> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt. # From software engineering to FDE Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/backend-engineer Decide how to connect your software engineering work to a customer's operating problem, and which gap to close first. **1,693** of **2,493** postings ask for software engineering · **808** companies · **1,293** with pay · median **$200,000** · middle half $170,000–$230,000 · read Nov 6, 2026 - Your depth is the reason FDE teams hire software engineers, because the work lands in an environment nobody controls. - The gap is distance from the person who asked, so practise agreeing the problem and the acceptance check. - Expect to work across more layers than your service boundary: cloud deployment, identity, data quality, sometimes model evaluation. - Do not claim AI experience you have not shipped, because not every FDE role requires it. - Check whether your target postings describe production code or configuration work on the [coding data](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/coding). [Creative Chaos](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/creative-chaos) ### [Forward-Deployed Full-stack Engineer (React+Node)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/d34411fb810141a4) Waltham, MA · Cincinnati, OH · +1 more Hybrid Yesterday Pay not posted [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Life Sciences - SF](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/20d2f37618650476) San Francisco, CA Hybrid Yesterday $185,000–$300,000 [Clera](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/clera) ### [Founding Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/17886955cf8079ec) San Francisco, CA · New York, NY Hybrid Yesterday $130,000–$215,000 [Google](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/google) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer IV, Data Cloud, Google Cloud](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/7460c510f62762db) San Francisco, CA · Austin, TX · +5 more 2d ago $207,000–$300,000 [Ingram Micro](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/ingram-micro) ### [Principal Forward Deployed Engineer, Google Cloud](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/2fdc34e1d9832ea5) Irvine, CA 2d ago $133,400–$226,800 [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Life Sciences - NYC](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f19e00cc711f7d8d) New York, NY Hybrid Yesterday $185,000–$300,000 [Thomson Reuters](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/thomson-reuters) ### [Senior Software Engineer - AI, CoCounsel FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/4062210d6364bfec) Frisco, TX · New York, NY · +7 more Hybrid 2d ago $118,400–$253,000 [Databricks](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/databricks) ### [Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer - Public Sector](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/440870dea6def209) Berkeley, CA · Kansas City, MO · +1 more Remote 2d ago $182,000–$250,208 - [See all 1,693 →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?background=software-engineering) ## What carries over The strongest evidence is a service or workflow people depended on: - an API or service you designed and operated - a data model or pipeline supporting a customer or internal workflow - an integration across systems with different schemas, permissions or failure modes - an incident where you found the cause, restored service, and changed the system or the runbook - a release where you added observability, tests, rollout controls or documentation Customers have unusual data sources, restricted networks, and workflows that cannot change quickly. The question is not which framework you have used. It is whether you can make a sound technical decision, explain it to the people who use the system, and maintain the result. ## A practical preparation plan Start with [one project you can explain end to end](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-portfolio-projects). Write down the original request, the users and systems involved, the design choices, the release path, and what happened after launch. Mark which parts you built and which other teams handled. [Rehearse the customer conversation](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-interview-preparation). Explain a technical trade-off in terms of the workflow it protects. Where the requirement is unclear, give the next question you would ask rather than pretending the ambiguity is resolved. Then close one visible gap from the postings you are considering: cloud deployment, a second language, SQL, Kubernetes, observability, or a customer-facing delivery example. A small deployed service with tests and an operational note is better evidence than a list of courses. ## Five questions for the team - Is the role mainly integrations, application development, deployment or model evaluation? - What must a new engineer be able to do in production on the first day? - Who owns the customer requirement when it conflicts with the reusable product? - Who handles incidents and long-term maintenance after delivery? - How much travel and customer time should an individual contributor expect? Stated in the posting ## 1,357 of these 1,693 postings state a minimum number of years, most often 3–5 years. Share of those 1,357. How many years do postings asking for software engineering want? 0–2 years 9.9%, 3–5 years 52.8%, 6–9 years 29.8%, 10+ years 7.5%. - 0–2 years 135 postings · 9.9% - 3–5 years 716 postings · 52.8% - 6–9 years 404 postings · 29.8% - 10+ years 102 postings · 7.5% 336 postings state no number. Our reading of the posting ## 1,046 of these 1,693 postings build what the customer runs. What work do postings asking for software engineering describe? Builds what the customer runs 61.8%, Builds for teams inside the company 21.4%, Integrates and configures it 9.4%, Leads the deployment team 4.5%, Plans what the customer deploys first 1.7%, Proves it works before the sale 0.9%, Keeps customers running after launch 0.2%. - Builds what the customer runs 1,046 postings · 61.8% - Builds for teams inside the company 363 postings · 21.4% - Integrates and configures it 159 postings · 9.4% - Leads the deployment team 77 postings · 4.5% - Plans what the customer deploys first 28 postings · 1.7% - Proves it works before the sale 16 postings · 0.9% - Keeps customers running after launch 4 postings · 0.2% ## Frequently asked questions ### What do FDE and deployment jobs asking for software engineering experience pay? 1,293 of 1,693 postings state a pay range. The median is $200,000, and half of them sit between $170,000 and $230,000, from 569 companies. ### Which companies are hiring for FDE and deployment jobs asking for software engineering experience? These 1,693 postings come from 808 companies. The employers with the most postings are [Databricks](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/databricks) (64), [Deloitte US](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/deloitte-us) (64), [Amazon (incl AWS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws) (59), [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) (36) and [Accenture](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/accenture) (30). ### Are FDE and deployment jobs asking for software engineering experience remote? 360 postings allow remote work from the US. Another 406 are hybrid and 317 are on-site. The remaining 610 say nothing about arrangement. Travel is mentioned in 740 of the 1,693 postings. Employer postings · Counted over the postings that state what experience they want. A posting that states none, or that asks for experience outside the five we list, is in none of them. · [How we read postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/method) ## Related reading - [Forward deployed engineer vs software engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-vs-software-engineer) - [How to prepare for an FDE interview](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-interview-preparation) ## Guides for other backgrounds - [From solutions and customer engineering to FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/solutions-engineer) - [From implementation and data engineering to FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/implementation-data-engineer) - [Choosing your next FDE role](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/forward-deployed-engineer) - [From consulting to FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/consulting)