HomepageOpen Positions

Forward Deployed Lead

San Francisco, CA, United States of America (Hybrid)

Apply for this job

Position Overview

At HTEC, customers come to us with business problems they want to solve through AI: improving content moderation, building better integrations, and transforming customer service. Your job is to turn these problems into commercialized AI solutions.

As a Forward Deployed Lead, you'll work directly with customers to understand their challenges, then guide engineering teams to design and build solutions that actually work. You'll own the customer relationship and keep everything on track — making sure the right thing gets built, and customers see real results. Whilst delivering across multiple AI projects, you'll quickly develop expertise in applied AI.


What you'll do

Own the day-to-day customer relationship: Join calls, capture feedback, keep customers informed. Maintain clear alignment between what's promised and what's being delivered. Be the trusted voice that customers rely on.

Drive product execution: Translate customer needs into clear requirements, PRDs, and roadmaps. Work hand-in-hand with engineers and designers to ensure the right thing gets built and built well.

Deliver results: Track milestones, systematically unblock teams, push projects across the finish line. Overdeliver on impact and ensure customers see meaningful, measurable outcomes.

Facilitate customer discovery: Run discovery sessions to uncover underlying needs, translate challenges into clear plans for engineers, and ensure you deeply understand the customer's business context.

Coordinate delivery: Lead product ceremonies including daily stand-ups, maintain sprint planning, keep delivery momentum strong, and navigate the inevitable challenges that arise in complex projects.


What we're looking for

Customer relationship experience: You understand what customers truly care about and how to communicate effectively through including in challenging situations. You build trust that withstands complexity.

Product development background: You know how to gather requirements, be the voice of the user and of reason, work with engineers, and turn customer needs into real solutions. You've been through the full cycle from concept to deployment.

Execution mindset: You're resourceful, hands-on when needed, and committed to getting the job done. You don't wait for perfect information; you start the ball rolling and make things happen.

Relevant experience: 5+ years in product or engineering leadership roles where execution and customer trust were critical to success.

Communication skills: You can translate between product, technical, and business stakeholders, ensuring everyone understands what's being built and why it matters.

Problem-solving orientation: You're comfortable navigating ambiguity, identifying blockers early, and finding creative solutions to keep projects moving forward.


What to expect 

In your first year: You'll lead multiple Private Equity portfolio companies, becoming an expert in applied AI. With your second project, you'll have delivered AI solutions across more contexts than most product leaders ever see. Working and collaborating cross-functional across Business Units at HTEC and practices.

The opportunity: Embedding generative AI into production is a significant challenge. Traditional consulting firms drive billions in AI advisory revenue, but most offerings are either inflexible about products or advisory without engineering delivery. We provide the product and engineering talent to actually execute, and you'll be the one ensuring it all comes together.

The team: Work with senior engineers, focused on high-impact projects. You'll collaborate with and influence HTEC AI leadership.

The learning curve: You'll work across different industries, customers, and AI applications from automating workflows to building intelligent search systems. Every project teaches you something new about how companies actually deploy AI.

 

A typical day could look like this:

  • You own one or more customer projects, maybe an AI content moderation system or automated customer support solution
  • Morning standups with your engineering team to review progress, address blockers, and align on priorities
  • Customer call with a client CTO, executive team, or product lead to discuss progress, gather feedback on the latest demo, and align on next steps
  • Update your PRD based on new insights from the customer conversation, clarifying requirements for the engineering team
  • Afternoon heads-down time to update project timelines, prepare for upcoming customer demo, and coordinate with designers on user flows
  • Quick sync with tech lead to discuss technical tradeoffs and ensure customer expectations align with what's feasible
  • Maybe join a prospective customer call to understand their needs and help scope potential projects


Important context

Customer proximity is key: You'll be closer to customers than in most product roles. You'll regularly interact with their teams, understand their constraints deeply, and ensure solutions fit their actual needs, not just stated requirements.

Variety over predictability: You'll work across different customers, industries, and AI applications. Each project brings new challenges and learning opportunities. You won't be refining the same product quarter after quarter.

Balance of autonomy and collaboration: You'll own customer relationships and delivery, but you'll work closely with engineering teams daily. Success requires both independent decision-making and collaborative problem-solving.

Professional services context: Building for clients is different from building your own product. It requires adaptability, strong relationship skills, and comfort with changing priorities. It's not for everyone, but for the right person, it's incredibly rewarding.

Remote and In-person collaboration: Though we are a remote team, our team only thrives through collaboration and open communication. Our expectation from every team member is to embody this mindset.

 

Our principles

  • Show, don’t only tell: Excellence is our standard, both in our code and in our language
  • Eat our own dogfood: We practice what we preach and use AI wherever possible
  • We are one team: Our people and relationships are our competitive advantage.

Forward Deployed Lead

Apply for this job
Job description

Forward Deployed Lead

Personal information