By FDE Interview Prep, a SourceStrongAI company

In this post14 sections
  1. The short answer: four lines outweigh the title
  2. The red flags, in order of weight
  3. Why the title is the weakest line
  4. Line one: who writes production code, and where
  5. Line two: the department the posting sits in
  6. Line three: how the pay is stated
  7. Line four: what the role owns after the sale
  8. One posting through all four lines
  9. More posting lines to sort
  10. What to ask the recruiter when the posting is unclear
  11. Where to go from here
  12. Questions people ask
  13. Keep reading
  14. More from the blog

The title says . Then you read the duties, and they are demos, proofs of concept and “partner with account executives”, with nothing about code that runs in production. Is this the engineering job you want, or pre-sales work with a borrowed title? Ignore the title and read four lines instead: who writes production code in the customer’s environment, the department the posting sits in, how the pay is stated, and what the role owns after the sale. This post is the red-flag checklist for one posting; our guide to FDE vs solutions architect compares the two jobs in full.

The posting lines quoted below are real, and each section says when we read them. Postings change, so reread yours before you act on it. For the full method of reading a posting, field by field, use the free lesson How to read an FDE job posting line by line. This post zooms in on one question: is the job what the title says?

The short answer: four lines outweigh the title

Here are the four lines, what an engineering role tends to say in each, and the red flag to look for.

LineEngineering signalRed flag
The codeProduction code in the customer’s systemsOnly demos, POCs and prototypes
DepartmentAn FDE, engineering or applied AI unitSales or go-to-market
PayBase salary, or OTE tied to deliveryQuota or revenue targets
After the saleRuns a system and changes the productEnds at the signature or the handoff

Most red flags are questions, not verdicts. Two can settle it on their own: duties with no production work at all, and the word “quota”.

The red flags, in order of weight

Red flags to check before you apply

  • Every coding duty is a demo, prototype, proof of concept or pilot
  • Nothing about production, reliability, integrations or on-call
  • The main partner named is an account executive
  • Success is described as technical wins, pipeline or closed deals
  • The word “quota” or “revenue targets” appears
  • The role’s last duty ends at the signature or a handoff
  • Nothing about feeding what you learn back to product or engineering
  • The department is Sales or go-to-market (ask; not proof on its own)
  • Pay is (ask what the variable part is measured on)

The first two items, plus the quota and the handoff ending, are close to decisive on their own. The account-executive partner, the sales-style success measures and the missing product loop add weight. The last two are only questions to ask. The rest of this post shows each line on real postings.

Why the title is the weakest line

As of September 2026, Ramp listed a “Software Engineer, Forward Deployed AI Solutions” who owns “technical discovery, solution design, prototyping, implementation, and production readiness” Source 1Software Engineer, Forward Deployed AI Solutions @ RampPublisherRamp (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting, and an “AI Solutions Engineer” whose posting says “This is a product-focused, quota-carrying technical sales role.” Source 2Ramp Ashby job board (AI Solutions Engineer)PublisherRamp (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting Same company, nearly the same words, different jobs.

Industry writer Thomas Otter wrote, in December 2025, that he suspects a lot of the jobs labeled FDE today are implementation or pre-sales roles with a cooler label. Source 3on the forward deployed engineerPublisherThomas Otter (Substack)Source typeindustry writer’s personal blog That is one writer’s suspicion, and we found no count of it. It is still a good reason to read the duties before you believe the title.

Line one: who writes production code, and where

Look for three things together: the code is production code, it runs in the customer’s systems, and the role answers for it after launch.

As of September 2026, OpenAI’s San Francisco FDE posting says “You will own discovery, technical scoping, system design, build, and production rollout”, and asks for people who “write and review production-grade code”. Source 4Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - SFPublisherOpenAI (Ashby)Source typecompany job posting Anthropic’s FDE posting asks the FDE to “work within customer systems to build production applications with Claude models”. Source 5Job Application for Forward Deployed Engineer at AnthropicPublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting Cursor’s FDE postings are blunter still: “This is not a demo role. You are responsible for systems that work in the real world.” Source 6Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherCursor (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job board

Now the other side. The Pragmatic Engineer reported, in August 2025, drawing on input from OpenAI’s Colin Jarvis, that OpenAI’s FDEs write code directly on customer infrastructure using customer tooling, while its solutions architects are more advisory. Source 7What are Forward Deployed Engineers, and why are they so in demand? (Gergely Orosz)PublisherThe Pragmatic EngineerSource typenews report The Pragmatic Engineer also wrote that those SAs “rarely write code on customers’ infrastructure” and build MVPs or proofs of concept with anonymized or offline cuts of data. Source 7What are Forward Deployed Engineers, and why are they so in demand? (Gergely Orosz)PublisherThe Pragmatic EngineerSource typenews report

The common mistake. You see “ship working code” and conclude it is engineering. Anthropic’s Applied AI Architect posting says exactly “Ship working code”, then defines it: prototypes, proofs of concept, eval frameworks and “near-production examples that customers can extend”. Source 8Job Application for Applied AI Architect, Commercial at AnthropicPublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting The code is real, but it stops short of production: the customer’s team is expected to finish it and run it.

