Three jobs, one title: not every 'FDE' is an FDE

When companies hire a forward-deployed engineer, they’re usually looking for someone who can take an AI solution from prototype to production inside their business.

As demand for FDEs has grown, though, the title has come to cover several different jobs, and only one of them includes that work. Two engineers with the same title can spend their days on very different things, so the title alone won’t tell you what you’re getting.

Below, we break down the three types of forward-deployed engineers, how to tell them apart, and which one your team needs.

What is a forward-deployed engineer?

A forward-deployed engineer (FDE) is a software engineer who works directly with a specific customer to build and deploy a solution in that customer's environment. FDEs write production code, connect AI tools to legacy systems and data pipelines, and stay with the work until it delivers real outcomes.

The role started at Palantir, which hires for it under the title forward deployed software engineer. Palantir sums up the difference between its product engineers and its FDEs simply: product engineers work on “one capability, many customers,” while FDEs work on “one customer, many capabilities.”

That split is the heart of the FDE model. Most software follows a product model: one product company builds one platform for many customers. Forward deployment flips that. The core engineering team builds the platform, and the FDE makes it work for one business.

For a full breakdown of the role, read What Is a Forward-Deployed Engineer?

Why does the FDE title cover so many different jobs?

The short answer is demand. In an analysis of 1,000 FDE job postings, Bloomberry found that postings with the title grew 1,165% from January through October 2025, compared with the same months in 2024.

When a job title gets that popular, companies across the industry start using it for roles they already had. AI has produced new titles before, like prompt engineer, and FDE is the latest to stretch. Bloomberry's analysis found three distinct types of roles behind it.

What are the types of forward-deployed engineers?

Most FDE postings fall into one of three groups. They differ in who the engineer serves, what they produce, and how much of the job is writing code.

Source: Bloomberry analysis of 1,000 forward-deployed engineer job postings.

The builder FDE 

This is the role as Palantir defined it, and the one most enterprises mean when they say they need an FDE.

A builder FDE sits with and talks to the people doing the work: the claims adjuster, the compliance officer, the support engineer. They prototype against real data, write the code that connects AI agents to existing systems, and take the build into production. Along the way, they decide where the agent's work ends, and a person's work begins.

OpenAI's FDE job posting describes the same work. It asks candidates to "write and review production-grade code," "embed closely with customer teams," and share field feedback with research and product teams.

That feedback loop is critical. Builder FDEs see where the core product falls short in a real environment, and product managers can use what they learn to shape what the core engineering team builds next.

The sales-engineer FDE

Many companies have given the FDE title to solutions engineers and sales engineers. Their work centers on technical discovery, building prototypes, and running demos that help a prospect decide whether to buy.

That's valuable work, but it usually ends when the evaluation does. A proof-of-concept that impresses in a demo still needs someone to connect it to legacy systems, handle exceptions, and own the result in production. If the person with the FDE title moves on to the next deal, that work falls back on your team.

The internal tools FDE 

Some FDE postings describe go-to-market or revenue operations engineers who build automation for their company’s own sales and operations teams. They may write a lot of code, but they don’t work with customers. Bloomberry’s author argues these roles shouldn’t carry the FDE title at all.

Why the difference matters

AI projects often look finished at the demo stage. The harder part starts when the demo meets the reality of legacy systems and messy data. MIT’s NANDA report, as summarized by Virtualization Review, found that about 5% of custom enterprise AI tools reach production.

Closing that gap is the builder FDE's job. If you hire a sales-engineer FDE expecting production delivery, you'll likely end up with more prototypes and the same status quo.

How to tell which type of FDE you're hiring

The job title won't tell you much. Whether you're writing a job description, interviewing candidates, or evaluating a partner, ask these questions instead:

• Who is the customer? A builder FDE works with an external customer or a specific business team. If the main stakeholder is your own sales team, it's an internal tools role.
• How much of the job is writing production code? Ask whether the code runs in the customer's systems or only in a demo.
• When does the work end? A builder FDE stays through deployment and plans the handoff. A sales-focused role usually ends when the deal closes.
• Who owns the outcome? Look for responsibility for a working system and its adoption, not just a successful evaluation.
• How does field feedback reach the product? A good FDE program has a clear path for lessons from the field to reach product managers and engineers.

Don't assume the title signals seniority, either. Bloomberry found that 60% of FDE postings asked for three to five years of experience, so check whether a role calls for senior software engineering levels before you compare candidates or rates.

In interviews, ask candidates to walk through a system they've shipped: what they built, how they worked with the customer, and what happened after launch. Their answers will show quickly whether they've done builder work or mostly pre-sales work.

Decide whether to hire builder FDEs or work with a partner

Once you know you need a builder, decide how to get one. Hiring gives you capacity that stays with your company, but finding engineers who can write production code and work through messy business problems with stakeholders takes time. A partner can embed experienced FDEs sooner, as long as the engagement is built around shipping, not just scoping.

Either way, define the role around the outcome you need, not the title.

How FullStack can help

Our forward-deployed engineers are builders. They embed with your team, work through product discovery with the people who own the problem, and ship custom solutions into production in your systems, from agentic workflows to data integrations. Then they plan the handoff, so your team can own what we build.

^{Want the full picture? Download our free guide, The Forward Deployed Engineer: getting AI from demo to production.}