> 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.

# Individual contributor, technical lead, or people manager?

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

See how many FDE postings are individual contributor, technical lead or people manager roles.

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

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

## 1,704 of 3,311 postings (51.5%) are individual contributor roles.

Individual contributor

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

**51.5%** 1,704 postings

Technical lead

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

**44.4%** 1,471 postings

People manager

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

**3.7%** 122 postings

Not stated / unclear

**0.4%** 14 postings

The role type stated in the posting. Technical lead means leading work without people management.

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 technical lead role leads technical work, and that does not by itself mean hiring, reviews or direct reports.
- A people-manager posting states responsibility for managing people, without telling you the team size or the coding balance.
- A "lead" title can describe technical ownership alone, and a manager title can still include substantial delivery work.
- Ask who reports to the role and whether it carries a budget and reviews, because a title says neither.
- Browse [individual contributor roles](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?management=ic), [technical lead roles](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?management=lead) and [people manager roles](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?management=manager).

## Check the title against the responsibilities

A posting's work and reporting expectations are more useful than its title. For a technical lead role, ask who makes the final technical decision and how the role works with product, sales and customer teams. For a manager role, ask how much of the week is delivery.

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