The fix. For every coding duty, ask what happens to the code next. Does it run in production, and does this role answer for it when it breaks? OpenAI’s financial-services FDE posting answers that directly: the FDE owns “integrations, data flows, reliability, observability, and on-call readiness” for the production AI systems it ships. Source 9Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Financial Services- NYCPublisherOpenAI (Ashby)Source typecompany job posting In our reading, on-call is the strongest single word on the page: a role that is paged when the system breaks is a role that owns it.

Words to scan for in the duties:

  • Engineering signals: production, ship, deploy, own, on-call, reliability, observability, integrations, customer’s environment.
  • Pre-sales signals: demo, proof of concept, prototype, pilot, technical win, trusted advisor, reference architecture, “customers can extend”.

Line two: the department the posting sits in

Where a posting shows a department or team field, read it. In our reading, it hints at whose goals the role serves, and sometimes that says more than the title.

As of September 2026, on OpenAI’s board, the San Francisco FDE posting sits in a “Forward Deployed Engineering” department, while most Applied AI Architect and Applied AI Engineer postings sit in “Go To Market”. Source 4Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - SFPublisherOpenAI (Ashby)Source typecompany job postingSource 10Applied AI ArchitectPublisherOpenAI (Ashby)Source typecompany job posting At Anthropic, an Enterprise Account Executive posting sits in the Sales department and talks about meeting “revenue quotas”, while the FDE posting sits in Applied AI. Source 5Job Application for Forward Deployed Engineer at AnthropicPublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job postingSource 11Enterprise Account Executive, IndustriesPublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting

That makes the department look like a clean test. It is not. Anthropic files its pre-sales Applied AI Architect in the same Applied AI department as its FDEs. Source 5Job Application for Forward Deployed Engineer at AnthropicPublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job postingSource 8Job Application for Applied AI Architect, Commercial at AnthropicPublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job postingSource 11Enterprise Account Executive, IndustriesPublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting And Notion’s “Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM, AMER” posting sits in the Sales department. Source 12Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM, AMER @ NotionPublisherNotion (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting So a Sales department on an FDE posting is a question to ask (“who does this team report to?”), not proof of a disguised sales job. When the department and the duties disagree, trust the duties.

Line three: how the pay is stated

Look at the words around the pay range, not the numbers. Does the posting say base salary, or on-target earnings (OTE)? OTE means part of the pay is variable and depends on hitting a target.

As of September 2026, Vercel’s posting, which spans pre-sales and post-sales, gives its pay as an On Target Earnings range. Source 13Solutions ArchitectPublisherVercel (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting But OTE also shows up on FDE postings that are clearly engineering. Okta’s Principal FDE posting states its pay as OTE, “inclusive of base salary and incentive compensation”, and the same posting says “You still write code.” Source 14Principal Forward Deployed Engineer - Okta for AI AgentsPublisherOkta (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting

So OTE is a prompt, not a verdict. The question it raises is what the variable part is measured on. A bonus tied to a customer going live is one job. A quota tied to new revenue is another.

The real red flag is the word “quota”, as in Ramp’s AI Solutions Engineer posting above. Source 2Ramp Ashby job board (AI Solutions Engineer)PublisherRamp (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting If you find quota language on a posting titled FDE, ask about it before anything else. Why some FDE jobs pay OTE goes further into what the variable part can mean for an engineer.

Line four: what the role owns after the sale

It is tempting to sort roles by the signature: FDEs after, solutions people before. OpenAI’s own split shows why that fails.

