Manager, Forward Deployed Machine Learning Engineering

Federato is on a mission to defend the right to efficient, equitable insurance for all. We enable insurers to provide affordable coverage to people and organizations facing the issues of today - the climate crisis, cyber-attacks, social inflation, etc. Our vision is understood and well funded by those behind Salesforce, Veeva, Zoom, Box, etc. Federato is the only AI-native platform that spans the full policy lifecycle and changes the way insurance work gets done. Better decisioning is built-in, not bolted on: insurers' unique portfolio goals, strategies, rules, and appetite are part of the workflow so underwriters win the right deals, faster. From the moment a submission hits an underwriter’s inbox, AI is put to work, triaging submissions with a focus on high-appetite business, delivering real-time feedback on the portfolio, and consolidating workflows into a single proven system. Federato drives better business outcomes. What You'll Be Doing: Lead and manage a team of Forward-Deployed Machine Learning Engineers (FDMLEs) delivering customer-facing AI and ML solutions from prototyping through production deployment and iteration. Support team growth through coaching, mentorship, and career development while fostering a strong culture of ownership, customer focus, and operational excellence. Drive execution in ambiguous, fast-paced environments by enabling rapid experimentation, iterative development, and close cross-functional collaboration. Partner with Federato leadership across Forward Deployed Engineering, Data Science, and Customer Success to align priorities, delivery expectations, and customer outcomes. Translate strategic AI initiatives into actionable roadmaps, priorities, and delivery milestones, ensuring projects are effectively scoped, staffed, and executed. Establish and improve agile workflows tailored to forward-deployed AI and ML work, including sprint planning, technical design reviews, backlog grooming, retrospectives, and operational follow-through. Serve as the primary coordination point across internal teams and customer stakeholders to ensure alignment, transparency, issue resolution, and successful adoption of deployed solutions. Drive operational excellence through strong communication, documentation, monitoring, and incident-management practices across customer-facing ML systems. Who We Hope You Are: 5+ years of experience in machine learning, applied AI, data science, or related technical fields. 2+ years of experience leading or managing technical contributors and cross-functional delivery efforts. Experience deploying and operating ML or AI systems in production, including customer-facing or operational environments. Strong understanding of ML systems, LLM applications, agentic workflows, evaluation frameworks, and production monitoring best practices. Experience working in fast-paced environments with evolving requirements and multiple concurrent workstreams. Excellent communication, organizational, and stakeholder management skills. Ability to balance technical depth with strong execution and delivery discipline. Bonus Points If: Experience leading customer-facing or forward-deployed AI/ML teams. Background working closely with Data Science, Engineering, and Customer Success organizations. Experience deploying LLM-powered systems, agentic workflows, or automation platforms in production environments. Experience scaling AI/ML delivery teams and improving operational processes across customer engagements. $220,000 - 250,000 a year Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above. Total compensation package does include stock options, benefits and additional perks. Here at Federato, your capabilities are important, but culture fit is essential. We move fast, are eager to listen to our users, take a first principles approach to solving problems, and value learning and the ability to change our minds. Most importantly, we're here to have fun. Our ability to make a difference starts with our people. We would love to work with you! We are an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status. We will provide reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation at [email protected]