> 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.

# FDE salary for external-customer work

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/external-customers

Median salary $195,000 a year across 1,835 jobs. See what FDE postings serving external customers pay.

**2,531** postings · **1,038** companies · 1,835 state pay: median **$195,000**, half $163,000–$225,000

Postings read on November 6, 2026

Published September 21, 2026 · Updated November 6, 2026

[Google](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/google)

### [Forward Deployed Engineer IV, Data Cloud, Google Cloud](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/7460c510f62762db)

San Francisco, CA · Austin, TX · +5 more Today

$207,000–$300,000

[Ingram Micro](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/ingram-micro)

### [Principal Forward Deployed Engineer, Google Cloud](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/2fdc34e1d9832ea5)

Irvine, CA Today

$133,400–$226,800

[Thomson Reuters](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/thomson-reuters)

### [Senior Software Engineer - AI, CoCounsel FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/4062210d6364bfec)

Frisco, TX · New York, NY · +7 more Hybrid Today

$118,400–$253,000

[jeffreym-consulting](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/jeffreym-consulting)

### [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/160095c9c45ee8af)

San Francisco, CA On-site Today

$180,000–$250,000

[OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai)

### [Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Cyber - SF](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/5a5eb13cea3121c0)

San Francisco, CA Hybrid Today

$185,000–$300,000

[Ajax](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/ajax)

### [Founding Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/0d4e6543d37b1522)

New York, NY On-site Today

$210,000–$270,000

[Databricks](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/databricks)

### [Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer - Public Sector](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/440870dea6def209)

Berkeley, CA · Kansas City, MO · +1 more Remote Today

$182,000–$250,208

[SAS Institute Inc.](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/sas-institute-inc)

### [Senior Forward Deployed Solutions Architect, Large Pharma](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/4c789e2f61e7b01f)

NJ · US remote Remote Today

$136,948–$167,380

[OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai)

### [Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Cyber - NYC](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/c5efd2cc66aab827)

New York, NY Hybrid Today

$185,000–$300,000

[Clutch](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/clutch)

### [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/9a66d5225152e662)

US Remote Today

$158,000–$210,000

[Twenty](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/twenty)

### [Senior/Staff Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/18c2eb0f60fcfda6)

Fort Meade, MD On-site Today

$192,000–$455,000

[Google](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/google)

### [Forward Deployed Engineer III, Data Cloud, Google Cloud](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/82606f0a46009d9d)

San Francisco, CA · Austin, TX · +5 more Today

$174,000–$252,000

1,689 of 2,531 build what the customer runs.

[Browse all matching jobs with salary information →](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?disclosed=1&recipient=external)

See what FDE postings serving external customers pay.

External customers means the work is done for people or organizations outside the hiring company. Postings that serve both external customers and internal teams sit in a separate group.

Employer postings · Calculated from posted salary amounts · [How we read postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/method)

## Related reading

- [How to compare FDE job offers](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/compare-fde-offers)

## Related salary guides

- [FDE salary for internal-team work](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/internal-teams)