Manager, Forward Deployed Creative Technologist
Adobe
San Jose, California
Full-Time
$147,900
RemoteManager
Every global brand is now a content factory — thousands of on-brand variations a quarter across static, video, and 3D, shipped in days not weeks. We embed with enterprise customers, learn their content supply chain end-to-end, and build the custom AI-powered workflows that get them there — on Adobe Firefly Services, Firefly Creative Production (our node-based workflow builder), and Adobe Brand Intelligence (ABI) for brand validation and compliance.
Here'sthe whole job: by the time your team arrives, the deal is signed — but the creatives and marketers whohave tousewhat we sold never signed up for it. Nobody can mandate adoption; your teamhas toearnit, account after account, against people who already have tools they like.That'swhat makes an enterprise customer renew instead ofchurn— and you did it yourself before you ever managed anyone.
You lead from the front as a hands-on player-coach. About half your week,you'rein the code, in customer rooms, and in demos.Theother half, you hire people better than you, coach them to earn adoption the way you do, and make the bench sharper every quarter.
We are not pre-sales. We are not consultants. We are technical creators who ship — and who getused.
Earn adoption — and build a team that does itagain and again.When anengagement stalls— a dark stakeholder, a product gap, a roomful of skeptics —you'vedone this yourself, and you coach your ICs through it. When the strategic deal is at risk, you fly in. Your team measures itself in adoption and renewals, not features shipped.
Stay hands-on.Take the hardest engagement alongside your team, write the reference workflow others learn from, and ship it yourself.
Hirebetter thanyourself, andgrow them.Raise the bar with every hire. Run real 1:1s, set explicit expectations, and make the hard calls early — promote, redirect, or coach out — and document them. Every ICmorecapable in 12 months; name the specific move you made.
Clear the blockers your teamcan't.Turn recurring product gaps into roadmap influence, chase cross-team dependencies until they move, and feed real field signal back toAdobeproduct and engineering.
Build the playbook.Reusable patterns from your team's engagements become shared templates and upstream Workflow Builder nodes. The next pod moves faster because of whatyourslearned.
The bar — what we filter hardest for:
You earn adoption against resistance — andyou'vedone it yourself.Won over the user whodidn'twant your tool, found another way in when a stakeholder went dark, turneda roomful of skeptics into repeat users through the workshop or live build. When the strategic deal is at risk,you'rethe one who flies in. You measure yourself — and your team — in adoption and renewals, not features shipped.
You build a team that does itagain and again.You hire and coach for activation grit, not just craft. Turning a passive stakeholder into an excited repeat userisn'ta one-off you pulled off once —it'sthe thing your whole bench does, account afteraccount.
Hands-on — builder and creative, not just a manager:
You still build it yourself.Production code in the last 6 months — andyou'llbe initthe next6.Ifyou'vedrifted into purepeoplemanagement, thisisn'tyour role.
Creative contentsupply-chaincraft.Briefs to assets, brandsystemsand design tokens,mastersto channel variants, the Figma / PSD / INDD → DAM → review-and-approval handoff. You read your team's engagements at architect depth.
A public portfolio(link or PDF at application) — shipped creativeandtechnical work you personally did, not justmanaged. Hard requirement; no portfolio, no review.
Management craft — proven, with evidence:
You hire, grow, andperformance-manage for real.You'vehired ICs, run PIPs, made promotion calls that stuck, navigated cross-functional conflict, coached someone out, and grown 2–3 ICs who are now more senior because of you. Names and specific moves on request.
Force multipliers — real, but teachable:
Firefly Services, Firefly Creative Production, and Adobe Brand Intelligence fluency— you know what the field is hitting before your ICs tell you. Adobe ecosystem (AEM, Workfront, Frame.io, App Builder) and Figma plugin/API/MCP depth are pluses.
AI-native building with judgment.You set the AI-native bar for your team — Cursor / Claude Code / Copilot daily, and you catch when the output is wrong. You explore the frontier (ComfyUI, n8n,LangGraph, MCPs) to stay sharp.
High EQ, low ego. 8–12yearsstraddling creative production and technical building. Travel 15–25%.
Managers who ship features, not adoption.Your teamdelivers,you call it done, and whether anyoneactually usedit — or whether the account renewed — was someone else's problem.
Out-of-balance managers— either no production code in 18+ months ("pure people manager"), orhiding behind your team's code instead of developing them ("I'd rather just code"). The role is 50/50.
Senior ICs with no managementtrack record.This needs evidence of hiring, performance management, and growth — not just being a greatseniorIC.
PMs / program managers / consultants— every leader here writes codeandproduces creative work themselves.
"I'll build my portfolio later."Not readyatapplication? Come back when it is.
About Adobe
Adobe empowers everyone to create through innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity, productivity and personalized customer experiences. Adobe’s industry-leading offerings including Adobe Acrobat Studio, Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, Creative Cloud, Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Manager, and GenStudio enable people and businesses to turn ideas into impact, powered by AI and driven by human ingenuity.
Our 30,000+ employees worldwide are creating the future and raising the bar as we drive the next decade of growth. We’re on a mission to hire the very best and believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. At Adobe, we believe that great ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. The next big idea could be yours.
Let’s Adobe together
At Adobe, we believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. Learn more about Adobe life, including our values and culture, focus on people, purpose and community, Adobe for All, comprehensive benefits programs, the stories we tell, the customers we serve, and how you can help us advance our mission of empowering everyone to create.
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AI Use Guidelines for Interviews:
Our interviews are designed to reflect your own skills and thinking. The use of AI or recording tools during live interviews is not permitted unless explicitly invited by the interviewer or approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation. If these tools are used inappropriately or in a way that misrepresents your work, your application may not move forward in the process.
At Adobe, we empower employees to innovate with AI — and we look for candidates eager to do the same. As part of the hiring experience, we provide clear guidance on where AI is encouraged during the process and where it’s restricted during live interviews. See how we think about AI in the hiring experience.
Expected Pay Range:
Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $147,900 -- $293,250 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process. In California, the pay range for this position is $202,500 - $293,250At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).
In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.
State-Specific Notices:
California:
Fair Chance Ordinances
Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.
Colorado:
Application Window Notice
If this role is open to hiring in Colorado (as listed on the job posting), the application window will remain open until at least the date and time stated above in Pacific Time, in compliance with Colorado pay transparency regulations. If this role does not have Colorado listed as a hiring location, no specific application window applies, and the posting may close at any time based on hiring needs.
Massachusetts:
Massachusetts Legal Notice
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.