How many Forward Deployed Engineer jobs are open?

We currently track 271 active Forward Deployed Engineer job postings from 11 companies (dataset: public employer career pages, updated Sep 29, 2026).

What skills does a Forward Deployed Engineer need?

The most requested skills in current Forward Deployed Engineer postings are: Evaluation, Python, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Spark.

Forward Deployed Engineer

Ships AI products directly with customers, working on-site or embedded to deploy real systems fast.

Also seen as: FDE, Forward-Deployed Software Engineer, Forward Deployed AI Engineer, Deployment Engineer

271

open jobs tracked

companies hiring

remote openings

$152K–300K

advertised range

Market status: emerging · Last updated Sep 29, 2026 · Source: public employer job postings tracked by AI Career Observatory

What does a Forward Deployed Engineer do?

Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) work embedded with customers to design, build and ship AI solutions against real-world constraints. The role blends software engineering, applied AI, solution architecture and customer facing work. Responsibilities commonly include rapid prototyping, integrating models into customer systems, handling data pipelines and turning customer needs into production deployments.

Job titles we classify into this role

Real, current titles from tracked postings — role names vary by employer; this is what a Forward Deployed Engineer actually looks like in the market right now.

Sr. Manager, AI Forward Deployed Engineering Databricks
Deployment Strategist - US Government Palantir
Forward Deployed Software Engineer - US Government Palantir
Sr. Engagement Manager, FDE Databricks
Technical Program Manager, FDE Databricks
Sr. Deployment Strategist, FDE - Communications, Media, Entertainment & Gaming Databricks
Sr. Deployment Strategist, FDE - Digital Native Business Databricks
Sr. Deployment Strategist, FDE - Financial Services Databricks

Title variants normalized into this role: FDE · Forward-Deployed Software Engineer · Forward Deployed AI Engineer · Deployment Engineer — plus employer-specific patterns matched with evidence. See classification methodology.