Colin Jarvis, head of forward-deployed engineering at OpenAI, discussed his team’s mission on the "Altimeter Capital" podcast, revealing how they help major organizations transition from AI hype to real-world implementation. The team, still relatively small with 39 engineers and plans to grow to 52 by year-end, embeds directly within client companies to tailor AI solutions to specific workflows. OpenAI has posted 24 job openings for forward-deployed engineers across the U.S., Europe, and Japan, with top U.S. salaries reaching $345,000 plus equity. The term “forward-deployed engineer” originated at Palantir and refers to technical experts who work on-site with clients to adapt software to complex, real-world environments. When ChatGPT launched in 2022, it generated massive excitement but little immediate practical value for enterprises. Many companies struggled to integrate the technology into their operations. Jarvis explained that the most effective solution was direct collaboration—sending engineers into client organizations to understand their processes and co-develop usable systems. One of the team’s earliest and most notable projects was with Morgan Stanley, one of OpenAI’s first enterprise clients to deploy GPT-4. While the technical setup took six to eight weeks, gaining trust from financial advisors took much longer—another four months of pilot testing, feedback collection, and iterative improvements. Ultimately, about 98% of the advisors adopted the tool. Another project involved a European semiconductor company where the team built a “debug investigation and triage agent” to identify and resolve chip failures. They discovered engineers spent 70% to 80% of their time debugging, so the AI agent was designed to streamline that process, significantly improving efficiency. Jarvis emphasized that the team’s goal is not to generate services revenue but to create reusable product playbooks and accelerate production-ready AI deployments—whether launching a brand-new application or scaling an existing one. The initiative was formally launched in January when Jarvis announced his leadership role on LinkedIn, stating the team’s mission is to help customers move from concept to production. Since then, OpenAI has expanded its forward-deployed presence across San Francisco, New York, Dublin, London, Paris, Munich, and Singapore. Oliver Jay, OpenAI’s international managing director, highlighted the model’s strategic importance at the Fortune Brainstorm AI 2025 conference in Singapore, calling it a “really specific way to advance the acceleration of advanced AI into scale production cases.” The approach is gaining traction among investors. Y Combinator partner Diana Hu noted on the “Y Combinator” podcast that founders using this model have closed deals worth six to seven figures with major corporations. YC CEO Garry Tan added that forward-deployed engineering gives AI startups a competitive edge, enabling them to outperform industry giants like Salesforce, Oracle, and Booz Allen in securing enterprise partnerships.