Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering

About the role

As a Manager of Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) at Rippling you will lead a team of engineers responsible for delivering high-impact customized solutions for our customers. You will operate at the intersection of engineering customer success and productensuring your team consistently executes complex implementations with high quality and efficiency.
This role is ideal for a hands-on technical leader who thrives in fast-paced environments enjoys solving ambiguous real-world problems and is passionate about developing strong engineering talent. You will be accountable for team delivery operational excellence and contributor growth across multiple concurrent customer engagements.

What you will do

• Lead and develop a high-performing team of FDEs
• • Provide day-to-day guidance mentorship and coaching
  • Drive performance management feedback and career development
  • Build a strong team culture focused on ownership and customer impact
• Own execution across customer engagements
• • Ensure successful delivery of complex implementations across multiple projects
  • Oversee development of custom integrations workflows applications and analytics using Rippling products and languages like Python Javascript Ruby Java Go C or C
  • Maintain high standards for quality reliability and scalability
• Drive operational excellence
• • Improve team-level processes delivery consistency and execution rigor
  • Manage resourcing prioritization and execution across concurrent engagements
  • Identify and resolve delivery bottlenecks and cross-team dependencies
• Partner cross-functionally to unblock execution
• • Collaborate with Account Management Product Engineering and CX teams
  • Escalate and resolve issues impacting customer delivery
  • Ensure alignment between customer needs and product capabilities
• Engage directly with customers when needed
• • Support critical engagements and high-priority accounts
  • Help scope solutions and guide technical decision-making
  • Ensure strong customer outcomes and satisfaction
• Contribute to team hiring and growth
• • Participate in recruiting and onboarding new FDEs
  • Maintain a high bar for technical and customer-facing talent

Qualifications

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science Software Engineering or related field
• 5 years of software development experience with strong proficiency in one or more of: Python Javascript Ruby Java Go C or C along with SQL and data modeling
• 13 years of experience leading or mentoring engineers (formal or informal leadership)
• Proven ability to deliver complex technical projects in fast-paced environments
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to navigate ambiguity and prioritize effectively
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills especially in customer-facing contexts
• Customer-centric mindset with experience working directly with external stakeholders
• Willingness to travel to client sites as needed (up to 25%)

Nice to have / strongly preferred

• Experience using AI to transform real-world workflows team operations customer delivery or business processes not just building AI features in isolation; able to identify high-ROI use cases and guide them from discovery through production deployment adoption and measurable impact.
• Track record applying AI agents workflow automation copilots data products or custom software to turn ambiguous business problems into durable solutions that customers or internal teams actually use with strong judgment around reliability evals guardrails permissions and change management.

Additional Information

Rippling is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and do not discriminate based on race religion color national origin ancestry physical disability mental disability medical condition genetic information marital status sex gender gender identity gender expression age sexual orientation veteran or military status or any other legally protected characteristics Rippling is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities who need assistance during the hiring process. To request a reasonable accommodation please email

Rippling highly values having employees working in-office to foster a collaborative work environment and company culture. For office-based employees (employees who live within a defined radius of a Rippling office) Rippling considers working in the office at least three days a week under current policy to be an essential function of the employees role.