What is an FDE?
Forward Deployed Engineers, or FDEs, help organizations build and deploy AI systems they can rely on every day across their most important work.
Successful AI deployment is about empowering people and teams to do more. Forward Deployed Engineers, or FDEs, are engineers specialized in frontier AI deployment who embed into organizations working on complex problems in demanding environments. These FDEs work closely with business leaders, operators, and frontline teams to identify where AI can make the biggest impact, redesign organizational infrastructure and critical workflows around it, and turn those gains into durable systems.
Why deployment matters
Building powerful AI models is only part of the work. Real impact comes from helping organizations use those systems safely, effectively, and at scale.
Over the past several years, more than one million businesses have adopted products and APIs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI providers. Across those deployments, one pattern has become increasingly clear: the next stage of enterprise AI will be defined by how effectively businesses can deploy this technology into real-world use cases, and how well teams can support adoption across the organization.
As models become more capable, businesses can apply AI to larger, more important parts of how they operate. The work now is helping organizations rethink critical workflows around intelligence that can reason, act, and deliver measurable results.
Building for where frontier AI is headed
Staying close to the frontier is a major advantage. Combined FDEs build for where AI capabilities are headed, giving customers systems designed to improve as new models, tools, and deployment patterns come online. Customers can move faster from day one, spend capital on durable systems, and stay ahead of competitors by building around the capabilities that are coming next.
FDEs work alongside business leaders, technology leaders, operators, and frontline teams to rethink critical operations, processes, and workflows from the ground up. Their role is to help organizations move from identifying high-value AI opportunities to building production systems that deliver measurable results.
A typical FDE engagement begins with a focused diagnostic of where AI can create the most value, followed by a small number of priority workflows selected with the customer’s leadership and operating teams. FDEs then work inside the organization to design, build, test, and deploy production systems, connecting AI models to the customer’s data, tools, controls, and business processes so teams can use them reliably in day-to-day work.
Accelerating deployment from day one
FDEs bring deep experience building and operating real-time AI systems in complex enterprise environments. Their work spans mission-critical workflows where reliability, integration, governance, and measurable business impact matter from the start.
FDEs help customers move from use case selection to production deployment faster. They help connect AI models to customers’ data, tools, controls, and core business processes, accelerating the ability to deploy AI systems that work in day-to-day operations.