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Talent intelligence · Updated

Hiring guide

Forward deployed engineers (FDEs) are in high demand. Everything you need to hire one: how scarce they are, what to offer, where to look, who you’re up against and what wins them.

A forward deployed engineer is a software engineer who works inside a customer’s business to make the product deliver for them. The job is part software engineering, part consulting.

What the job involves

Share of open FDE roles in London that ask for it

  • Owns delivery after the sale
  • Works alongside customers
  • Writes production code
  • Builds or deploys AI

2 kinds of FDE

The title covers 2 different jobs. Know which one you’re hiring before you search. Only 5% of roles are pre-sales.

  1. 62%

    of open roles

    The builder

    Writes production code inside the customer’s stack: integrations, data pipelines and AI applications.

    Also titled: Forward deployed engineer, AI engineer, applied AI engineer

  2. 34%

    of open roles

    The deployment lead

    Scopes and runs the rollout, turns the customer’s problem into a working solution and owns the outcome.

    Also titled: Forward deployed engineer, AI deployment engineer, technical consultant

  • 1,000

    FDEs working in London

  • 230

    open FDE roles

  • 80 days

    median time a role stays open

  • £100k

    median expected base

01

How hard is this hire?

Nearly 1 in 5 FDE positions in London is an open role, more than twice the London Tech benchmark, and roles take 4 weeks longer to fill.

  • People in the role

    1,000

    FDEs working in London, September 2026

    5001,0001,500Jan ’23Sep ’23May ’24Jan ’25Sep ’25Sep ’261,020
    Sep ’261,020
    FDEs working in London, by month
    MonthFDEs
    January 2023367
    February 2023375
    March 2023379
    April 2023392
    May 2023398
    June 2023403
    July 2023417
    August 2023409
    September 2023414
    October 2023414
    November 2023418
    December 2023414
    January 2024424
    February 2024420
    March 2024427
    April 2024438
    May 2024437
    June 2024439
    July 2024447
    August 2024455
    September 2024446
    October 2024443
    November 2024449
    December 2024450
    January 2025475
    February 2025483
    March 2025486
    April 2025508
    May 2025522
    June 2025540
    July 2025551
    August 2025563
    September 2025588
    October 2025620
    November 2025641
    December 2025654
    January 2026699
    February 2026730
    March 2026768
    April 2026788
    May 2026806
    June 2026868
    July 2026950
    August 2026993
    September 20261,020

  • Open roles

    230

    FDE roles open in London, September 2026

    100200300Aug ’25Nov ’25Feb ’26May ’26Sep ’26227
    Sep ’26227
    Open FDE roles in London, by month
    MonthFDE roles
    August 2025119
    September 2025137
    October 2025139
    November 2025156
    December 2025159
    January 2026156
    February 2026138
    March 2026165
    April 2026185
    May 2026195
    June 2026187
    July 2026226
    August 2026220
    September 2026227

  • Vacancy rate

    18.2%

    of FDE positions in London are open roles, September 2026

    10.0%20.0%30.0%Aug ’25Nov ’25Feb ’26May ’26Sep ’26Benchmark – London Tech: 8.2%18.2%
    Sep ’2618.2%
    Vacancy rate for FDEs in London, by month, against Benchmark – London Tech (8.2% in September 2026)
    MonthFDE vacancy rate
    August 202517.4%
    September 202518.9%
    October 202518.3%
    November 202519.6%
    December 202519.6%
    January 202618.2%
    February 202615.9%
    March 202617.7%
    April 202619.0%
    May 202619.5%
    June 202617.7%
    July 202619.2%
    August 202618.1%
    September 202618.2%

  • Time to fill

    80 days

    median time an FDE role stays open

    50%100%Day 0Day 30Day 60Day 90Day 120Day 15026%
    Day 15026%Benchmark – London Tech: 14%
    Share of roles in London still open each number of days after posting
    Days after postingFDE rolesBenchmark – London Tech
    Day 0100%100%
    Day 1593%84%
    Day 3083%70%
    Day 4571%56%
    Day 6062%44%
    Day 7553%35%
    Day 9046%28%
    Day 10538%23%
    Day 12032%19%
    Day 13529%16%
    Day 15026%14%

02

How much to offer

Expected base salary

When to offer more

Extra base pay for each, all else equal

  • A more prestigious employer+11%
  • 6–8 years’ experience, not 3–5+10%
  • Founder or early employee+10%
  • Shipped production AI+7%
  • Has led a team+6%
  • Elite university+3%
  • No clear effect on payAlready an FDE+4%

03

Where to look

  1. Number 1: Palantir

    The original FDE school

    Where the role was invented, and still London’s deepest FDE bench.

  2. Number 2: OpenAI

    Small team, big pull

    A small London team whose FDEs are among the most requested by hiring managers.

  3. Number 3: Google

    Deep bench, beyond the title

    Customer-facing ML and cloud engineers doing the job under other titles, and a growing FDE team.

Where new FDEs come from

93%

weren’t FDEs in their last job

54%

joined from a startup or scale-up

  • Software, AI and data engineers33%
  • Consultants and solutions engineers24%
  • Founders and engineering leaders15%
  • Already FDEs7%
  • Graduates, researchers and others22%

04

Who you’re competing with

The enterprises, and the startups and scale-ups, that posted the most FDE roles in London in the 6 months to October 2026.

  1. Google26 roles
  2. Accenture18 roles
  3. Databricks10 roles
  4. Amazon9 roles
  5. OpenAI8 roles

05

How to win them

AI work and strong pay get you in the door. To win the most in-demand FDEs, lead with what they want more than the rest.

What the most in-demand FDEs want

  1. 1

    Offer equity

  2. 2

    Show where the role leads

  3. 3

    Pitch the founding role

  4. 4

    Sell the team

  • Equity
  • A path into product, leadership or founding
  • A proven, well-known company
  • Exceptional teammates
  • An early-stage startup

Fewer lean remote

37%

of FDEs lean toward or only work remotely

49%

of other software engineers

  • Office-leaning
  • Open to anything
  • Remote-leaning or remote only

Skip the 80‑day search

Brief Jill, the AI agent for hiring, on your FDE role. She’ll introduce you to engineers in Jack’s network who are open to a move.

Hire FDEs with Jill

About this guide

The data
This guide combines publicly available data on jobs and careers with our own data from Jack’s network of candidates and the companies hiring with Jill.
Who counts
We decide who is an FDE by the work a job or career describes, not just its title, and apply that definition to people and job postings alike.
Kinds of company
Startups and scale-ups are private tech companies founded since 2005. Enterprises are listed, owned by a listed company, or larger than 5,000 staff.
Vacancy rate and time to fill
Vacancy rate is open roles as a share of all positions, filled and open. Time to fill follows each role from when it’s posted until it closes, and allows for roles that are still open. The Benchmark – London Tech line measures London’s tech startups and scale-ups the same way.
Pay
Pay is the base salary candidates in and near the role say they expect, weighted to match the seniority of the roles being hired. The premiums compare people with similar experience.
What wins them
We compare the profiles of people hiring managers ask to meet with those they passed on.