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Forward Deployed Engineer Jobs

Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) embed with customers and build custom solutions on top of a platform — production code against the customer's systems, not configuration. Palantir made the title well known; the AI labs and the enterprise data platforms are now the ones hiring hardest for it. Every verified FDE and deployed-engineering role is here in one place, classified from the posting itself rather than the title on it.

430 verified roles
Forward Deployed Partner Architect
Workday · USA, CA, Remote; USA, NJ, Remote; USA Remote; USA, WA, Remote; USA, TX, Remote; USA, NY, Remote; USA, MD, Remote; USA, IL, Remote; USA, MA, Remote; USA, CT, Remote; USA, DC, Remote; USA, UT, Remote; USA, VA, Remote; USA, NC, Remote; USA, MN, Remote; USA, FL, Remote; USA, GA, Remote; USA, TN, Remote; USA, CA, Pleasanton; USA, CO, Remote
Forward Deployed EngineerSolutions Architect
$162K – $243KHybridTravel 25–50%
26d
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What a Forward Deployed Engineer actually does

A Forward Deployed Engineer sits between a platform and the customer deploying it. The work is real engineering — production code, integrations, data modelling — but it happens inside the customer's problem rather than inside a product roadmap. Palantir made the title well known; AI labs and enterprise platforms adopted it as frontier models moved from demonstrations into production systems.

The defining feature is proximity. An FDE is embedded with the account: on their systems, in their meetings, against their deadlines. That produces a much shorter feedback loop than product engineering and a much higher tolerance for ambiguity, because the specification is usually discovered rather than handed over.

It is not a support role and not a pre-sales role, though it borders both. Most FDE postings expect production code and carry no quota — which is the clearest test when a title is ambiguous.

Day to day

  • Building integrations and pipelines against a customer's existing stack
  • Prototyping a workflow with a customer team, then hardening what survives
  • Turning a vague business problem into something the platform can do
  • Feeding recurring customer needs back to product as real requirements
  • Embedded or on-site work, with travel that varies sharply by employer

What hiring teams screen for

  • Python
  • TypeScript or another application language
  • SQL and data modelling
  • API and integration design
  • Distributed systems fundamentals
  • Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
  • LLM application patterns, increasingly
  • Working directly with customer stakeholders

Common questions

Is a Forward Deployed Engineer a real engineering job?
For most postings, yes — they expect production code, not configuration. The title does get applied loosely, which is the reason this board scores every posting for coding intensity and customer-facing time instead of trusting the title.
How much travel does an FDE role involve?
It ranges from none to most weeks, and the title tells you nothing. Travel expectations are extracted from each posting into a band, so you can filter to what you will actually accept.
What is the difference between an FDE and a Solutions Architect?
An FDE builds; a Solutions Architect designs and reviews. In practice the two overlap heavily, and some employers use the titles interchangeably — so the scores on each posting are more reliable than the title on it.
Do FDE roles pay like product engineering roles?
At most employers they are benchmarked against the equivalent product engineering level, and some add a variable component. Where a posting publishes a range, it is shown on that job's page.

Related roles

Forward Deployed Engineer Jobs — 430 Open Roles | DeployedJobs