What is a forward deployed engineer?
An FDE is a product engineer who ships with the customer — on-site or hybrid — instead of only shipping from the office. Right now we track 1,909 open roles across 85 companies.
The short definition
Forward deployed engineers embed with customers to deploy, integrate, and customize software in production. You write code, debug real environments, earn trust with non-engineering stakeholders, and push what you learn back into the product. The job sits between core engineering and classic professional services — with a product bias, not a billable-hours bias.
What you actually do
Week to week, FDEs tend to:
- Stand up integrations against messy customer systems (auth, data pipelines, SSO, air-gapped networks)
- Own a deployment until it is used — not just demoed
- Translate field constraints into product tickets and design feedback
- Train and unblock customer engineers without becoming permanent staff-aug
- Travel or sit hybrid when the work demands it (76% of listings on this board read as on-site today)
Titles that mean roughly the same thing
Companies rename the role constantly. On this board, useful search terms include forward deployed engineer, deployment engineer, field engineer, forward deployed software engineer, and sometimes solutions engineer when the description is implementation-heavy. Start at the FDE hub, then try deployment and solutions filters.
How FDE differs from nearby roles
Solutions architects design the fit; FDEs make the fit run. Classic consultants optimize for engagement scope; FDEs optimize for product adoption and durable deployments. SRE/platform roles own reliability inside one company; FDEs borrow those skills and apply them inside someone else’s environment. Full comparison: FDE vs solutions architect.
Skills that show up in hiring
Strong FDE loops look for people who can code under constraints, explain tradeoffs in plain language, and stay calm when production is ugly. Common signals: shipping integrations, owning ambiguous customer projects, comfort with security/compliance environments, and writing that makes stakeholders move. AI-lab flavors of the role need model/product fluency too — see AI FDE skills.
Who hires FDEs
AI labs, defense tech, data platforms, and enterprise SaaS companies that sell complex software. Live leaders on this feed: Databricks, OpenAI, Palantir, Stripe, Zscaler, Datadog. Full snapshot: State of FDE Hiring.
Compensation and location
Pay and geo vary hard by company and clearance. We publish what the jobs themselves list — see FDE salary and where FDEs work.
How to use this board
No login. Browse open FDE roles, filter by company or city, and apply on the company careers page. Listings refresh from public ATS feeds (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, and others).