> 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 individual contributors Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/individual-contributor Median salary $180,000 a year across 1,180 jobs. See what individual-contributor FDE postings pay and how the group is defined. **1,704** postings · **919** companies · **1,180** with pay · median **$180,000** · middle half $152,000–$215,000 · read Nov 6, 2026 ## These postings against the US The faint line is the $193K median across all US postings. $193K These postings Middle half $152,000 to $215,000, median $180,000. 1,180 postings [All US postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?disclosed=1) Middle half $160,000 to $225,000, median $193,000. - [2,430 postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?disclosed=1) ## By responsibility level The faint line is the $193K median across all US postings. $193K Junior Middle half $117,000 to $157,000, median $135,000. 26 postings Mid Middle half $121,000 to $161,000, median $150,000. 95 postings Senior Middle half $158,000 to $218,000, median $185,000. 982 postings Staff+ Middle half $205,000 to $256,000, median $230,000. 31 postings [Suki AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/suki-ai) ### [Staff Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/12d765d673cd368d) Redwood City, CA Yesterday $225,000–$250,000 [Monte Carlo](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/monte-carlo) ### [Applied Forward Deployed Engineer (Post-Sales)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/4593abbbddffbf3a) US Remote Yesterday $140,000–$180,000 [Kraken](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/kraken) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (Client Solutions)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/8948b7dff5b3ef4d) New York, NY Hybrid Yesterday $140,000–$220,000 [Clera](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/clera) ### [Founding Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/17886955cf8079ec) San Francisco, CA · New York, NY Hybrid Yesterday $130,000–$215,000 [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 2d ago $207,000–$300,000 [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 2d ago $118,400–$253,000 [Amazon (incl AWS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer, AWS Forward Deployed Engineering](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/e4b5aa282dcdc7d7) East Palo Alto, CA · San Francisco, CA · +3 more On-site 2d ago $143,700–$223,600 [Ajax](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/ajax) ### [Founding Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/0d4e6543d37b1522) New York, NY On-site 2d ago $210,000–$270,000 [Clutch](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/clutch) ### [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/9a66d5225152e662) US Remote 2d ago $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 2d ago $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 3d ago $174,000–$252,000 [Amazon (incl AWS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), AWS Forward Deployed Engineering, US Government](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/91438c07da633c6c) Denver, CO · Jessup, MD · +4 more 3d ago $143,700–$213,800 684 of these 1,180 jobs build what the customer runs. Individual contributor means people management is not part of the stated responsibility. The role can still own technical decisions, customer conversations and production code. Employer postings · Calculated from posted salary amounts · [How we read postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/method) ## Related reading - [Individual contributor, technical lead, or people manager?](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/management) - [How to compare FDE job offers](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/compare-fde-offers) ## Related salary guides - [FDE salary for people managers](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/manager) - [FDE salary for technical leads](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/technical-lead)