Forward Deployed Engineering Manager

Interested in working on cutting-edge blockchain technology and creating equitable access to the global financial system? Since 2014, the mission-driven team at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has helped fuel the tremendous growth of the Stellar blockchain network, an open-source platform that operates at high-scale today. Developers and companies around the world build on it, and the SDF team is expanding to support the rapidly growing and changing Stellar ecosystem.

In this role, you’ll lead Stellar’s Solutions Engineering function, responsible for enabling transformative enterprise partners to successfully design, build, and operate production-grade integrations on the Stellar network.

This role owns Stellar’s Forward-deployed Solutions Engineering function end-to-end. You will be accountable for how SDF supports partners from early technical discovery and solution design through production launch and ongoing support, ensuring integrations are scalable, future-proof, and aligned with the long-term evolution of the Stellar ecosystem.

As a member of our team, you’ll operate at the intersection of engineering, architecture, and strategic partner engagement. This is a senior leadership role (L4+) that combines people management, architectural depth, and program ownership, and plays a critical role in enabling Stellar’s adoption by transformative enterprises.

In this role, you will:

• Own and continuously refine Stellar’s Solutions Engineering program, including engagement models, partner tiering, and escalation paths.

• Build, manage, mentor, and grow a team of Solutions Architects and Solutions Engineers, composed of both in-house team members and certified external collaborators.

• Lead end-to-end technical partner engagements, from early discovery and solution design through production launch and ongoing support.

• Serve as a senior technical escalation point for high-tiered partners, engaging directly when integrations require deeper architectural guidance or cross-functional coordination.

• Provide hands-on architectural leadership, including:

  • Guiding system and integration design for complex or non-standard use cases.

  • Reviewing proposed architectures and technical trade-offs.

  • Helping derisk integrations through design reviews, targeted prototyping, or technical deep dives.

• Set and uphold a high technical quality bar for enterprise integrations, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, maintainable, and future-proof.

• Collaborate closely with the Product and Engineering teams to surface recurring partner needs and tooling gaps, and inform roadmap prioritization based on real-world enterprise usage.

• Design and scale repeatable engagement models, including partner tiering, SLAs, documentation standards, and feedback loops that allow the program to scale without sacrificing quality.

• Oversee hiring, onboarding, training, and certification program for solutions engineers, both internally and across the Stellar partner ecosystem.

• Represent SDF in strategic partner conversations, deep technical reviews, and selective onsite engagements with enterprise partners.

• Continuously improve the Solutions Engineering program based on learnings from live integrations, postmortems, and evolving partner needs.

You have:

• Significant experience leading customer-facing engineering or solutions teams, ideally in blockchain, fintech, or financial infrastructure.

• A strong technical background that enables you to lead architectural discussions, evaluate system-level trade-offs, and guide complex integrations, even if you are not writing production code on a daily basis.

• Experience managing multi-disciplinary teams, such as Solutions Architects, Forward-Deployed Engineers, Partner Engineers, or similar roles.

• Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-evolving environments, where you are expected to help define structure, process, and best practices.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate between partner needs, technical constraints, and internal engineering and product priorities.

• Experience working directly with enterprise or institutional partners, including senior technical stakeholders.

• Willingness to travel occasionally for partner engagements.

• A strong sense of ownership and accountability for program outcomes, not just individual engagements.

Bonus Points if:

• You have experience with blockchain systems, distributed ledgers, or financial market infrastructure.

• You have worked in a forward-deployed or embedded engineering model.

• You have experience designing or running certification, training, or partner enablement programs.

• You have contributed to open-source or ecosystem-driven platforms.

We offer competitive pay with a base salary range for this position of $172,000 - $258,000, depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, we offer lumen-denominated grants along with the following perks and benefits:

USA Benefits/Perks:

• Competitive health, dental & vision coverage with most plans covered at 100% for the employee + any dependents

• Flexible time off + 15 company holidays including a company-wide holiday break

• Up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for both non-birthing and birthing parents, as well as up to 14 weeks of paid pregnancy leave for birthing parents

• Gym reimbursement ($80 per month)

• Life & ADD (up to $50K)

• Short & Long term disability

• 401K with 4% match

• Health & Dependent Care FSA Accounts

• Commuter benefits with $250/month employer contribution

• Health Savings Account (HSA) with monthly employer contribution

• Family building benefits through Kindbody

• Wellbeing benefits (One Medical, Rightway, Headspace)

• L&D budget of $1,500/year

• Daily lunch and snacks in office

• Company retreats

About Stellar

Stellar is more than a blockchain. Powered by a decentralized, fast, scalable, and uniquely sustainable network made for financial products and services and a thriving and passionate ecosystem that includes a non-profit organization driven by a mission, Stellar is paving the path to unlock the world’s economic potential through blockchain technology. Built with speed and low costs in mind, the Stellar network provides builders and financial institutions worldwide a platform to issue assets, and to send and convert currencies in real time creating real world utility. Founded in 2014, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) supports the continued development and growth of the Stellar network and also serves the ecosystem of NGOs, corporations, universities, small businesses, governments, and solo entrepreneurs building on the Stellar network through tooling, funding and strategic collaborations. Together, Stellar is where blockchain meets the real world.

About the Stellar Development Foundation

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is a non-profit organization focused on working with and supporting change-makers to create equitable access to the global financial system through blockchain technology. SDF provides grants, investments, funding, and other awards to builders and organizations. SDF also develops resources and tooling on the Stellar network to help unlock real world utility. As a nonprofit foundation, SDF puts the health of the Stellar network and the Stellar ecosystem and its mission above all else.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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SDF is committed to diversity in its workforce and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. SDF does not make hiring or employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other basis protected by applicable local, state or federal law.