Cresta · 8 hours ago
Forward Deployed Engineering Manager
United States
Full-time
Remote
Mid, Senior Level
$200K/yr - $280K/yr
2+ years expCresta is on a mission to turn every customer conversation into a competitive advantage by unlocking the true potential of the contact center. As a Forward Deployed Engineering Manager, you'll lead a team that deploys cutting-edge AI solutions to drive customer success and operational excellence.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)Intelligent SystemsMachine LearningNatural Language ProcessingTelecommunications
Responsibilities
Build and Scale the FDE Team
Recruit top talent: Own hiring strategy and execution for FDEs, building a diverse team of engineers who blend technical excellence with customer empathy
Develop your team: Mentor FDEs through hands-on coaching, career development, and technical guidance
Define the role: Evolve the FDE career ladder, competencies, and growth paths as the function matures
Foster culture: Build a team culture grounded in ownership, customer-first mentality, and continuous learning
Refine Processes and Drive Operational Excellence
Optimize the customer lifecycle: Design and refine how FDEs engage across sales, implementation, and long-tail support
Scale what works: Identify patterns in successful deployments and turn them into repeatable processes
Balance speed and quality: Establish frameworks for scoping, prioritization, and delivery that enable FDEs to move fast without sacrificing quality
Measure what matters: Define team metrics and KPIs tied to customer outcomes, deployment velocity, and product adoption
Drive Product Improvements
Be the voice of the customer: Synthesize customer feedback, pain points, and feature requests to inform product roadmap priorities
Close the feedback loop: Partner closely with Product and Engineering teams to advocate for improvements that unlock enterprise value
Build vs. buy vs. hack: Guide FDEs in making smart trade-offs between quick fixes, generalizable features, and platform investments
Champion generalization: Push the team to build scalable solutions, not one-off customizations, while still delivering customer value quickly
Lead Cross-Functional Collaboration
Partner with Product: Work with PMs to translate customer insights into product strategy and roadmap decisions
Align with Engineering: Collaborate with core engineering teams to ensure FDE-built features integrate seamlessly into the platform
Enable Go-to-Market: Partner with Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success to scope opportunities, manage expectations, and deliver successful outcomes
Influence leadership: Present customer insights, deployment learnings, and strategic recommendations to executive leadership
Stay Hands-On (When Needed)
Jump into the fire: Roll up your sleeves to support critical deployments, troubleshoot complex issues, or unblock your team
Stay technical: Maintain credibility by staying close to the codebase, understanding AI agent architecture, and contributing when it matters most
Lead by example: Model the behaviors you want to see — customer empathy, technical depth, ownership, and urgency
Qualification
Required
Engineering management experience: At least 2 years managing, mentoring, and growing engineering teams
Customer-facing engineering background: Experience as a Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Implementation Engineer, or similar role working directly with customers
Technical depth: Strong software engineering fundamentals (coding, system design, APIs, databases) — you've built production systems and can earn the respect of senior engineers
AI/LLM familiarity: Hands-on experience with AI agents, LLMs, prompt engineering, or ML deployments in production
Hiring and talent development: Proven track record of recruiting, onboarding, and developing high-performing engineers
Cross-functional leadership: Demonstrated ability to influence and collaborate across Product, Engineering, Sales, and Customer Success teams
Bias toward action: You ship fast, iterate, and believe that perfect is the enemy of good
Customer empathy: Deep understanding of enterprise customer needs and the ability to translate technical concepts into business value
Startup or scale-up experience: You've been in fast-paced, high-growth environments where you wore multiple hats
Enterprise B2B background: Experience with complex, multi-stakeholder deployments and long sales cycles
Product mindset: You think like a product manager — understanding market needs, prioritization, and trade-offs
Process design: You've built processes from scratch and iterated on them based on what works
Founder or entrepreneurial experience: You've started something, built something from zero, or operated with extreme ownership
Benefits
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with plans to fit you and your family
Flexible PTO to take the time you need, when you need it
Paid parental leave for all new parents welcoming a new child
Retirement savings plan to help you plan for the future
Remote work setup budget to help you create a productive home office
Monthly wellness and communication stipend to keep you connected and balanced
In-office meal program and commuter benefits provided for onsite employees
Company
Cresta
Cresta uses artificial intelligence to assist sales and service agents in the quality of customer service.
201-500 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Cresta has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (9)
2024 (6)
2023 (2)
2022 (10)
2021 (4)
2020 (3)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$276MKey Investors
Tiger Global ManagementSequoia CapitalGreylock
2024-11-19Series D· $125M
2022-03-17Series C· $80M
2021-03-31Series B· $50M
Leadership Team
Ping Wu
CEO
Tim Shi
Co-Founder, Board Member
Recent News
Global Venturing
2026-01-21
cresta.com
2026-01-21
2026-01-21
Company data provided by crunchbase