The hottest job in AI right now isn’t building models; it’s deploying them. The AI talent war has found its newest and hottest catch: the forward deployed engineer (FDE).
Once a niche role, FDEs have become the industry’s most coveted hires with companies like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Cognition offering compensation between $350,000 and $550,000. Google has reduced the FDE hiring cycle to just two days and two interviews, highlighting the immediate need to fill up positions. Typically, the hiring process could take more than a month at top tech companies. OpenAI and Anthropic, meanwhile, are relying on FDEs to grow their services ventures.
