What are Forward Deployed Engineers, and why are they so in demand?

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One interesting trend in the AI startup segment this year is the rise to prominence of a specialized software engineering role called “Forward Deployed Engineer” (FDE.) It has even been dubbed “the hottest job in tech” by venture capital (VC) firm, a16z.

An FDE does a mix of software, sales, and platform engineering, and the role has seen a major recruitment uptick since around the start of the year, fuelled by the need for integrating AI solutions. But it’s not just AI startups hiring for this position.

Today, we look into FDEs, covering:

1. What’s a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)? A software engineer who alternates between being embedded with customer teams and core product engineering teams. It can be a tricky job!

2. Origins. Until 2016, Palantir had more FDEs (which it called “Deltas”) than software engineers. No other company has shaped this role more than the secretive tech company.

3. The role at OpenAI. Established at the ChatGTP maker earlier this year, where it is differentiated from the professional services-type job of Solution Architect.

4. FDEs At Ramp. Put in place 9 months ago, Ramp has around 15 FDEs in pods who work according to four core operating principles.

5. Why so hot now? Integrating LLMs and AI-based products is a perfect use case for the role, while Palantir’s business success is linked to FDEs.

6. FDEs vs Solutions Engineers (SE) and Agent Engineers (AE). There are similarities, but FDEs are usually expected to contribute more to the core product.

7. FDE careers. How to hire FDEs, compensation, and potential career progression.

Thank you to Colin Jarvis (Head of FDE at OpenAI), Leo Mehr (heading up FDE at Ramp) and Anjor Kanekar (formerly an FDE for 7 years at Palantir) for their input. Anjor is currently open for advisory roles in structuring or hiring for FDEs – contact him for details.

1. What’s a Forward Deployed Engineer?

Job adverts for FDEs describe a few main characteristics:

Software engineering basics. Almost every recruiter seeks a solid software engineering background, and some real-world experience to show that the fundamentals are in place. Ramp prefers 5+ years of experience for Senior FDE roles, but does hire some exceptional new grads as FDEs. Palantir hires people with as little as a year of post-college work experience, while healthcare startup Commure, and industrial AI startup Matta, each value real-world experience of building and shipping projects from start to finish.

Collaborate with Sales to close customers. Many startups employing FDEs use them to help win customers. Basically, when a customer is undecided on whether they can effectively use a product, Sales offers to provide an FDE to help them successfully integrate it. Here’s how Ramp puts it in a job ad:

“Collaborate closely with our sales and go-to-market teams to close exciting deals, activate customers, and expand the value Ramp provides over time”.

Embed into customers’ teams. As an OpenAI advert says, “As an FDE, you’ll embed with customers, understand their domain, and co-develop solutions to tackle real problems in often undefined or evolving problem spaces”.

It’s pretty standard that the job involves travelling to customers to sit alongside them a few times. Palantir expects around 25% of FDEs’ time to be spent onsite with customers, and healthcare AI company Commure estimates up to 50%.

For businesses that work with unusual customers, this can involve working in harder-to-access work environments. For example, industrial AI startup Matta expects FDEs to “scope out solutions on the factory floor”. When at Palantir, former FDE Anjor Kanekar says he was on the final assembly line at aerospace manufacturer Airbus, and that many of his peer FDEs worked in similarly unconventional environments, including airgapped ones. Not typical workplaces!

Contribute to the core product, and embed with core product engineering teams. As Ramp describes, FDEs are expected to:

“Drive their core product engineering roadmap and make important prioritization and scoping decisions that determine when we build custom solutions vs. accelerate larger existing projects. Ramp’s team uses an embedding model where FDEs embed within core product engineering teams to develop expertise in the most relevant technical areas”.

Help customers succeed. The core of the role is to make customers successful by building on top of a company’s product offering. As robotics startup Gecko Robotics phrases it: “[FDEs] search for the highest-impact problems we can find, we spend a lo