head of deployed engineering

turbopuffer
North, US
On-site

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have experience leading technical customer-facing teams in AI and database domains.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with leadership experience in technical customer success and a background in AI and databases
    — “leadership exp - guiding the team is second nature”
  • Individuals who thrive in collaborative environments bridging sales and engineering teams
    — “bridge between GTM and engineering teams, and as a voice of the customer”
  • Candidates with strong technical skills in Linux, Python, or JavaScript and a passion for solving customer problems
    — “linux - you're comfortable in terminals and reading logs”

Things to consider

  • In-person customer visits are a key part of the role, requiring travel flexibility
    — “spend time in-person visiting prospects and customers as a key part of the relationship”
  • The role demands a high level of technical credibility and customer advocacy
    — “treat customer problems as your own and don't rest until they're solved”

How to stand out

  • Highlight your ability to build benchmarks and demos that solve real customer problems
    — “build concrete benchmarks, demos and POCs instead of slides”
  • Emphasize your documented leadership practices and ability to train others
    — “document your work so others can learn from it”
  • Showcase your experience in technical sales motion development and cross-functional collaboration
    — “work closely with your peers in GTM to develop and refine the technical sales motion”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • successful customer implementations
  • customer satisfaction
Typical background
leadership experiencetechnical sales experience

Skills & requirements

Required

Technical SalesCustomer Relationship ManagementDemos And PocsPerformance OptimizationLinux

Preferred

Vector SearchCloud Platform ExperiencePerformance Benchmarking

Stack & domain

LeadershipTechnical Sales MotionTechnical SalesCustomer SuccessDemosPocsBenchmarksFirefightingProblem-solvingCustomer Relationship ManagementTechnical ExpertiseData AnalysisDatabase OptimizationLinuxPythonJavaScriptTypeScriptWritingCommunicationTeamworkAdaptabilityIntegrityAI

About the role

Original posting from turbopuffer via Ashby

turbopuffer is looking for someone to lead and develop our deployed engineering function. DEs are the technical champions for our customers. They own the technical outcome of the sales cycle, and serve as the go-to technical partner as our customers explore scale, expansion, and renewals. Their work spans demos, POCs, benchmarks, firefighting, and whatever it takes to make our customers successful.

what you'll do:

  • lead and develop the DE team, as a player-coach
  • work closely with your peers in GTM to develop and refine the technical sales motion
  • act as a bridge between GTM and engineering teams, and as a voice of the customer
  • own the technical relationship end-to-end, from discovery, to expansion and renewal
  • spend time in-person visiting prospects and customers as a key part of the relationship
  • build concrete benchmarks, demos and POCs instead of slides, drive evaluations, guide implementations
  • treat customer problems as your own and don't rest until they're solved
  • live in customer slack channels, helping to solve problems and architect solutions
  • say no when we're not the right fit and always have a growth mindset

must have:

  • leadership exp - guiding the team is second nature. you constantly think about best practices, and document your work so others can learn from it.
  • ai-first - you are obviously agent pilled and understand how it unlocks another level to what we can provide
  • commercial - we unlock product ambition by reducing cost & reducing operational burden
  • sales x technical - you expertly balance the sales cycle with deep technical domain expertise
  • data or database background - you love looking at explain plans and optimizing schemas
  • linux - you're comfortable in terminals and reading logs
  • python or javascript/typescript - for building solutions and demos
  • typist - you can write well and can explain complex ideas simply
  • human - you build trust and know when you're in over your head

nice to have:

  • vector search or full-text search background
  • k8s and cloud platform experience
  • performance benchmarking experience

tpuf is hardcore & whimsical. we value:

  • overstep > understep
  • show > tell
  • complexity is earned
  • showing up as part of our customer’s team
  • making stuff easy to react to

Source: turbopuffer careers (Ashby)

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