Head of Forward Deployed Engineering

Build AI products people use—and lead the engineers who ship them

Single Grain is hiring a technical player-coach to lead six engineers, build alongside them, and turn customer problems into secure, reliable products that hit their engagement goals. You will report directly to Eric Siu.

You should be deeply hands-on with AI: we expect 95%+ of your code to be written with AI, with you accountable for architecture, verification, useful reviews and production quality. You need to know what to build, what to prioritize and what to stop.

About Single Grain

Single Grain combines marketing services, software and AI to drive measurable customer results. This role connects engineering work to that larger vision. You will help the team turn useful discoveries into products clients adopt, maintain and expand.

What you will own

• Manage six engineers. Set assignments, sequence work, manage capacity, coach people and make ownership clear.

• Build alongside the team. Own technical standards, architecture, technical and PR reviews, and release readiness.

• Talk to customers regularly. Discover the real problem, test assumptions, set success metrics and use adoption data to decide what to improve or kill.

• Drive engagement within products. Own rollout, activation, repeat use and recovery when a product misses its goals.

• Ship at pace with careful execution. Test failure paths, challenge weak assumptions and make PR feedback useful. Do not ship poor-quality work simply to increase output.

• Govern security and AI costs: access and data boundaries, tests/evals, token attribution, budgets, alerts, context and retry limits, monitoring and recovery.

• Connect each project to the company vision and measurable customer value. Scope useful follow-on work with clients and partner with account owners on expansion.

• Build reusable components and delivery playbooks that engineers actually use.

What success looks like

• By day 30: agree the delivery priorities, the first four systems, product engagement targets and a clear operating rhythm with Eric and customer owners.

• By day 60: put technical review, security, AI-cost controls and release checks into regular use.

• By day 90: deliver four distinct production systems used by real users, with acceptance, instrumentation, support ownership and recovery plans. Demos and artificially split features do not count.

• Product success: hit agreed engagement targets within a measurement window suited to each product. Review misses and recovery actions weekly.

• By day 120: all six engineers independently own bounded delivery from discovery through launch and measurement, with peer review and escalation intact.

• Each month: produce one useful reusable component or playbook; reach 12 by day 365. Unused documentation does not count.

Evidence we want to see

• Comparable experience managing engineers while staying technically credible and actively building.

• Production systems you helped ship and operate, with measurable customer adoption or business outcomes and a clear account of your contribution.

• A history of promotions and increasing responsibility, supported by sustained results. Equivalent growth in scope matters too.

• Daily AI-assisted engineering and management workflows. Be ready to explain how you create, test, review and maintain AI-written code.

• Strong organization, attention to detail, customer development, product judgment and clear communication.

• Examples of decisions to focus, narrow scope or stop work, and how those decisions served a larger goal.

How the process works

Application and evidence review, our standard five-question AI prescreen for selected candidates, a live discussion and proof exercise based on your own work, a small paid exercise where substantial work is required, and references. Safe redacted or recreated examples are welcome for confidential work.

Work model and compensation

Full-time and remote. Being based in Los Angeles is a strong plus, not a requirement. Annual compensation is $175,000–$225,000 USD, based on experience and qualifications.

Benefits

Single Grain's published benefits include medical, dental and vision insurance; life insurance; a 401(k) with a 4% match; unlimited PTO; monthly UberEats; a MacBook; and a home-office stipend/setup. Benefits are subject to applicable plan terms and eligibility.

Apply with proof

Apply through this job's application form with your resume or professional profile and relevant work examples. Show a production system, a team outcome and a measurable customer result, and explain what you personally owned. We will send the standard AI prescreen separately to selected candidates.