> 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.

# Where to find FDE candidates

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/where-to-find-fde-candidates

Decide which adjacent titles to search and what evidence to check before contacting someone.

Decide which adjacent titles to search and what evidence to check before contacting someone.

Published Sep 20, 2026 · Updated Nov 7, 2026

- The people you want mostly hold another title: implementation, solutions, backend, data or technical delivery.
- Break the role into what the person builds, who they work with, which stage they own and how they work, then search each part.
- Check whether they owned the implementation or advised the team that did, before you write the first message.
- A public profile tells you nothing about availability, pay, work authorisation or interest, so do not assume any of them.
- Track people reviewed, contacted, replies and permitted introductions per source, or a low reply rate will have no explanation.

## Build a sourcing map from the job

| Part of the role | What to look for |
| --- | --- |
| Production delivery | Shipped integrations, services, data workflows, reliability work, and the decisions behind them |
| Customer work | Requirements gathered from users, technical plans explained to non-specialists, clean handoffs |
| Evaluation or pre-sales | Experiments that tested a use case and moved it to a decision, without assuming it reached production |
| Internal deployment | Tools or processes that helped operating teams deliver a product |

## Check the work before you contact someone

1. Did the person own implementation, or advise the team that did?
2. Did they write or operate production code, configure an integration, or work on prototypes?
3. Who used the result: an external customer, an internal team, or both?
4. Did they handle unclear requirements and trade-offs themselves?
5. Does the location and travel expectation fit the open role?

The same care applies to remote work. The [method page](https://nextmove.md/fde/method) explains why a bare "Remote" label does not establish that a role can be performed from the United States.

## Write the first message around the work

Say what the team is delivering, who they would work with, and what the role owns. Include the location, the travel expectation and the [published base range](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-compensation-for-employers) where you have one. Say why their specific project prompted the message, and ask whether the problem is relevant before asking for a resume.

Do not claim that the employer is a partner, that the candidate is a fit, or that the role will advance their career without evidence. A job listing is an employer's public request. It does not prove the role is still open or that an introduction can be arranged.

## Learn which sources are working

Keep the role, geography, seniority and message visible against each source, so a low reply rate has an explanation. Do not call a source effective from a handful of contacts, and do not turn listing counts into estimates of how many candidates exist. When the evidence does not support a conclusion, change the search terms or ask the employer which requirement can move.

## Related reading

- [How to hire a forward deployed engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/how-to-hire-fde)
- [How to write an FDE job description](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-job-description)
- [How to interview FDE candidates](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/interview-fde-candidates)
- [How to set compensation for an FDE role](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/fde-compensation-for-employers)
- [How to organize an FDE team](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/build-an-fde-team)