> 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. # Production code FDE salary Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/production-code Median salary $196,000 a year across 1,900 jobs. See what FDE postings whose main coding work is production code pay. **2,554** postings · **1,164** companies · **1,900** with pay · median **$196,000** · middle half $163,000–$226,000 · 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 $163,000 to $226,000, median $196,000. 1,900 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. 21 postings Mid Middle half $125,000 to $165,000, median $150,000. 70 postings Senior Middle half $162,000 to $222,000, median $190,000. 1,465 postings Staff+ Middle half $198,000 to $262,000, median $225,000. 325 postings [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Life Sciences - SF](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/20d2f37618650476) San Francisco, CA Hybrid Yesterday $185,000–$300,000 [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 [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Life Sciences - NYC](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f19e00cc711f7d8d) New York, NY Hybrid Yesterday $185,000–$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 2d ago $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 2d ago $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 2d ago $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 2d ago $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 2d ago $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 2d ago $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 2d ago $136,948–$167,380 1,263 of these 1,900 jobs build what the customer runs. Production code means the posting's main coding work is software intended to run in production, as opposed to prototypes, scripts or configuration. It says nothing about how many hours are spent coding. Employer postings · Calculated from posted salary amounts · [How we read postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/method) ## Related reading - [What kind of coding do FDE postings describe?](https://nextmove.md/fde/research/coding) - [How to compare FDE job offers](https://nextmove.md/fde/resources/compare-fde-offers) ## Related salary guides - [Prototype and script FDE salary](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/prototypes)