> 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.

# How much experience do FDE jobs require?

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/research/experience

See how many years FDE postings ask for and decide whether a stated minimum rules you out.

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

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

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

Stated in the posting

## 1,374 of 3,311 postings say nothing about years of experience. Of the 1,937 that do, the largest group asks for 3–5 years.

Share of the 1,937 postings that state it.

0–2 years

**12.0%** 232 postings

3–5 years

**52.4%** 1,015 postings

6–9 years

**28.6%** 554 postings

10+ years

**7.0%** 136 postings

1,374 postings say nothing.

The minimum years of experience stated in each posting. Postings that give no number, or that changed after we last read them, are unknown.

Our reading of the posting

## 2,529 of 3,311 postings (76.4%) are read as senior roles.

Junior

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

**1.2%** 41 postings

Mid

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

**5.0%** 166 postings

Senior

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

**76.4%** 2,529 postings

Staff+

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

**14.4%** 476 postings

Not stated / unclear

**3.0%** 99 postings

Our reading of the responsibilities in each posting, not the employer’s title. Junior means guided work, mid means independent delivery, senior means leading an ambiguous project through production, and staff+ means leading across teams or projects.

- A stated minimum is the employer's description of the work, not a filter you have failed.
- The band a posting falls into is a floor, not a ceiling on the experience the employer will consider.
- Two postings in the same band can differ on whether you would own a deployment or run one task inside it.
- Nothing here tells you whether an employer will waive a stated year requirement, and only the employer can.

## Read the work attached to the years

A posting asking for 4+ years belongs in the 3–5 minimum-years group. Look for the systems you would build, the customer or internal team you would support, and the ownership you would carry. A posting describing a narrow implementation task raises a different question from one expecting independent production delivery.

The [paths for different backgrounds](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths) connect your actual work to FDE responsibilities.

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)
- [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)
- [Company stage in FDE job postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/company-stage)
- [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)