Colin Jarvis, who leads forward deployed engineering at OpenAI, said in a South Park Commons panel video posted in May 2026 that OpenAI’s FDE unit is a business unit separate from solutions engineering, which he called pre-sales, and solutions architecture, which he called post-sales. Source 15The Future of Forward Deployed Engineering | OpenAI, Ramp, Nominal, DatalandPublisherSouth Park Commons (YouTube)Source typerecorded talk or interview So solutions work can be post-sales. And as of September 2026, OpenAI’s financial-services FDE posting asks the FDE to “lead discovery and scoping from pre-sales through post-production”, in the same posting that gives it on-call readiness. Source 9Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Financial Services- NYCPublisherOpenAI (Ashby)Source typecompany job posting

Other employers blend them as well. Baseten’s FDE posting says “this is an engineering role with hands-on coding and software development”, and that it includes aspects of pre-sales solution engineering. Source 16Forward Deployed Engineer @ BasetenPublisherBaseten (Ashby)Source typecompany job posting Anthropic was hiring a Pre-Sales Program Lead for Forward Deployed Engineering, to take the FDE team “from opportunity to a signed contract”. Source 17Pre-Sales Program Lead, Forward Deployed EngineeringPublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting “Does it mention pre-sales?” is the wrong test.

The better test is this: what does the role own after the signature? If it owns revenue, it is sales. If it owns a plan or a design, it is architecture. If it owns a running system, it is delivery work, and a further check separates FDE from implementation.

Does anything flow back to the product? If the role runs a system for one customer and nothing it learns changes the product, it may be implementation work with a new title. In a16z’s analysis, published in June 2025, Joe Schmidt wrote that the implementation role is often filled by a professional services employee “sometimes rebranded as a forward deployed engineer”. Source 18Trading Margin for Moat: Why the Forward Deployed Engineer Is the Hottest Job in StartupsPublisherAndreessen HorowitzSource typeindependent analysis Real FDE postings say the opposite out loud. OpenAI’s SF FDE posting measures success partly by “eval-driven feedback that changes product and model roadmaps”. Source 19Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - SF | OpenAIPublisherOpenAISource typecompany job posting Ramp’s Core FDE posting says FDEs “drive the core product engineering roadmap”. Source 20Software Engineer, Forward Deployed @ RampPublisherRamp (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting In the interview, this shows up as the custom build or product change question, and a posting that never mentions the product will rarely ask it.

For FDE roles that do real pre-sales work, read pre-sales FDE work.

One posting through all four lines

Take Notion’s Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM, AMER posting as of September 2026, and run it through the table. Source 12Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM, AMER @ NotionPublisherNotion (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 21Forward Deployed Engineer @ NotionPublisherNotion (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting

  • Department: Sales. A red flag, so ask. Source 12Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM, AMER @ NotionPublisherNotion (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting
  • Pay: total on-target earnings, base plus incentive. Also ask. Source 12Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM, AMER @ NotionPublisherNotion (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting
  • The code: engineering. It lists “designing and deploying production-grade custom agents and AI workflows” and leading “large-scale content and data migrations”, on Notion’s Services team, leading “the hands on technical delivery of our most complex customer engagements”. Source 12Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM, AMER @ NotionPublisherNotion (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 21Forward Deployed Engineer @ NotionPublisherNotion (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting
  • After the sale: delivery. It owns running work for customers. The open question is the implementation one: does what it learns reach the product?

Verdict, in our reading: an engineering job with sales-style pay, not a sales job with an engineering title. Two signals pointed toward sales, and the duties outweighed both. Your two recruiter questions write themselves: what is the incentive measured on, and do FDE findings reach Notion’s product team?

More posting lines to sort

As of September 2026, each line below appeared in a real posting. Source 6Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherCursor (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job boardSource 14Principal Forward Deployed Engineer - Okta for AI AgentsPublisherOkta (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job postingSource 22Customer Engineer, KoreaPublisherCloudflare (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job postingSource 23Customer Engineer, Platform, Google Cloud — Google CareersPublisherGoogleSource typecompany job postingSource 24Partner AI Deployment Engineer - AWSPublisherOpenAI (Ashby)Source typecompany job postingSource 25Deployed Engineer (Bay Area) @ LangChainPublisherLangChain (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 26Forward Deployed Engineer (Training) @ BasetenPublisherBaseten (Ashby)Source typecompany job posting Sort each one: engineering, pre-sales, or “ask”? The answers follow the list.

  1. “Provide oversight to technical onboarding and implementation, but not execute the implementation”, in a role that calls itself a “quota-carrying technologist”.
  2. “transitioning the final delivery plan to implementation teams”.
  3. “guiding complex enterprise customers from ideation to production while enabling AWS and partners to independently drive deployments”.
  4. “Own the technical win in pre-sales by designing POCs”.
  5. “participate in an on-call rotation”.
  6. “You still write code.”
  7. “This is not a demo role.”

The answers.

