Forward Deployed Engineering Leader

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 Cohesity's platform capabilities translate into production outcomes and measurable business value. 

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who is equally comfortable in setting 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 Cohesity's Top 200 accounts. 

HOW YOU’LL SPEND YOUR TIME HERE: 

Team Leadership & Scale 

• Lead, develop, and grow a team of Forward 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 Cohesity's 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 adoption, utilization, 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 patterns optimized for performance, resilience, and long-term manageability 

• Identify and address both technical and organizational blockers impacting customer 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 to churn in 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 

WE’D 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 

• Strong track record diagnosing 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