Senior Manager, Software Dev, Forward Deployed Engineering

Amazon is hiring a Senior Manager, Software Dev, Forward Deployed Engineering in Boston, United States. It pays $220k-$298k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this forward deployed engineer role Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
Pay on this posting starts 21% higher than the typical forward deployed engineer posting on Level.
The posting mentions AWS, AI agents and team management among its tools and skills.
Amazon has 22,000+ other open roles on Level.
This posting went up within the past week.

AI in this role

Lead pods of forward-deployed engineers scaling enterprise AI solutions and defining technical standards across customer programs.

aws

ai-agentsteam-managementartificial-intelligenceforward-deployed-engineeringtechnical-direction

A Senior Forward Deployed Engineering Manager (Senior FDE Manager) leads multiple pods of FDEs across several strategic enterprise customers, defining the delivery model, engineering standards, and talent strategy for the FDE practice at scale. Senior FDE Managers own organizational-level outcomes — they set the technical direction across multiple concurrent customer programs, build and scale the FDE team, and drive the mechanisms that ensure consistent engineering excellence and measurable business impact across the entire portfolio.

Senior FDE Managers operate at org-level scope. They lead 15–30+ engineers, influence technical decisions across multiple customer engagements and AWS teams simultaneously, and define what "great" looks like for forward-deployed AI engineering management. They represent the FDE practice to AWS senior leadership and customer C-suite executives, balancing strategic vision with operational execution.

Key job responsibilities
- Lead delivery across multiple customer engagements and FDE pods, defining engagement models, staffing strategies, and delivery cadences that ensure consistent engineering quality across all active programs.
- Set the technical direction for complex customer AI programs, aligning strategy with adjacent AWS teams and bringing technology and industry context to business decisions across your organization.
- Define operational standards, evaluation frameworks, and production readiness criteria for AI systems, establishing mechanisms that keep systems healthy and performing across all engagements.
- Hire, develop, and retain FDE talent across your organization, coaching managers on performance management, succession planning, and career development to build a strong and sustainable talent pipeline.
- Identify systemic opportunities to expand AI adoption across customer organizations, creating reusable accelerators and feeding patterns back into AWS product roadmaps.

A day in the life
You might start the morning reviewing delivery metrics across your FDE pods before joining an architecture review for a customer's AI program. By mid-morning, you are on a call with a customer executive and an AWS account team aligning on next-quarter priorities. After lunch, you coach one of your FDE managers through a staffing decision for a new engagement, then shift to drafting a proposal for a reusable platform component your team identified across multiple customer deployments. You close the day preparing for a talent review, evaluating growth plans for rising engineers across your organization.

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About the team
The Forward Deployed Engineering team within AWS works directly alongside enterprise customers to turn AI ambitions into production systems. We sit at the boundary between AWS services and real-world customer environments, which means our engineers solve problems that product teams have not yet encountered. We are building an inclusive engineering culture where leaders are empowered to shape how AWS delivers AI at scale. If you want to define what great looks like for forward-deployed engineering and grow an organization that has a direct line to customer impact, we would love to talk.

Basic qualifications

- 10+ years of engineering experience
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a related field, or equivalent experience
- Experience defining technical strategy and delivery standards while managing teams across multiple concurrent programs or customer engagements
- Experience communicating technical and organizational strategy to executive audiences (VP/C-suite level)
- 5+ years of engineering management experience, including managing managers or large engineering teams (15+)
- 8+ years of experience leading the design and architecture of large-scale production systems

Preferred qualifications

- Experience building and scaling engineering organizations focused on AI/ML production systems
- Experience with enterprise-scale agentic workflows, multi-agent orchestration, or AI system governance
- Experience creating delivery models or engineering mechanisms adopted across an organization
- Experience influencing product roadmaps through customer engagement patterns
- Experience building engineering talent pipelines and driving organizational hiring strategy
- Experience representing engineering organizations to executive leadership (VP/C-suite level)
- 6+ years of senior leadership development and talent management experience

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, MA, Boston - 220,100.00 - 297,700.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Senior Manager, Software Dev, Forward Deployed Engineering at Amazon rates 70 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.

Key facts

Senior Manager, Software Dev, Forward Deployed Engineering is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 3 of 4: Works on AI.
The listed salary is $220k-$298k a year.
The role is based in US, MA, Boston.
The job was posted on October 15, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Amazon. Apply on Amazon

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI agentsTeam ManagementArtificial IntelligenceForward Deployed EngineeringTechnical DirectionAWS

Also common in forward deployed engineer jobs at this level

Python LLM TypeScript JavaScript Azure Google Cloud

Pay

This job starts at: $220k
Typical forward deployed engineer job: $182k

This posting starts 21% above the typical forward deployed engineer job. See forward deployed engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
Tell me about a project where team management was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where artificial intelligence was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where forward deployed engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where technical direction was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI agents, Team Management, Artificial Intelligence, Forward Deployed Engineering, and Technical Direction. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.

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