Practice Manager, Forward Deployment Engineer

In every role McCainers are ambitious curious and passionate about creating exceptional work experiences - together. With a customer-first mindset we make doing business with McCain easy.

About the role.

The FDE Practice Manager is responsible for setting and elevating the Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) capability across McCain ensuring a high standard of technical excellence business impact and career development within the FDE community. This player-coach leadership role owns the Yellow-portfolio FDE talent pool personally contributes to strategic engagements and serves as the accountable leader for FDE quality talent development staffing and practice standards. Working closely with Artificial Intelligence engineering and business stakeholders the FDE Practice Lead will champion best practices and drive measurable value through AI-enabled transformation initiatives.

What youll be doing.

• Establish and maintain the FDE competency framework role definition and development pathways across McCain.
• Build coach mentor and develop the FDE community through structured feedback training and professional development initiatives.
• Lead hiring talent calibration workforce planning and performance management activities for the Yellow-portfolio FDE team.
• Own the allocation and assignment of FDE resources across Yellow business portfolios aligning talent to business priorities and development objectives.
• Personally lead selected business engagements as a player-coach providing hands-on guidance and in-flight coaching to FDE team members.
• Partner with Commercial Marketing and Manufacturing FDE leaders to build consistency in standards practices and outcomes across the broader FDE community.
• Collaborate with AI Platform & Engineering Knowledge Engineering AI Deployment & Enablement and Governance leaders to drive alignment and delivery success.
• Develop and maintain FDE playbooks engagement models operating standards and reusable methodologies that improve efficiency and business outcomes.
• Ensure all FDE-led initiatives adhere to McCain Responsible AI security governance and risk management requirements.
• Represent the FDE practice with senior leadership teams executive sponsors and business stakeholders to drive alignment and adoption of AI-enabled solutions.

What youll need to be successful.

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering or a related discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• 10 years of experience managing complex business customer or technology engagements.
• 3 years of experience leading a professional practice center of excellence or team of senior individual contributors.
• Demonstrated success operating as a player-coach combining hands-on delivery with coaching and team development responsibilities.
• Proven ability to establish and maintain a high-performance culture among senior practitioners.
• Strong influencing skills and experience partnering with senior leaders without direct authority.
• Executive presence customer focus and the ability to navigate ambiguity in fast-changing environments.
• Track record of delivering measurable business outcomes and driving organizational adoption of new capabilities.
• Experience with AI transformation consulting forward-deployed engineering models or related disciplines is preferred.
• Strong commitment to ethical and responsible AI practices governance and risk management.

About the team.

The FDE Practice Manager is part of the Artificial Intelligence organization and reports to the Vice President Artificial Intelligence. This role leads the Yellow-portfolio FDE talent pool and partners closely with AI Engineering AI Platform & Engineering Knowledge Engineering AI Deployment & Enablement Governance and business stakeholders across multiple functions. The team operates through a player-coach model focused on developing talent scaling best practices and delivering measurable business outcomes through AI-enabled solutions.

About McCain.

Click Here to learn more about McCain and how we provide opportunities to make an impact that matters.

Leadership principles.

At McCain our leadership principles guide how we engage with customers collaborate as a team and achieve success. We focus on understanding customer needs driving innovation empowering people and taking ownership to clear obstacles and deliver results.

The McCain experience.

We are McCain. This statement is a testament to our collective strength and our individual value. Your contributions play a vital role in our success. Our winning culture is rooted in authenticity and trust empowering us to bring out the best in one another. Here youll find opportunities to learn grow and thrive. Join us and experience why were better together.

Our purpose is grounded in building meaningful relationships. Were big believers in the power of working together in person it helps us stay connected collaborate more effectively and grow as a team. At the same time we recognize the importance of flexibility. Most office-based roles follow a hybrid model with the option to work remotely two days a week. There may be exceptions depending on the role and location so we encourage you to speak with your recruiter for more details.