Tech Lead Manager, Forward Deployed Applications
Multiscale
IT
Boise, ID, USA
Posted on Dec 9, 2025
Tech Lead Manager, Forward Deployed Applications
Boise - Client Site
Delivery
In office
Full-time
Position Title: Tech Lead Manager, Forward Deployed Applications
Location: Boise, ID
Type: On-site, Full-time
Department: Forward Deployed Engineering
About Multiscale AI: Multiscale AI provides advanced AI solutions for Semiconductor Manufacturing Process Optimization (SMPO). With offices in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Hyderabad, we help semiconductor manufacturers optimize fabs and achieve measurable business results.
The Role: We are seeking a Tech Lead Manager to lead our Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team, based in Boise, Idaho and working onsite at semiconductor manufacturing customer premises.
This is not a back-office management role. You will spend your day-to-day working at customer sites, leading a team of forward deployed engineers who build and operate data-driven applications on top of Multiscale’s data platform and AppHub. Your primary responsibility is technical: ensuring that the solutions we deliver are robust, scalable, secure, and genuinely valuable for our customers’ business.
You will partner closely with Multiscale’s Delivery organization (solution engineers and project managers). Delivery owns program management, customer communication cadence, and broader stakeholder alignment. You own the technical direction, the quality of the implementation, and the leadership of the engineers doing the work. When technical trade-offs, risks, or escalations arise, you are the senior technical voice in the room.
This role is ideal for someone who has been a hands-on tech lead or engineering manager in a forward deployed or deeply customer-embedded environment and wants to stay close to the code while running a high-pace delivery team. As our customer footprint grows, this role may include travel to additional customer locations beyond Boise.
Key Responsibilities:
Technical Leadership and Delivery Ownership
- Own the technical quality and end-to-end outcomes of applications delivered by the Forward Deployed Engineering team, including correctness, reliability, performance, and user adoption.
- All apps are Docker-containerized micro-services written in Python frameworks such as Streamlit, Gradio, and FastAPI, plugging seamlessly into our Advanced AI Platform.
- Review and guide application and system architectures that integrate Multiscale’s data platform, AppHub, backend services, and customer systems.
- Make clear trade-offs between speed, robustness, and long-term maintainability in a fast-moving delivery environment.
- Provide hands-on technical support: participate in code reviews, help debug complex integration and production issues, and pair with engineers on hard problems when needed.
- Ensure solutions are built with appropriate security, observability, and operational readiness for high-stakes manufacturing environments.
- Define and enforce coding standards, design patterns, and testing practices for the forward deployed team based in Boise.
- Identify recurring patterns from deployments and turn them into reusable components, templates, tools, and structured feedback into the AppHub and platform roadmap.
- Spot early warning signs in product behavior, customer environments, or team execution and act quickly to address them.
People Management
- Directly manage a team of forward-deployed engineers (junior and senior), providing regular 1:1s, coaching, feedback, and performance management.
- Set clear expectations, goals, and growth plans for each engineer, balancing technical depth, autonomy, and delivery outcomes.
- Raise the bar for the team through clarity of priorities and standards rather than heavy process.
- Create an environment where engineers can move fast without compromising quality or burning out.
- Partner with recruiting to hire additional engineers; own the technical onboarding and ramp-up for new team members.
- Help define how forward-deployed teams are staffed and supported as customer engagements expand, ensuring the model can scale without unnecessary complexity.
Customer and Stakeholder Partnership
- Work onsite with customer engineers and domain experts to deeply understand requirements, constraints, and success criteria.
- Act as the technical counterpart to Multiscale’s Delivery organization, collaborating closely with solution engineers and project managers who own the program plan and customer communication.
- Join key customer meetings as the technical lead to clarify feasibility, highlight risks, and explain technical decisions and trade-offs.
- Build trust with customer stakeholders by operating calmly under pressure, being transparent about risks, and consistently following through on commitments.
- Communicate technical status, issues, and decisions in a clear, concise way that both technical and non-technical stakeholders can understand.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Collaborate with Multiscale’s Product and Platform/Data Platform teams to align on data models, APIs, integration points, and platform capabilities.
- Provide structured, field-driven feedback into product and platform roadmaps, highlighting reusable patterns, common pain points, and opportunities for leverage.
- Help codify best practices, reference architectures, and playbooks that can be reused across forward deployed projects and customers.
High-Pace Execution and Process Improvement
- Operate in a high-paced, often ambiguous environment, maintaining momentum while managing technical risk.
- Work with Delivery to build realistic plans and then own the technical execution against those plans.
- Proactively identify delivery and technical risks early and drive mitigation plans before they impact timelines or quality.
- Make fast, sound decisions under pressure, while being willing to adjust course when new information emerges.
- Continuously improve the team’s ways of working (development workflows, CI/CD, metrics, retrospectives) to keep the team fast and effective without excessive process overhead.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Total of 7+ Years of experience with 3–4+ years of experience in a Technical Lead, Tech Lead Manager, or Engineering Manager capacity, leading software engineers in a fast-paced environment. 3–4+ years of hands-on software development experience building production systems (for example, in Python, JavaScript, or similar).
- At least 1–2 years working in a forward deployed, embedded, or directly customer-facing engineering capacity (e.g., forward deployed engineer, implementation engineer, consulting engineer, or similar).
- Experience managing both junior and senior engineers, including performance feedback, growth coaching, and hiring involvement.
- Proven track record of delivering complex software projects end-to-end in a high-pace environment with evolving requirements and high visibility.
- Demonstrated experience working directly with customers while partnering with solution engineers, delivery leads, or project managers.
- Strong background in building data-centric applications, including working with APIs, databases, and data pipelines.
- Experience building end-to-end applications with Python backends and simple web frontends (e.g., Streamlit-style data apps, dashboards, or lightweight web UIs), and ability to review, validate, and discuss frontend implementation and UX with engineers.
- Strong judgment in ambiguous situations and experience leading high-pressure projects from prototypes through production.
- Ability to write and review production-grade code in at least one modern language (e.g., Python or TypeScript/JavaScript).
- Ability and willingness to work 5 days per week onsite at customer premises in the Boise, ID area and to travel to other customer sites as needed.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Prior experience in a forward-deployed or field engineering role at a data, AI, or infrastructure company.
- Exposure to semiconductor manufacturing, micro-electronics, or other industrial domains.
- Strong Python skills with experience in FastAPI or Flask.
- Solid understanding of SQL/NoSQL databases, API design, Docker, and Git.
- Experience with at least one major cloud provider (Azure, AWS, or GCP).
- Familiarity with ML pipelines and working with domain-specific datasets.
- Experience influencing platforms and product roadmaps based on learnings from customer deployments.
Benefits:
- Competitive salary and equity options.
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
- Flexible paid time off.
- Opportunity to work with a cutting-edge team in AI and semiconductor technology.
Multiscale AI is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
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Req ID: R1