Principal Forward Deployed Creative Technologist
Explicitly requires vibe-coding skills; uses Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot and other AI assistants daily and emphasizes prompt engineering and AI tooling.
About the Role
Principal Forward Deployed Creative Technologist at Adobe leading the hardest customer engagements by combining deep creative craft with production engineering, C-suite communication, and public-facing influence. The role sets architectural direction for creative content supply chains, mentors the FDCT bench, demos and ships production solutions, and influences Adobe product roadmaps.
Job Description
Role
Principal Forward Deployed Creative Technologist (FDCT) responsible for owning top-tier, strategic customer engagements and setting the technical and creative bar for the Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) organization. Acts as the technical and creative anchor: leads multi-system integrations, architects content supply-chain solutions, closes and renews C-suite deals, mentors the FDCT bench, and represents Adobe externally.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the most complex, strategic customer engagements and be the first to land new-vertical or high-visibility accounts.
- Set architecture, technology choices, and reusable patterns for the FDCT organization; defend and iterate on those decisions.
- Hold the C-suite room—translate technical and AI-driven content-supply-chain ideas into business outcomes that enable deals and renewals.
- Mentor and grow FDCT practitioners through live sessions, code reviews, and internal masterclasses.
- Translate ambiguous customer briefs into working workflows, integrating services such as Firefly Services APIs, Workflow Builder nodes, custom plugins, Figma integrations, and multi-system orchestration.
- Produce and deliver reference demos (script, produce, edit) that become organizational exemplars.
- Influence Adobe product roadmaps by bringing field signal into product, engineering, and research discussions.
- Serve as a public-facing representative: speak at conferences, write for Adobe channels, host demos, and attract talent.
Requirements
- 12+ years of combined creative production and technical engineering experience at scale.
- Public portfolio (link or PDF) showing shipped creative and technical artifacts, plus at least one named-reputation marker (e.g., Adobe MAX, SIGGRAPH, book authorship, major campaign credit, industry award, indie tool with large user base, public patent).
- Proven track record of setting technical or creative direction and demonstrating measurable “before/after” impact.
- Deep fluency in creative content supply chains at an architect level (brand systems, design tokens, master-to-variant pipelines, DAM / Workfront / Frame.io integrations, agency-brand handoffs).
- Mastery of Firefly Services and Workflow Builder; familiarity with Adobe ecosystem components (AEM, Workfront, Frame.io, App Builder) and Figma plugin/API integration.
- Daily use of AI-assisted coding and prompt engineering (vibe-coding) with tools like Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot; ability to evaluate and guard against bad AI output.
- Hands-on tinkering with creative automation tooling (ComfyUI, n8n, LangGraph, custom node ecosystems).
- Strong customer orientation, C-suite presence, high emotional intelligence, mentor instinct, extreme ownership, and willingness to travel ~20–30%.
What We Are Not Looking For
- Single-track careers focused solely on software engineering without creative depth, or solely on creative direction without shipping engineering work.
- ML/AI researchers focused on frontier-model R&D rather than customer outcomes.
- Senior ICs without experience setting direction.
Compensation
- U.S. pay range listed: $190,200 – $360,500 annually. (California range: $248,900 – $360,500.)