Director, Forward Deployed Software Engineer – Applied AI FDE

Company Description

It all started in sunny San Diego, California in 2004 when a visionary engineer, Fred Luddy, saw the potential to transform how we work. Fast forward to today — ServiceNow stands as a global market leader, bringing innovative AI-enhanced technology to over 8,100 customers, including 85% of the Fortune 500®. Our intelligent cloud-based platform seamlessly connects people, systems, and processes to empower organizations to find smarter, faster, and better ways to work. But this is just the beginning of our journey. Join us as we pursue our purpose to make the world work better for everyone.

Job Description

Team Bio: 

ServiceNow’s Applied AI Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team is where bold ideas meet transformative action. We partner with our most strategic customers to shape the future of enterprise AI. Together, we identify high-value opportunities, accelerate business outcomes, and build reusable AI-native solutions that advance the Now Platform. 

Our mission: We embed deeply with customers to build intelligent, scalable AI solutions for their most critical business challenges. By solving complex real-world problems at speed, we codify repeatable patterns that scale across the enterprise—influencing both customer success and the future of the platform. 

Why This Role Matters: 

Enterprises are raising the bar. AI initiatives must deliver measurable business value—not just theoretical promise. That requires turning cutting-edge LLM capabilities into resilient, secure, and scalable software systems that solve real-world problems. 

As a Director, Forward Deployed Software Engineer (FDSE), you lead high-performing engineering teams embedded with customers to deliver production-ready GenAI solutions. You provide technical direction, unblock delivery challenges, and ensure architectural integrity across the full stack—from backend services and LLM pipelines to front-end integrations. Your leadership turns prototypes into reference implementations, accelerates innovation, and drives repeatable success across industries. You shape internal tooling, codify engineering patterns, and cultivate a culture of excellence and impact. 

Who You Are: 

You are a strategic engineering leader with deep systems thinking and a passion for building AI-native software at scale. You empower your teams to own the full stack—balancing elegant APIs, intuitive UIs, and scalable orchestration pipelines. You think like a product-minded CTO, guiding your engineers to deliver solutions that are both technically sound and business-aligned. 

You thrive in complex, customer-facing environments, helping your teams navigate ambiguity, diagnose root problems, and architect intelligent workflows that scale. You don’t just debug code—you coach engineers, debug systems, and align delivery with enterprise outcomes. You lead with empathy, foster collaboration, and elevate the technical bar across every engagement. 

You Will:

• Lead Teams Building Solution-Ready Applications: Guide engineering teams in developing LLM-enabled applications that span backend logic, data orchestration, and front-end UI—ensuring technical excellence and business alignment. 
• Drive Field Execution: Oversee customer-embedded engagements, enabling your teams to adapt, deploy, and iterate solutions in live environments with agility and precision. 
• Codify Reusable Engineering Assets: Direct the creation of reusable libraries, prompt scaffolds, and modular components that accelerate future delivery and scale impact. 
• Shape Developer Experience: Channel field insights into platform and product teams, influencing roadmap priorities and improving tooling for broader engineering adoption. 

What You’ll Do: 

• Deliver End-to-End Solutions Through Teams: Ensure your teams deliver complete builds—from architecture to production-ready deployment—within agile sprint cycles. 
• Guide Versatile Engineering Practices: Mentor engineers across the stack—APIs, orchestration pipelines, vector databases, LLM frameworks, and UI components—fostering technical depth and adaptability. 
• Enable Agile Execution: Help teams navigate legacy integrations, ambiguity, and high-stakes environments while maintaining speed and safety in delivery. 
• Scale Through Codified Patterns: Lead the development of scaffolds, SDKs, and documentation that enable repeatable success across customer engagements. 
• Influence Platform Strategy: Translate field-tested insights into actionable feedback for product and platform teams, driving extensib