> 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.

# Company stage in FDE job postings

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/research/company-stage

See which company stages are hiring FDEs and why stage is not a proxy for the work.

**3,311** postings · **1,375** companies · read Nov 6, 2026

- [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fresearch%2Fcompany-stage&placement=top)

Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so.

From the company profile

## 884 of 3,311 postings (26.7%) come from later private companies.

Early (pre-seed–Series A)

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?companyStage=early)

**13.6%** 449 postings

Growth (Series B–C)

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?companyStage=growth)

**12.8%** 425 postings

Later private

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?companyStage=late)

**26.7%** 884 postings

Public

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?companyStage=public)

**22.6%** 748 postings

Bootstrapped

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?companyStage=bootstrapped)

**2.8%** 92 postings

Subsidiary

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?companyStage=subsidiary)

**2.6%** 85 postings

Not stated / unclear

**19.0%** 628 postings

The company’s funding stage from its profile, grouped into the same bands as the browse filter. Later private means Series D or later.

From the company profile

## 883 of 3,311 postings (26.7%) come from companies with 5,000+ people.

About 1–50 people

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?size=1-50)

**10.8%** 357 postings

About 51–200 people

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?size=51-200)

**14.9%** 492 postings

About 201–1,000 people

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?size=201-1000)

**14.4%** 478 postings

About 1,001–5,000 people

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?size=1001-5000)

**13.5%** 448 postings

About 5,000+ people

- [Browse these jobs →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?size=5001%2B)

**26.7%** 883 postings

Not stated / unclear

**19.7%** 653 postings

Headcount bands are estimates based on public company information.

- Two companies at the same stage ask an FDE to do different work, so stage is context and not a job description.
- Size and stage are separate: a large public company can have a small team hiring for a focused role.
- Read the decisions you would own, the customer you would serve, the coding expected and the travel, and compare those terms directly.
- Compare the employers behind these counts on the [company directory](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies).

## What to read instead of the stage

One role focuses on production delivery for customers. Another joins technical delivery to product feedback, pre-sales or team building. Both appear at every stage, and an early company can ask one person to cover several. That is a possibility to check in the posting, not a conclusion to draw from a count.

Employer postings · [Download current counts](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/data.csv) · [How to cite](https://nextmove.md/fde/research#method) · [How we read postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/method)

## Other posting data

- [Which skills do FDE job postings mention?](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/skills)
- [How much experience do FDE jobs require?](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/experience)
- [Remote work and travel in FDE roles](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/remote-work-and-travel)
- [What kind of coding do FDE postings describe?](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/coding)
- [Individual contributor, technical lead, or people manager?](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/management)
- [Visa sponsorship in FDE job postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/visa-sponsorship)