This list contains only the countries for which job offers have been published in the selected language (e.g., in the French version, only job offers written in French are displayed, and in the English version, only those in English).
OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering team partners with global pharma and biotech, CROs, and research institutions to deploy existing expertise across the R&D value chain to help customers design and ship production-grade AI systems. We operate at the intersection of customer delivery and core platform development, converting early deployments into repeatable system standards and evaluation practices that scale across regulated environments. We are hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to push the frontier on what is possible today across drug discovery (e.g., target identification, molecular design, pre-clinical) and development (e.g., trial design, trial ops, biostats) by leading end-to-end deployments of our models inside life sciences organizations and research institutions. You will work with customers who are deep experts in their scientific or operational domains, translating real-world data, infrastructure, and constraints into production systems. You will measure success through production adoption, measurable workflow impact, and eval-driven feedback loops, including evaluation benchmarks and acceptance criteria, that inform product and model roadmaps. You’ll work closely with our Product, Research, Partnerships, GRC, Security, and GTM to deliver in regulated contexts, including inspection readiness with audit trails and traceable evidence. This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. We offer relocation assistance. Travel up to 50% is required.
Job Responsibility:
Design and ship production systems around models, owning integrations, data provenance, reliability, and on-call readiness across research, clinical, and operational workflows
Lead discovery and scoping from pre-sales through post-sales, translating ambiguous workflow needs into hypothesis-driven problem framing, system requirements, and an execution plan with measurable endpoints
Define and enforce launch criteria for regulated contexts, including validation evidence, audit readiness, outcome metrics, and drive delivery until we demonstrate sustained production impact
Build in sensitive scientific data environments where auditability, validation, and access controls shape architecture, operating procedures, and failure handling
Run evaluation loops that measure model and system quality against workflow-specific scientific benchmarks and use results to drive model and product changes
Distill deployment learnings into hardened primitives, reference architectures, validation templates, and benchmark harnesses that scale across regulated life sciences environments
Requirements:
5+ years of software/ML engineering or technical deployment experience with customer-facing ownership in biotech, pharma, clinical research, or scientific software
PhD, MS, or equivalent applied experience in a life sciences relevant field encouraged
Have owned customer GenAI deployments end-to-end from scoping through production adoption, and improved them through evaluation design, error analysis, and iterative evidence generation
Have delivered AI systems in trial design, regulatory writing, or scientific operations where validation strategy, auditability, compliance constraints, and reviewer expectations shaped system design and rollout
Communicate clearly across scientific, clinical, model research, technical, and executive audiences
Apply systems thinking with high execution standards
What we offer:
Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
401(k) retirement plan with employer match
Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time
Mental health and wellness support
Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
Annual learning and development stipend
Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
Relocation support for eligible employees
Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends