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Forward Deployed Engineering Manager, Generative AI, Google Cloud

$183K - $265K Austin, TX, US Posted April 29, 2026

Role Description

The application window will be open until at least May 13, 2026. This opportunity will remain online based on business needs which may be before or after the specified date.

Note: By applying to this position you will have an opportunity to share your preferred working location from the following: Atlanta, GA, USA; Austin, TX, USA; Boulder, CO, USA; Chicago, IL, USA.### Minimum qualifications:

  • Bachelor's degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, or equivalent practical experience.
  • 7 years of experience in cloud computing or a technical customer-facing role.
  • 2 years of experience managing a software engineering, forward deployed engineering, or a similar technical customer-facing team in a cloud computing environment.
  • Experience developing AI/Generative AI solutions utilizing AI tools and designing multi-agent workflows and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems.
  • Experience in people management, including leading technical teams.
  • Experience in Python.

Preferred qualifications:

  • MBA or Master's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • Experience in architecting AI solutions within infrastructures, ensuring data sovereignty and secure governance.
  • Expertise in designing intuitive interfaces for AI and agentic systems, prioritizing context engineering, transparency, and explainability to foster user trust.
  • Ability to design end-to-end secure, observable multi-agent systems using design patterns (ReAct, self-reflection, etc.), state management, and tool-calling protocols.

About the job -----------------

As a Manager of a GenAI Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team, you will lead a squad of AI/ML engineers who bridge the gap between AI products and production-grade reality within customers. You will be responsible for a team that doesn't just consult, but codes, debugs and jointly deploys bespoke agentic solutions directly within customer environments.

In this role, you will provide technical mentorship to your team, managing high-level alignment with Product, Engineering, and Google Cloud Regional Sales leadership. You will empower and unblock your team as they resolve production-level obstacles, including data readiness issues, integration complexities, and state-management issues that hinder AI from achieving enterprise-grade maturity.

Google Cloud accelerates every organization’s ability to digitally transform its business and industry. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google’s cutting-edge technology, and tools that help developers build more sustainably. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $183,000-$265,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities --------------------

* Serve as the ultimate technical lead, establishing code standards, architectural best practices, and benchmarks to elevate engineering excellence across the team. * Partner with sales and tech leadership to define requirements for high-value opportunities, deploying specialized experts (MLOps, GenMedia, or Agentic systems) to key accounts. * Lead technical hiring for forward deployed engineering, evaluating Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) expertise, systems engineering, and coding skills to build an engineering squad. * Identify skill gaps in emerging tech (model context protocol (MCP), tool-calling, and foundation models), ensuring the team maintains subject matter expertise in an evolving AI stack. * Collaborate with product and engineering to resolve blockers and translate field insights into roadmaps, building internal tools to drive organizational efficiency. Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google's EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form.

About Forward Deployed Engineering

Forward Deployed Engineers are embedded directly with customers to build custom solutions, integrate products into existing infrastructure, and bridge the gap between product engineering and customer success. The role combines deep technical skills with the ability to operate in client environments and translate business requirements into working software.

Originally pioneered by Palantir, the FDE model has spread across AI, enterprise SaaS, and cloud infrastructure companies. FDEs write production code, architect integrations, train customer teams, and feed product insights back to the core engineering organization. At companies like OpenAI, Salesforce, and Databricks, FDE teams are treated as elite engineering units that can ship custom solutions in days rather than quarters.

Typical FDE stack: Python, TypeScript, SQL, REST/GraphQL APIs, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), and increasingly LLM APIs and AI orchestration frameworks. Strong communication and the ability to context-switch between technical and business conversations are as important as coding ability.

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