Director, Forward Deployed Engineering

About the role

Chalk is building a high‑performance data platform for machine‑learning applications. As Director of Forward Deployed Engineering you will lead the team that integrates Chalk’s platform with customers, shaping the technical strategy from pre‑sales pilots through onboarding and expansion.

Key responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and retain a distributed team of Forward Deployed Engineers in New York and San Francisco.
• Define the operating model, engagement strategies, and account coverage for the FDE function.
• Own support triage, escalation paths, onboarding playbooks, and platform rollout processes.
• Partner with Sales and GTM leadership on technical pilots and strategic deals.
• Collaborate with Engineering to feed customer learnings into the product roadmap.
• Stay hands‑on by diving into customer architectures, solving complex technical problems, and setting technical standards.

Required profile

• 10+ years of engineering experience, including 3+ years leading customer‑facing engineering teams.
• Strong hands‑on expertise in Python and SQL.
• Experience with both pre‑sales technical pilots and post‑sales onboarding, support, and expansion.
• Proven ability to hire, develop, and retain senior engineers.
• Background at an early‑stage, high‑growth startup.
• Executive‑level communication skills across technical, business, and customer contexts.

Required skills

• Python
• SQL