> 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 solutions and customer engineering to FDE Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/solutions-engineer Decide which of your solutions engineering work counts as production evidence, and what to add. **554** of **2,493** postings ask for solutions and customer engineering · **323** companies · **426** with pay · median **$200,000** · middle half $170,000–$240,000 · read Nov 6, 2026 - Your discovery and customer communication carry over intact, because FDE work starts from an operating problem rather than a specification. - What does not carry over is a demo that never ran anywhere, so label prototypes as prototypes. - One deployed integration you designed, tested and supported is the evidence a hiring team is looking for. - Expect the measure of success to change from a signed deal to a system that still works six months later. - Compare how many postings prove the product before the sale against how many build what the customer runs on the [FDE overview](https://nextmove.md/fde). [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) Builds what the customer runs ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Life Sciences - SF](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/20d2f37618650476) San Francisco, CA Hybrid New · Yesterday $185,000–$300,000 [Ingram Micro](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/ingram-micro) Builds what the customer runs ### [Principal Forward Deployed Engineer, Google Cloud](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/2fdc34e1d9832ea5) Irvine, CA New · 2d ago $133,400–$226,800 [Twenty](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/twenty) Builds what the customer runs ### [Senior/Staff Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/18c2eb0f60fcfda6) Fort Meade, MD On-site New · 2d ago $192,000–$455,000 [Zuora, Inc.](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/zuora-inc) Builds what the customer runs ### [Sr Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/1783cedf51d0c8c8) Foster City, CA 10d ago $208,600–$312,900 [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) Builds what the customer runs ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Life Sciences - NYC](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f19e00cc711f7d8d) New York, NY Hybrid New · Yesterday $185,000–$300,000 [NVIDIA](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/nvidia) Builds what the customer runs ### [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer, Open Models](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/e29d3d2ea75f914e) US · city not listed 11d ago $184,000–$356,500 [Amazon (incl AWS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws) Builds what the customer runs ### [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer (Model Customization and Optimization)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/110f7227e28583f5) East Palo Alto, CA · Boston, MA · +3 more 12d ago $168,100–$261,500 [jeffreym-consulting](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/jeffreym-consulting) Builds what the customer runs ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/99c63127d5fcd58e) Seattle, WA On-site 2w ago $150,000–$225,000 - [See all 554 →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?background=solutions-and-customer-engineering) ## What carries over Show work that reached a real environment: - an integration you designed, implemented, tested and handed into operation - a proof of concept that became a supported production workflow - a customer issue that needed debugging across an API, an application and a data store - a request that led to a reusable product or internal tooling change Your discovery skill matters most when the customer's data, security rules or existing systems do not match the standard product path. A demo that was never deployed still shows discovery and communication. Pair it with evidence of code, testing, release, monitoring or post-launch support. ## What is different A [Numeral forward deployed engineer posting](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/numeral/eee33705-21b6-4f35-a941-d43772ddb919/) describes customer engagements and implementations, debugging across APIs and production systems, product features and internal tooling, and projects from requirements through deployment, with JavaScript or TypeScript, SQL, AWS, Docker and Redis. A role with only demos and architecture conversations does not produce that evidence. You maintain the code after launch, make trade-offs when requirements are incomplete, and explain an incident to a customer while fixing the cause. ## How to present your experience "Built a Salesforce integration" leaves open what you owned. Say what the customer needed, which systems you connected, what you implemented and tested, how it was released, and what you maintained afterwards. Make four boundaries explicit: 1. What did you build yourself, and what did another team own? 2. Did the work stop at a demo, reach a pilot, or run in production? 3. Who used it, and what operational responsibility remained after launch? 4. Which decision changed the design when the requirement was unclear? If your role was [mostly pre-sales](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-vs-solutions-engineer), say so, and show a recent project where you owned delivery. ## Five questions before accepting an FDE role - Does the team own production delivery, or support a sales cycle? - Who maintains the code after the customer goes live? - What share of the role is coding, customer meetings and travel? - Are customer solutions expected to become reusable product capabilities? - What does an engineer own when an integration fails in production? Stated in the posting ## 440 of these 554 postings state a minimum number of years, most often 3–5 years. Share of those 440. How many years do postings asking for solutions and customer engineering want? 0–2 years 9.8%, 3–5 years 54.3%, 6–9 years 29.5%, 10+ years 6.4%. - 0–2 years 43 postings · 9.8% - 3–5 years 239 postings · 54.3% - 6–9 years 130 postings · 29.5% - 10+ years 28 postings · 6.4% 114 postings state no number. Our reading of the posting ## 218 of these 554 postings build what the customer runs. What work do postings asking for solutions and customer engineering describe? Builds what the customer runs 39.4%, Integrates and configures it 24.4%, Plans what the customer deploys first 16.1%, Builds for teams inside the company 7.2%, Leads the deployment team 6.9%, Proves it works before the sale 4.0%, Keeps customers running after launch 2.2%. - Builds what the customer runs 218 postings · 39.4% - Integrates and configures it 135 postings · 24.4% - Plans what the customer deploys first 89 postings · 16.1% - Builds for teams inside the company 40 postings · 7.2% - Leads the deployment team 38 postings · 6.9% - Proves it works before the sale 22 postings · 4.0% - Keeps customers running after launch 12 postings · 2.2% ## Frequently asked questions ### What do FDE and deployment jobs asking for solutions and customer engineering experience pay? 426 of 554 postings state a pay range. The median is $200,000, and half of them sit between $170,000 and $240,000, from 235 companies. ### Which companies are hiring for FDE and deployment jobs asking for solutions and customer engineering experience? These 554 postings come from 323 companies. The employers with the most postings are [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) (21), [LangChain](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/langchain) (15), [NVIDIA](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/nvidia) (14), [Aircall](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/aircall) (11) and [Amazon (incl AWS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws) (11). ### Are FDE and deployment jobs asking for solutions and customer engineering experience remote? 134 postings allow remote work from the US. Another 172 are hybrid and 112 are on-site. The remaining 136 say nothing about arrangement. Travel is mentioned in 253 of the 554 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 solutions engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-vs-solutions-engineer) - [Portfolio projects that show FDE work](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-portfolio-projects) ## Guides for other backgrounds - [From software engineering to FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths/backend-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)