Forward Deployed Engineering Leader
Job Location:
Santa Clara County, CA - USA
Monthly Salary:
Posted:
Application Deadline:
Vacancies:
Job Summary
Interested candidates based outside of the designated areas are welcome to apply provided they have the indefinite right to work in the job location.
Cohesity is a leader in AI-powered data security and management. Aided by an extensive ecosystem of partners Cohesity makes it easy to secure protect manage and get value from data across the data center edge and cloud. Cohesity helps organizations defend against cybersecurity threats with comprehensive data security and management capabilities including immutable backup snapshots AI-based threat detection monitoring for malicious behavior and rapid recovery at scale.
Weve been named a Leader by multiple analyst firms and have been globally recognized for Innovation Product Strength and Simplicity in Design.
Join us on our mission to shape the future of our industry.
Cohesity is a leader in AI-powered data security and management. We make it easy to secure protect manage and get value from data across the data center edge and cloud. Our innovative platform and solutions protect organizations against cybersecurity threats and help them recover from attacks while enabling next-generation AI workloads. With Cohesity organizations can move faster without worrying about their most critical asset: data.
Cohesity is hiring a Director to lead our Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) organization a dedicated post-sale technical execution team. This team owns the last mile of technical delivery for our most complex and highest-value customers ensuring Cohesitys platform capabilities translate into production outcomes and measurable business value.
This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who is equallycomfortable insetting strategy guiding complex deployments through technical risk and stepping in to unblock production issues. You will serve as the technical bridge between the field and product and a key driver of Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) across Cohesitys Top 200 accounts.
HOW YOULL SPEND YOUR TIME HERE:
Team Leadership & Scale
Lead develop and grow a team ofForward Deployed Engineers at the Individual Contributor level (IC5) across Tier 1 and Tier 2 account coverage
Establish team operating rhythm performance standards and career development frameworks
Evolve FDE operating models engagement playbooks tooling and documentation to support scale
Manage a globally distributed team (70% India / 30% US) with consistent standards and an inclusive culture
Customer Outcomes & Account Ownership
Own post-sale technical delivery for Cohesitys Top 300 accounts from complex deployments and Proof of Concept (POC)-to-production conversions to ongoing optimization
Act as the senior technical escalation point for Tier 1 engagements; partner with Customer Success Managers (CSMs) Sales Engineers (SEs) and Strategic Technical Assistance Team (STAT) Centers of Excellence (CoEs) on at-risk accounts
Drive time-to-production deployment success rates and POC conversion outcomes
Ensure FDE engagement translates into measurable adoptionutilization and renewal signals grounded in customer outcomes not activity metrics
Represent the customer perspective internally by translating deployment friction and adoption blockers into actionable product feedback
Technical Execution & Problem Solving
Lead structured root cause analysis on deployment failures misconfigurations and adoption stalls; convert findings into reusable playbooks
Assess customer infrastructure environments and prescribe Cohesity deployment patternsoptimizedfor performance resilience and long-term manageability
Identifyand address both technical and organizational blockersimpactingcustomer outcomes
Drive accountability for reducing time-to-unblock across critical Tier 1 engagements
Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) & Revenue Impact
Influence Gross Revenue Retention by removing technical barriers that lead tochurnin strategic accounts
Partner with Customer Success (CS) and Finance to track FDE-driven retention and expansion impact
Equip CSMs and renewal teams with proof-of-value artifacts usage insights and technical Return on Investment (ROI) narratives
Cross-Functional Alignment
Own and enforce high-quality technical handoffs from pre-sale Sales Engineer (SE) to FDE including clear account context risk assessment and early success plans
Align cross-functional teams around shared customer outcomes
Maintain a structured view of product gaps and deployment friction; regularly present prioritized recommendations to Product and leadership
Partner with Sales Engineering leadership to strengthen pre-to-post-sale continuity for complex accounts
Act as a strategic partner to the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Customer Success (CS) leadership on account prioritization risk identification and escalation strategy
WED LOVE TO TALK TO YOU IF YOU HAVE MANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
Required Experience
10 years in customer-facing technical roles (solutions engineering FDE professional services or technical account management)
5 years leading teams of senior engineers or technical specialists
Proven ownership of complex enterprise-scale deployments in production environments
Experience leading distributed global teams
Deep familiarity with data protection storage cloud or security platforms (e.g. Cohesity Commvault Rubrik Veeam NetApp)
Demonstrated ability to influence GRR through technical delivery with measurable impact
Strongtrack recorddiagnosing and resolving complex multi-system failures in production environments
Experience acting as a trusted advisor to enterprise IT and security leaders (CISOs VPs Directors)
Familiarity with modern cloud and AI infrastructure (Kubernetes hybrid cloud object storage unstructured data systems)
Ability to translate technical deployment status into business risk for executive stakeholders
Leadership & Behavioral Attributes
Customer-first mindset defines success by customer outcomes and business impact
Structured problem solver applies repeatable approaches to complex failures
Builder with scale mindset able to create clarity structure and consistency in evolving environments
Outcome-oriented focuses on production impact vs. activity
Strong executive presence comfortable engaging C-level leaders internally and externally
Deep field empathy understands enterprise sales cycles and customer realities
Highly effective at driving alignment without direct authority
Strong bias for documentation and operational rigor
Disclosure Pursuant to Applicable State Equal Pay Transparency Laws - This position has a starting pay range as listed below. Actual salary depends upon many factors including a candidates skills qualifications and experience location and salary expectations and therefore a starting salary at the low end high end or even above the stated range may be offered. This position may also be eligible for bonus compensation commission (if in a sales function) and/or equity grants. Additionally full-time employees are eligible to participate in ourcomprehensive benefits framework including health and wellness benefits vacation paid holidays and refresh days 401(k) retirement plan life and disability insurance coverages and other benefits the Company may offer from time to time.
Pay Range :
The compensation noted above is based on an annualized hourly rate assuming normal full-time employment.
Data Privacy Notice for Job Candidates:
For information on personal data processing please see our .
Equal Employment Opportunity Employer (EEOE)
Cohesity is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race color creed religion sex sexual orientation national origin or nationality ancestry age disability gender identity or expression marital status veteran status or any other category protected by law.
If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process or are limited in the ability or unable to access or use this online application process and need an alternative method for applying you may contact us atCOHESITY or for assistance.
In-Office Expectations
Cohesity employees who are within a reasonable commute (e.g. within a forty-five (45) minute average travel time) work out of our core offices 2-3 days a week of their choosing.
Interested candidates based outside of the designated areas are welcome to apply provided they have the right to work in the job location.
Required Experience:
IC
About Company
Cohesity gives you both data security and data management. Defend against ransomware with immutable backup, AI-based early threat detection, and rapid data recovery.
