Head of Forward Deployed Engineering

About the Role

In this role, you will build and lead our forward-deployed engineering (FDE) team, working directly with leading labs and enterprises to scope, build and deliver high quality datasets to support their most critical AI initiatives. You’ll lead a team that will own quality in the end-to-end data pipeline. This will include working with customers to define what “good” data looks like to implement the relevant workflows in their platform. You will design innovative ML approaches to enhance human-in-the-loop (HITL) techniques and improve the efficiency of data generation and review processes. Your team will own systems and tools that enable consistent, scalable, and high-quality data delivery to our customers.

Sitting at the critical intersection of data engineering, ML engineering, operations, and customer engagement— leading scoping and preselling efforts. You'll also partner closely with the Snorkel delivery team and cross-functional stakeholders to define quality standards, develop measurement frameworks, drive ML-based workflows to improve data pipelines and unblock projects through technical innovation. As the founding member, you’ll also roll up your sleeves to define and own the workflows and processes that are needed to deliver exceptional data at scale.

Main Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Forward Deployed Engineering DaaS organization, setting a clear vision, defining the operating model and scaling its impact across Snorkel’s Expert Data-as-a-Service workflows
• Build, mentor, and motivate high performing teams, including cultivating skills and culture needed to consistently deliver exceptional outcomes and transformative impact.
• Own and evolve the data pipeline components of the DaaS stack, including model-assisted labeling and data generation, quality estimation, and data-centric feedback loops that guide human input
• Partner with customers - including research and engineering teams at Frontier AI Labs - to scope requirements for complex, novel AI datasets and translate needs into delivery-ready workflows
• Develop robust systems for request intake, task orchestration, SLA tracking, and progress monitoring to ensure seamless execution and prevent critical delivery gaps
• Collaborate cross-functionally with research and engineering teams to innovate, develop, and productionize HITL data generation methods, advanced quality techniques, and improve internal delivery tooling
• Drive continuous improvement by developing reusable workflows, surfacing operational insights, and enabling the organization to scale faster while maintaining high quality

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of experience in applied data or ML engineering roles, including 5+ years leading high-performing technical teams in hands-on management capacity
• Demonstrated success in customer facing roles, with a strong enthusiasm for data pipelines and LLM-based workflows.
• Proven track record of managing technical field teams in fast-paced, delivery-focused environments with competing priorities
• Experience as a player-coach—comfortable being hands-on while supporting and scaling the team
• Proven ability to thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with cross-functional stakeholders
• Strong practical experience with LLM-based workflows, Python, SQL, and data tooling (e.g., pandas, Plotly, Streamlit, Dash)
• Bonus: experience working with data annotation workflows or internal tooling for data delivery orgs

Why Join Snorkel AI?

At Snorkel AI, we're building the future of data-centric AI. Our Expert Data-as-a-Service organization partners with world-class customers to solve some of the hardest data challenges — creating training and evaluation data that power the next generation of LLMs and AI systems. You'll work directly on projects that impact real production systems, while shaping how internal teams deliver faster, better, and more intelligently. This is a rare opportunity to found a function and have a broad, lasting impact across the company.