Forward deployed engineering (FDE) is seeing a major resurgence driven by Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Google Cloud is aggressively hiring FDEs with a streamlined two-interview process. OpenAI launched a standalone Deployment Company backed by $4B in private equity and acquired UK-based Tomoro (150 FDEs) as its first acquisition. Anthropic is similarly creating an external FDE consulting entity backed by Blackstone and Goldman Sachs. The author argues the modern FDE role is essentially a consultant or solutions architect role — heavy on integration and customer hand-holding, light on greenfield engineering — and that FDEs at these outsourced entities won't share in the upside if the AI labs succeed. Despite this, FDE roles represent a genuine opportunity for early-career engineers who want real-world experience, a big-name resume entry, and exposure to AI deployment. Demand is expected to grow industry-wide as AI rollouts accelerate.
