The independent guide to Forward Deployed Engineering
Understand and land Forward Deployed Engineer roles
What the role really is, the AI-production and customer craft it demands, how the interview loops actually work, and where the jobs and pay are. Sourced from public loops, named deployments, and the companies hiring today.
For mid-senior SWEs · sourced from public loops and real deployments · updated July 2026
Start where you are
Pick the path that matches your next step
Every path leads into the same curriculum. The full map is at the bottom of this page, and the same sections sit in the header and the sidebar of every lesson.
New to the role
Start with what an FDE is
The definition, where the role came from, and what the week-to-week work actually involves.
Opens What is an FDE?
New to AI apps
Build the vocabulary first
Start with foundations, then learn why evals are the production habit that matters.
Opens AI Systems
Interview soon
Run the loop
Learn what gets graded, then move straight into the round drills.
Opens Interview Practice
Need evidence
Create a credible on-ramp
Shape real work into the kind of production evidence an FDE loop can believe.
Opens Customer Outcomes
Weighing the role
See who's hiring and what it pays
Which companies hire FDEs, the adjacent titles to search, and how to compare an offer.
Opens Career & Comparisons
Not sure? Take the 90-minute tour.
Seven short reads: the role, the interview shape, one real drill, the production-AI core, and the evidence bar.
Why trust it
Built from the public record, honest about its limits
Cited, not asserted
Claims trace to primary sources: first-hand FDE accounts, The Pragmatic Engineer’s reporting, and an analysis of ~1,000 FDE job postings. Volatile facts carry “as of” dates.
Real deployments, not hypotheticals
The case studies are named engagements: Morgan Stanley × OpenAI, John Deere’s See & Spray, and Airbus × Palantir.
What it can’t do
It can make you interview-ready; it cannot manufacture production evidence for you. Where the record is thin, or where a source has an interest in the answer, the site says so.
Field notes
Get the next FDE prep update
Periodic notes on interview drills, production AI habits, and new pages in the curriculum.
The full map
Everything in the curriculum
AI Systems
Customer Outcomes
Interview Practice
Real Deployments
Career & Comparisons
Field Notes
