$105,400–$207,800
FDE salary in the US
Updated
Typical FDE salary in the US
$194,000a year
Median $194K
$160K · 25%$225K · 75%
2,378 postings with pay · 876 companies. Postings read on October 24, 2026.
Before comparing offers
- Confirm which range applies to your location and level.
- Check base salary, bonus and equity separately.
- For equity, ask about vesting and valuation assumptions.
By responsibility level
The faint line is the $194K median across all postings.
Not stated
$163K$231K76 postingsStaff+ postings have the highest median at $225,000 and Junior the lowest at $135,000.
By location
Multiple US offices
$200K113 postingsUS, city not stated
$188K305 postingsOther cities
$158K55 postingsSF Bay Area postings have the highest median at $214,000 and San Diego the lowest at $170,000.
By kind of FDE work
Postings that lead deployment teams have the highest median at $250,000 and postings that keep customers running after launch the lowest at $175,000.
Individual contributor or manager
People manager postings have the highest median at $239,000 and Individual contributor the lowest at $181,000.
By company stage
Not stated
$157K$215K608 postingsLater private postings have the highest median at $216,000 and Subsidiary the lowest at $166,000.
Experience required
Under 3 years
$140K$185K156 postings3–5 years
$163K$215K668 postings6–9 years
$180K$233K434 postings10 or more years
$203K$281K102 postingsNot stated
$155K$225K1,018 postings10 or more years postings have the highest median at $239,000 and Under 3 years the lowest at $160,000.
Work arrangement
Not stated
$160K$223K811 postingsMedians are within $15,000 of each other across these rows.
Travel
Not mentioned
$160K$230K1,377 postingsUp to 25%
$162K$216K274 postings26–50%
$180K$231K284 postingsOver 50%
$140K$193K92 postingsRequired, amount not stated
$165K$225K344 postingsUp to 25% postings have the highest median at $208,000 and Over 50% the lowest at $166,000.
Coding work
Not stated
$165K$237K126 postingsPostings that involve no coding have the highest median at $219,000 and postings that do configuration work only the lowest at $175,000.
Who you build for
Not stated
$163K$246K51 postingsMedians are within $15,000 of each other across these rows.
Project stages
Not stated
$174K$244K56 postingsMedians are within $15,000 of each other across these rows.
Company size
Not stated
$157K$215K609 postingsAbout 51–200 people postings have the highest median at $205,000 and About 1–50 people the lowest at $185,000.
Visa sponsorship
Not stated
$162K$225K2,018 postingsAvailable postings have the highest median at $231,000 and Not available the lowest at $180,000.
Median salary by group
By company
- OpenAI · $257,000
- Anthropic · $314,000
- Palantir · $140,000
- Scale AI · $231,000
- Amazon and AWS · $181,000
- Google · $219,000
- Microsoft · $190,000
- Databricks · $216,000
By location
- New York metro · $198,000
- San Francisco Bay Area · $214,000
- Seattle · $198,000
- Austin · $196,000
- Boston · $194,000
- Washington, DC · $180,000
- Chicago · $175,000
- Los Angeles · $192,000
- Senior, New York metro · $190,000
- Builds what the customer runs, New York metro · $203,000
- Senior, San Francisco Bay Area · $209,000
- Builds what the customer runs, San Francisco Bay Area · $216,000
By kind of work
- Builds what the customer runs · $200,000
- Plans what the customer deploys first · $185,000
- Integrates and configures the product · $175,000
Individual contributor or manager
- Individual contributor · $181,000
- Technical lead · $200,000
- People manager · $239,000
By company stage and size
- Early stage · $190,000
- Growth stage · $200,000
- Later private · $216,000
- Public companies · $181,000
- Compare by company size
By coding work
- Writes production code · $197,000
- Prototypes and scripts · $200,000
Who you build for
- External customers · $195,000
- Internal teams · $187,000
By project stage
- Pre-sales and evaluation · $200,000
- Implementation and production · $193,000
- Ongoing operations · $193,000
Visa, travel and experience
- Visa sponsorship · $231,000
- Travel required · $195,000
- Compare by experience required
Postings that state pay
2,378 postings out of 3,194 show a pay figure. Here are 10 of them.
$145,600–$240,695
$170,000–$200,000
$134,500–$265,100
$105,400–$207,800
$270,000–$300,000 · OTE
$223,000–$247,000
$160,000–$180,000
ConvergeHEALTH - Forward Deployed Engineer, Data Studio Revenue Cycle - Products & Platforms
Multiple US offices
$105,400–$207,800
$120,000–$200,000
1,289 of 2,378 build what the customer runs.
Employer postings · How we read postings
How these numbers are calculated
- Each posting contributes one amount. For a range, we use its midpoint: $150,000 to $200,000 counts as $175,000. If only a minimum or maximum is stated, we use that amount. This is a summary of posted amounts, not actual salaries paid.
- Posting counts include every posting with a pay figure, matching the linked job list. Medians and percentiles use only usable annual US dollar amounts. Postings without those amounts still count but do not enter the salary calculation. Where an employer lists several location bands, we use the range recorded for that posting. Among postings with both ends stated, a range is typically $68,000 wide.
- By responsibility level: Our reading of the role from the job description, not the employer’s title.
- By location: A posting with several offices counts in each metro. Remote means the posting allows US remote work. The last rows hold postings that name no metro on this list.
- By kind of FDE work: The main kind of work each posting describes.
- Experience required: The minimum years of experience a posting states. These rows have no browse link because the years filter keeps every posting below the number you pick.
- Work arrangement: The arrangement recorded in the posting, not a company-wide policy.
- Travel: The browse filter treats postings that do not mention travel as no travel. Here they are shown separately. These rows have no browse link because the travel filter keeps every posting below the percentage you pick.
- Coding work: The main kind of coding each posting describes.
- Project stages: A posting can be in several stages.
- Company size: Estimated headcount from the company profile.
- Visa sponsorship: Only what the posting states. Most postings say nothing, and silence is not a refusal.
- The big number is the median of the amounts used. The bar under it covers the middle half of those amounts, from $160,000 up to $225,000.
- In a breakdown, a row’s band covers the middle half of that row’s postings and the dot on it is that row’s median. Every band on the page is drawn between $118K and $289K, so a longer band means a wider spread and a band further right means higher pay. On wide screens a faint line marks $194,000, the median across all postings. The location list carries no band: its medians sit too close together to tell apart at that width, so each row is one dot at its own median on an axis of its own, whose ends and steps are printed under the last row. Amounts in words are rounded to the nearest $1,000.
- A row is shown when it has usable amounts from at least 10 postings from at least 5 companies. A posting with several offices counts once in each metro. Each breakdown ends with the postings that state no value for it, on the same minimums, and those rows are left out of the sentence under the rows.
- These are the US FDE and related postings Nextmove tracks, not a survey of offers or a representative sample of the market. Counts are postings. One opening can appear as several postings, and a posting is not a hire.
Suggested citation: Nextmove, “What FDE postings pay,” US postings tracked by Nextmove, postings read on October 24, 2026, nextmove.md/fde/salary. Quote the posting count with any figure.