  1. Pre-sales, with a quota. Cloudflare’s Customer Engineer, in its GTM organization. Source 22Customer Engineer, KoreaPublisherCloudflare (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting It oversees implementation but does not execute it, and it carries a quota. Two decisive flags.
  2. Pre-sales. Google Cloud’s Platform Customer Engineer, which drives the technical win with Sales. Source 23Customer Engineer, Platform, Google Cloud — Google CareersPublisherGoogleSource typecompany job posting The role ends at the handoff to someone else’s team.
  3. Ask. OpenAI’s Partner AI Deployment Engineer, which works across pre- and post-sales in Go To Market. Source 24Partner AI Deployment Engineer - AWSPublisherOpenAI (Ashby)Source typecompany job posting It reaches production, but partners run the deployments. Ask who is on call when they break.
  4. Ask, leaning engineering. LangChain’s Deployed Engineer, whose same posting also asks it to co-build production AI agents with customer teams. Source 25Deployed Engineer (Bay Area) @ LangChainPublisherLangChain (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting A pre-sales duty beside a production duty is a blend, not a disguise.
  5. Engineering. Baseten’s Forward Deployed Engineer (Training). Source 26Forward Deployed Engineer (Training) @ BasetenPublisherBaseten (Ashby)Source typecompany job posting On-call means the role answers for a running system.
  6. Engineering, with a pay question. Okta’s Principal FDE, which states pay as OTE. Source 14Principal Forward Deployed Engineer - Okta for AI AgentsPublisherOkta (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting The duty beats the pay line.
  7. Engineering. Cursor’s FDE postings. Source 6Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherCursor (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job board When a posting says what the job is not, believe it.

If you sorted most of these right, you have the method: find the duty that decides it, and let it outrank the title, the department and the pay line. The lesson on telling FDE apart from adjacent roles has more lines to practice on.

What to ask the recruiter when the posting is unclear

The recruiter call is the cheapest place to settle this. Use these words, and listen for the kind of answer.

“When an FDE here finishes a project, what is running in production that wasn’t before, and who is on call for it?” A good answer names a system and a team that supports it. A worrying answer describes a demo, a pilot handed to the customer, or a deal that closed.

“What happens to what FDEs learn in the field?” A good answer names a route into product or engineering. “It goes into a case study” is the implementation answer.

“Who does this team report to?” A good answer names an engineering, FDE or product leader. If it is a sales leader, follow up: “How is the engineering work reviewed?”

“Is any of the pay variable, and what is it measured on?” Customer go-lives, adoption or delivery milestones point one way. New bookings or a personal quota point the other.

How you ask matters, because the same call is the recruiter screen. If you ask about on-call, expect “why FDE and not software engineering?” in return. Have that answer and a customer-facing story ready. For the questions to save for later rounds, see questions to ask at the end of an FDE interview.

A disguised role is not always a bad role

If the answers say pre-sales, you have not wasted the call. You now know which job it is. Some people want the solutions path. Just prepare for that interview, not an FDE one, and don’t take an offer believing it is something else.

Where to go from here

Once you know the posting describes real FDE work, prepare for the loop that tests it, starting with module 0 of the curriculum, which is free. Its lesson How to read an FDE job posting line by line walks two real postings, Okta’s and Databricks’, field by field. Do it with your posting open in the next tab.

GlossaryForward deployed engineerA software engineer who builds and ships production systems inside a customer’s problem and environment, accountable to that customer’s outcome.More on Forward deployed engineerGlossaryOn-target earningsBase pay plus variable pay if targets are met; a posting that states pay as OTE includes incentive pay in the figure.More on On-target earningsGlossarySolutions architectA customer-facing technical role that designs, advises and often builds proofs of concept; postings place it before the sale, after it, or both.More on Solutions architect

Questions people ask

Is an FDE the same as a solutions architect?

No, though titles blur them. OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s FDE postings have the FDE build and roll out production systems, inside customer systems in Anthropic’s case, while Anthropic’s Applied AI Architect posting describes a pre-sales architect who builds prototypes and proofs of concept.Source 4Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - SFPublisherOpenAI (Ashby)Source typecompany job postingSource 5Job Application for Forward Deployed Engineer at AnthropicPublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job postingSource 8Job Application for Applied AI Architect, Commercial at AnthropicPublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting

Does OTE pay mean an FDE job is really a sales role?

Not on its own. Okta’s Principal FDE posting states its pay as OTE, inclusive of base salary and incentive compensation, and still says the role writes code. Treat OTE as a prompt to ask what the variable part is measured on.Source 14Principal Forward Deployed Engineer - Okta for AI AgentsPublisherOkta (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting

What is a red flag in an FDE job posting?

Duties that are all demos, proofs of concept and support for account executives, with nothing about shipping or running a production system. Compare Cursor’s FDE postings, which say plainly that this is not a demo role.Source 6Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherCursor (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job board

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