Insight

What Is an FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer)? | A Beginner's Explanation of the Job, Seven Secrets for Drawing Out Insight on Site, and Why We Openly Work FDE-Style

A Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) is an engineer who sits next to the customer and does the development and implementation needed to get their company's product running in production on the customer's site. Palantir started it, a16z called it "the hottest job in startups" in 2025, and in 2026 OpenAI set up a deployment company while Accenture launched an FDE practice in Japan. This article explains the job for first-timers by comparing it with pre-sales engineers, consultants and on-site contractors, lays out seven concrete secrets for drawing insight out of the field, and sets out why TIMEWELL openly works FDE-style and what a receiving company needs to prepare.