business, Research, Product, Engineering, and Security teams while managing customer relationships, translating deployment insights into product improvements, and ensuring alignment between customer needs and platform capabilities.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Production AI/ML Systems Development
Demonstrated hands-on experience building and deploying production-grade machine learning and AI systems at scale, with deep understanding of model selection, deployment patterns, inference optimization, and production reliability considerations.
Healthcare Data Integration and Interoperability
Strong technical proficiency with healthcare data systems and interoperability standards including HL7, FHIR protocols, health information exchanges, and enterprise healthcare APIs, with practical experience integrating with Electronic Health Records platforms.
Enterprise Infrastructure and Cloud Architecture
Advanced knowledge of enterprise systems architecture, cloud infrastructure (AWS/Azure/GCP), API design, data pipeline orchestration, and integration patterns required to connect complex healthcare systems while maintaining compliance and performance.
Security, Privacy, and Compliance Implementation
Hands-on experience implementing HIPAA-compliant systems, managing protected health information (PHI) security, implementing encryption protocols, audit logging, access controls, and governance frameworks required in regulated healthcare environments.
System Evaluation and Metrics Framework Design
Expertise in designing comprehensive evaluation frameworks, defining success metrics, implementing validation protocols, building observability systems, and establishing quality assurance procedures for production AI systems.
Complex Problem Solving in Ambiguous Environments
Proven ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, cross-functional situations, make sound technical decisions with incomplete information, and translate business problems into executable technical solutions.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field
Preferred bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, mathematics, or related technical field; equivalent professional experience may substitute for formal education.
Healthcare or Life Sciences Knowledge
Formal or self-directed education in healthcare informatics, clinical workflows, healthcare administration, health information technology, or related life sciences domains is highly valuable but not required.
Experience
6+ Years Professional Software or ML Engineering
Minimum 6+ years of professional experience in software engineering, ML/AI engineering, solutions engineering, technical consulting, or equivalent roles demonstrating both technical depth and business acumen.
Senior-Level Technical Decision-Making
Demonstrated progression to senior engineer, technical lead, or deployment owner roles where you were entrusted to make significant technical decisions independently and mentor junior engineers in complex, production-critical environments.
Deep Hands-On Deployment Ownership
Direct personal experience owning technical discovery, architecture decisions, implementation work, evaluation protocols, productionization processes, and customer handoffs for complex customer-facing or enterprise systems at production scale.
Healthcare Domain Experience
Substantial experience in healthcare sector including payer operations workflows, provider clinical workflows, health system operations, EHR systems, healthcare data standards (Epic, Oracle Health/Cerner, MEDITECH), and healthcare infrastructure technologies.
Forward Deployed or Customer Engineering Background
Professional background in forward deployment, customer engineering roles, employment at healthcare organizations (payers, providers, health systems), or experience at healthcare-focused companies developing EHR, interoperability, revenue cycle, or healthcare infrastructure solutions.
Regulated Enterprise Solutions Delivery
Background delivering solutions to regulated enterprises, working as a hands-on technical consultant or systems integrator, architecting compliance-heavy systems, or founding/leading early-stage engineering at complex infrastructure companies.
Skills
Required
Python
Expert-level proficiency in Python for backend systems, data processing, ML application development, and API integration in production environments.
Machine Learning Operations (MLOps)
Comprehensive expertise in deploying, monitoring, and maintaining ML models in production, including model serving, inference optimization, A/B testing frameworks, and production monitoring.
Healthcare Interoperability Standards
Deep technical knowledge of HL7, FHIR, and healthcare data exchange protocols with hands-on integration experience in real-world healthcare system deployments.
SQL and Data Engineering
Advanced SQL proficiency and data pipeline engineering skills for working with complex healthcare datasets, ETL processes, and healthcare data warehouses.
Cloud Infrastructure (AWS/Azure/GCP)
Advanced expertise in at least one major cloud platform for deploying, scaling, and managing enterprise applications, particularly in regulated healthcare environments.
System Design and Architecture
Strong system design capability to architect scalable, secure, reliable solutions that integrate multiple enterprise systems while handling healthcare-specific compliance requirements.
API Integration and Middleware
Extensive experience building and integrating complex APIs, middleware solutions, and enterprise system connectors, particularly with healthcare EMR/EHR systems.
Compliance and Security Engineering
Demonstrated expertise in HIPAA compliance, data security protocols, encryption implementation, audit logging, and building security controls into production systems.
Evaluation and Testing Frameworks
Proficiency designing and implementing comprehensive testing, evaluation, and validation frameworks for ML systems with metrics collection, observability, and quality assurance protocols.
Preferred
TypeScript/JavaScript
Nice to haveExperience with TypeScript or JavaScript for building customer-facing applications, backend services, or full-stack healthcare solutions, particularly relevant for modern web-based healthcare tools.
Agentic AI Systems
Nice to haveHands-on experience designing, implementing, or deploying AI agent systems that make autonomous decisions, interact with external tools, and operate in complex, semi-structured environments like healthcare.
Large Language Models (LLMs)
Nice to haveDirect experience fine-tuning, deploying, or integrating large language models into production systems, including prompt engineering, RAG architectures, and LLM orchestration frameworks.
Healthcare EHR Platforms
Nice to havePractical experience with major EHR systems such as Epic, Oracle Health/Cerner, MEDITECH, or other healthcare platforms, understanding their data models and integration points.
Containerization and Kubernetes
Nice to haveAdvanced experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and container orchestration for deploying and scaling ML and AI applications in enterprise environments.
Observability and Monitoring
Nice to haveExpertise implementing comprehensive observability systems using tools like Datadog, New Relic, or similar platforms for monitoring AI system behavior, performance, and reliability in production.
