Joshua Vaz
FDE maxing · checklist

Forward deployed engineer, explained

The title is spreading faster than the definition. Here is what the job involves on a normal week, stripped of the job-description language.

What is on it

  • You build in the customer's environment, not in yours
  • You are the first person to see the requirement, not the fourth
  • Half the work is translation, not code
  • You ship something small on week one, always
  • You stay long enough to watch it break
  • You carry the product team's constraints into the room
  • You carry the customer's reality back out of it
  • You are measured on their outcome, not your output
  • It is not consulting: you own the thing afterwards
  • It is not sales engineering: the demo is real code

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Preview of Forward deployed engineer, explained