> 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 implementation and data engineering to FDE Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/implementation-data-engineer Decide which implementation or data engineering work to bring forward and how to handle AI requirements. **765** of **2,493** postings ask for implementation and data engineering · **369** companies · **569** with pay · median **$190,000** · middle half $160,000–$216,000 · read Nov 6, 2026 - You already have the delivery experience FDE teams need, so the work is making it easy to evaluate. - "Implemented a data platform" hides the answer — name whether you configured a product, wrote production code, or ran a migration. - The exception you handled instead of forcing a customer onto the standard path is the strongest thing you can show. - Read an AI requirement at the level of the work, because integrating a model and maintaining an AI platform are different jobs. - Say what you have not shipped and ask whether onboarding covers it, rather than turning a prototype into production AI experience. [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 [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 [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 [SAS Institute Inc.](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/sas-institute-inc) ### [Senior Forward Deployed Solutions Architect, Large Pharma](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/4c789e2f61e7b01f) NJ · US remote Remote 2d ago $136,948–$167,380 [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 [Twenty](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/twenty) ### [Senior/Staff Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/18c2eb0f60fcfda6) Fort Meade, MD On-site 2d ago $192,000–$455,000 [Google](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/google) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer III, Data Cloud, Google Cloud](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/82606f0a46009d9d) San Francisco, CA · Austin, TX · +5 more 3d ago $174,000–$252,000 [Joyful Health](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/joyful-health) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/22795913cd1c6605) New York, NY Hybrid 4d ago $150,000–$275,000 - [See all 765 →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?background=implementation-and-data-engineering) ## The experience to bring forward Choose examples that carry both a technical boundary and a user boundary: - a pipeline, integration or software workflow that reached regular use - a user request you turned into a technical plan and a delivery sequence - APIs, permissions, data-quality checks, testing, monitoring or incident resolution you owned - a migration where you handled an exception instead of forcing the customer onto a standard path - enablement or documentation that helped the customer operate the delivered system Name the systems and the decision you made. State whether the work was a prototype, a proof of concept, a production deployment or ongoing operations. A [Veeam forward deployed engineer posting](https://careers.veeam.com/job/united-states/forward-deployed-engineer/22681/100820733376) shows the range: customer deployments across cloud, hybrid and on-premises environments, integrations, data pipelines, automations, agent-based workflows, and security and governance requirements turned into technical plans. ## Handling AI requirements | What the posting asks for | What to prepare | | --- | --- | | Integrate a model into a production workflow | The data path, access controls, failure handling, and how the output is reviewed | | Evaluate output against a benchmark | An evaluation set, the failure analysis, and what you changed as a result | | Maintain an AI platform | Observability, cost and latency limits, rollback, and incident work | | Build a new application | End-to-end design, from the user's task through monitoring | If you have not shipped an AI system, describe the adjacent evidence plainly: data contracts, evaluation design, observability, access controls, rollback plans and production incident work. Then name the missing piece and ask whether the team supports it during onboarding. ## How to write the transition story Use [one project](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-portfolio-projects) to connect four points: the user's need, the systems you changed, the deployment or handoff, and the responsibility that remained. Also say what you did when the standard implementation failed. A concise account of the constraint, the options and the trade-off tells the team more than a list of products. ## Five questions for the team - Is the role mainly integrations, application development, configuration or model evaluation? - Does the engineer own production incidents after the customer goes live? - Which cloud, data and deployment environments are common in the customer base? - How much of the role is writing code against configuring a platform or running enablement? - What AI experience is required at hiring, and which gaps can onboarding support? Stated in the posting ## 585 of these 765 postings state a minimum number of years, most often 3–5 years. Share of those 585. How many years do postings asking for implementation and data engineering want? 0–2 years 10.4%, 3–5 years 50.6%, 6–9 years 33.2%, 10+ years 5.8%. - 0–2 years 61 postings · 10.4% - 3–5 years 296 postings · 50.6% - 6–9 years 194 postings · 33.2% - 10+ years 34 postings · 5.8% 180 postings state no number. Our reading of the posting ## 424 of these 765 postings build what the customer runs. What work do postings asking for implementation and data engineering describe? Builds what the customer runs 55.4%, Integrates and configures it 17.5%, Plans what the customer deploys first 11.4%, Builds for teams inside the company 11.0%, Leads the deployment team 3.8%, Proves it works before the sale 0.7%, Keeps customers running after launch 0.3%. - Builds what the customer runs 424 postings · 55.4% - Integrates and configures it 134 postings · 17.5% - Plans what the customer deploys first 87 postings · 11.4% - Builds for teams inside the company 84 postings · 11.0% - Leads the deployment team 29 postings · 3.8% - Proves it works before the sale 5 postings · 0.7% - Keeps customers running after launch 2 postings · 0.3% ## Frequently asked questions ### What do FDE and deployment jobs asking for implementation and data engineering experience pay? 569 of 765 postings state a pay range. The median is $190,000, and half of them sit between $160,000 and $216,000, from 250 companies. ### Which companies are hiring for FDE and deployment jobs asking for implementation and data engineering experience? These 765 postings come from 369 companies. The employers with the most postings are [Databricks](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/databricks) (67), [Deloitte US](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/deloitte-us) (61), [Amazon (incl AWS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws) (29), [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) (18) and [Accenture](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/accenture) (15). ### Are FDE and deployment jobs asking for implementation and data engineering experience remote? 149 postings allow remote work from the US. Another 199 are hybrid and 120 are on-site. The remaining 297 say nothing about arrangement. Travel is mentioned in 392 of the 765 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 - [How to describe FDE experience on your resume](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-resume-guide) - [Skills to build for FDE work](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-skills-and-learning) ## Guides for other backgrounds - [From software engineering to FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/backend-engineer) - [From solutions and customer engineering to FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/solutions-engineer) - [Choosing your next FDE role](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/forward-deployed-engineer) - [From consulting to FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/consulting)