Revenue Cycle Management
Nice to haveUnderstanding of healthcare revenue cycle processes, claims management systems, and billing workflows provides valuable context for payer-focused AI deployment opportunities.
Clinical Informatics
Nice to haveFamiliarity with clinical workflows, EHR user interfaces, clinical decision support systems, and healthcare data standards from end-user or clinical informatics perspective.
GraphQL
Nice to haveExperience with GraphQL API design and implementation for flexible, efficient data retrieval from complex healthcare systems and integration layers.
Vector Databases and Semantic Search
Nice to haveExperience with vector databases, embeddings, and semantic search technologies relevant to implementing retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems for healthcare knowledge bases.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·USD 198,000 – 294,000
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Comprehensive Health Insurance
Full medical, dental, and vision coverage with OpenAI contributing a substantial portion of premiums for employee and dependent coverage.
Retirement Planning
401(k) retirement savings plan with employer matching contributions to support long-term financial security.
Paid Time Off and Holidays
Generous paid vacation days, sick leave, and paid company holidays, plus parental leave for eligible employees.
Professional Development
Opportunities for continuous learning, technical training, conference attendance, and professional certification support relevant to AI, healthcare, and cloud technologies.
Relocation Assistance
Full relocation support including moving expenses, temporary housing, and career transition assistance for candidates relocating to Seattle.
Wellness Programs
Access to mental health resources, fitness programs, wellness initiatives, and employee assistance programs supporting holistic employee well-being.
Equity and Stock Options
Competitive equity packages providing significant ownership stakes and potential upside participation in OpenAI's success.
Remote Work Flexibility
Hybrid work model with 3 days per week in Seattle office and flexibility for distributed work, with relocation support available.
Commuter Benefits
Pre-tax commuter benefits and transportation subsidies to support employees working hybrid or commuting to the Seattle office.
Generous PTO and Work-Life Balance
Unlimited PTO policy emphasizing work-life balance, with supportive management culture encouraging appropriate time off.
Team and Community
Collaborative cross-functional teams working on cutting-edge AI challenges, with strong engineering culture and peer learning opportunities.
Technology and Equipment
Modern development equipment, software licenses, and technology allowances to support effective remote and in-office work.
Healthcare Industry Impact
Meaningful work improving healthcare delivery and clinical outcomes, contributing directly to healthcare innovation and patient benefit.
Full posting
Original listing.
About the team
OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering team partners with healthcare organizations to deploy production AI systems across clinical, operational, and member-facing workflows. We work at the boundary of customer deployment and core platform development, using customer engagements to define repeatable architectures, evaluations, integrations, and operating standards for complex, regulated healthcare environments.
About the role
We are hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to own end-to-end deployments of our models within healthcare organizations, including payers, providers, health systems, and healthcare technology companies. You will lead technical discovery, architecture, implementation, evaluation, productionization, and handoff, translating complex customer workflows, data, infrastructure, and regulatory constraints into production AI systems.
You will measure success through production adoption, measurable workflow impact, and evaluation loops that establish customer-specific benchmarks, acceptance criteria, and launch readiness. You’ll collaborate directly with customer technical and operational teams, alongside internal Business, Research, Product, Engineering, and Security partners, to deliver solutions and translate deployment learnings into product improvements. This role owns the technical solution; ownership of the commercial or executive relationship is not required.
This role is based in Seattle. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. We offer relocation assistance. Travel up to 50% is required.
In this role you will
Own the technical solution end to end, from customer discovery and workflow scoping through architecture, hands-on implementation, evaluation, production deployment, adoption, and handoff.
Partner credibly with customer engineers, operators, and domain experts to frame ambiguous problems, define scope, and translate payer, provider, or health-system workflows into technical requirements and measurable outcomes.
Design and implement production AI applications and agentic systems that integrate with customer infrastructure, enterprise APIs, data platforms, electronic health records, claims systems, and operational tools.
Build with appropriate safeguards for protected health information (PHI), HIPAA, privacy, security, authorization, governance, auditability, and other regulated-delivery requirements.
Define and operationalize evaluations, validation evidence, human-review workflows, escalation paths, and launch criteria that measure model and system quality against customer-specific acceptance thresholds.
Use evaluation results, error analysis, observability, and customer feedback to improve system reliability, performance, model selection, workflow impact, and production readiness.
Distill deployment learnings into reference architectures, interoperability and integration patterns, evaluation harnesses, security controls, and reusable technical primitives for healthcare and other regulated enterprise environments.
You might thrive in this role if you
Bring 6+ years of software engineering, ML/AI engineering, solutions engineering, technical consulting, or comparable experience, with the technical depth
Have operated as a senior engineer, tech lead, or deployment owner who is trusted to make technical decisions in ambiguous environments.
Are deeply hands-on and have personally owned technical discovery, architecture, implementation, evaluation, productionization, and handoff for complex customer-facing or enterprise systems.
Have healthcare experience including payer workflows, provider operations, EHR systems, or interoperability standards such as Epic, HL7, and FHIR.
Have exposure to provider or health-system workflows such as clinical operations, revenue cycle management, patient access, or contact centers; or to EHR and interoperability technologies such as Epic, Oracle Health/Cerner, MEDITECH, HL7, FHIR, or health information exchanges.
Have shipped complex systems as a forward deployed or customer engineer, an engineer inside a payer, provider, or health system, a builder at an EHR, interoperability, revenue cycle, payer-tech, or healthcare infrastructure company, a hands-on technical consultant or integrator, a solutions architect for regulated enterprises, or a technical founder or early engineering leader.
Apply strong judgment to AI evaluation, privacy, security, governance, and reliability. Prior FDE titles, clinical credentials, and experience across every healthcare domain are not required.
About OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.
We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.
For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.
Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.
To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.
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