Forward Deployment Engineering Manager, FDE

About this role

Role Summary

A Forward Deployed Engineering Manager (FDE Manager) leads a pod of FDEs embedded within strategic enterprise customers, owning delivery execution, engineering quality, and team development for their scope. FDE Managers own pod-level outcomes — they ensure their team delivers production AI systems that meet customer expectations, develop their engineers' careers, and contribute to the broader FDE practice's engineering standards.

FDE Managers operate at pod/multi-pod scope. They lead 5–15 engineers, own technical delivery across one or more concurrent customer engagements, and define what "great" looks like for their team. They represent the FDE team to customer engineering leaders and AWS stakeholders, balancing delivery execution with people development.

Key job responsibilities Lead FDE pod delivery. Own delivery across one or more customer engagements. Staff and structure the team for optimal customer coverage. Define execution cadences and ensure consistent engineering quality across active programs. Requires 30–50% travel.

Guide technical direction. Provide technical oversight for customer AI programs within your scope. Review architecture decisions and ensure alignment with customer needs and AWS best practices. Resolve technical blockers and escalate strategically when needed.

Own production excellence for your team. Ensure operational standards, evaluation frameworks, and production readiness criteria are met for AI systems your team builds. Drive improvements that raise the operational bar within your scope.

Build and develop the team. Hire, develop, and retain FDE talent. Coach junior FDEs toward independence and career growth. Drive performance management and create development plans. Contribute to hiring bar and calibration standards.

Accelerate customer adoption. Identify opportunities to expand AI adoption within your customer engagements. Ensure learnings are codified into reusable patterns and fed back into the broader FDE practice.

About the team ABOUT AWS:

Diverse Experiences Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.

Why AWS Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.

Work/Life Balance We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.

Inclusive Team Culture AWS values curiosity and connection. Our employee-led and company-sponsored affinity groups promote inclusion and empower our people to take pride in what makes us unique. Our inclusion events foster stronger, more collaborative teams. Our continual innovation is fueled by the bold ideas, fresh perspectives, and passionate voices our teams bring to everything we do.

Mentorship and Career Growth We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

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Basic Qualifications:

• 3+ years of engineering team management experience
• Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field
• 7+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 3+ years of experience working in an Agile, startup, or rapidly scaling environment
• Experience communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leadership
• Experience with agentic and spec-driven development (developing AI agents a plus)
• Experience building or deploying AI/ML applications in production environments at scale

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working directly in customer implementations
• Experience working with teams that build and scale end-to-end production systems
• Experience managing teams in customer-facing or consulting-adjacent engineering roles
• Background leading engineering teams in a startup, high-growth, or rapidly scaling environment
• Prior experience with React, TypeScript, Python, and/or Go
• Experience managing delivery across multiple concurrent customer programs
• 3+ years of leadership development and talent management experience

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, NY, New York - 203,400.00 - 275,200.00 USD annually USA, WA, Seattle - 184,900.00 - 250,200.00 USD annually