> 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 technical leads Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/technical-lead Median salary $200,000 a year across 1,145 jobs. See what technical-lead FDE postings pay and how the group differs from people managers. **1,471** postings · **700** companies · **1,145** with pay · median **$200,000** · middle half $170,000–$229,000 · 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 $170,000 to $229,000, median $200,000. 1,145 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 Mid Middle half $135,000 to $162,000, median $149,000. 10 postings Senior Middle half $165,000 to $220,000, median $195,000. 843 postings Staff+ Middle half $194,000 to $255,000, median $220,000. 286 postings [Thomson Reuters](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/thomson-reuters) ### [Senior Legal Engineer, CoCounsel FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/ef7a2e5d13b23d62) Frisco, TX · New York, NY · +7 more Hybrid Yesterday $102,200–$218,600 [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 [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 [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 [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 [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 [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 [Amazon (incl AWS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws) ### [Sr Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), AWS Forward Deployed Engineering, US Government](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/9f1c2b67db2daf1a) Denver, CO · Jessup, MD · +4 more 3d ago $168,100–$250,200 [Enlighten AI Labs](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/enlighten-ai-labs) ### [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/4962de95ccbeec75) Chicago, IL 4d ago $175,000–$220,000 [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 [monday.com](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/monday-com) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer ](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/864fb4ccff3c2067) Denver, CO Hybrid 4d ago $140,000–$170,000 [Amazon (incl AWS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws) ### [Sr Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), AWS Forward Deployed Engineering, US Government](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f7f7ea70cdde41e8) Denver, CO · Jessup, MD · +4 more 3d ago $168,100–$250,200 640 of these 1,145 jobs build what the customer runs. Technical lead means technical direction or guidance is part of the work. The role does not necessarily manage people: hiring, performance reviews and direct reports make it a people-manager role instead. Employer postings · Calculated from posted salary amounts · [How we read postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/method) ## Related reading - [Technical lead FDE jobs](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs-for/technical-lead) - [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 individual contributors](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/individual-contributor) - [FDE salary for people managers](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/manager)