By FDE Interview Prep, a SourceStrongAI company

In this post12 sections
  1. Why recruiters ask so early
  2. Find the employer’s own number first
  3. Base, OTE or unstated: read the pay line
  4. Script one: hold off until you know the level
  5. Script two: anchor to the posted band
  6. Script three: when they insist on a number
  7. When the application form asks first
  8. Mistakes that cost you money
  9. Practice the question before the call
  10. Questions people ask
  11. Keep reading
  12. More from the blog

The first call is going well. The recruiter has asked why you want the job and whether you can travel, and then comes the question you knew was coming: “So, what are your salary expectations?” You don’t know the level yet, you haven’t met the team, and whatever you say next can quietly set the ceiling on your offer. Our FDE salary guide has the posted bands; this post is the words.

The short answer: don’t name a number first. Ask for the role’s band and the level it’s hiring at, and if the band works, say so and stop. When the posting prints a range, anchor to the employer’s own number instead of inventing one. Only if the recruiter insists, give a base range whose bottom you would accept, tied to a level, and say that equity and level matter to you as much as base.

Why recruiters ask so early

The recruiter isn’t trying to trick you. They’re checking one thing: whether what you expect and what they’ve budgeted overlap, before they spend interviewer hours on you. That’s a fair question, and it deserves a clear answer about the overlap.

What it doesn’t deserve yet is a single number, because on the first call you are missing the facts that decide it:

  • The level. Some bands span several levels. As of September 2026, Glean’s Founding Forward Deployed Engineer posting says its range “encompasses varying levels of the role, you will be assessed for your level during the interview process.” Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGlean (Greenhouse job board)Source typecompany job posting A number said before the loop sets your level answers a question nobody can answer yet.
  • The package. Base, equity, bonus or commission, and sign-on are separate levers. A single figure blurs them.
  • The job. You may not know yet whether the role sits before the sale or after it, or how much it travels. FDE, software engineer, solutions architect, sales engineer: telling them apart helps you place it.

Assume whatever you say goes into the recruiter’s notes and follows you to the offer. So the goal of this call is narrow: confirm the overlap without setting your own ceiling. Every script below does that, and none of them requires you to be evasive.

Find the employer’s own number first

Before the call, open the posting again. In our September 2026 count of public postings on 103 employer job boards, 415 of the 806 postings with FDE-pattern titles published a pay figure in some currency. Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data In our count of public postings, 364 of the 415 postings located in the US published pay. Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data Our count covers only the boards we read on one day, not the whole market, and its unit is a requisition rather than a distinct role: the same job reposted under a second requisition counts twice. Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

So check before you prepare a number of your own. If the posting prints a range, it’s the strongest anchor you have. The employer wrote it and published it, and a recruiter can’t easily call their own range unrealistic.

Check the currency while you’re there. In our count, 4 Cohere postings listed for Canada and the US showed pay only in Canadian dollars. Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

Write down what you find, in a form you can read aloud on the call:

Employer and title:
Month I read it:
Range as printed:
Basis: base / OTE / not stated
Equity mentioned: yes / no
Levels covered: one / several / not stated

If the posting has no range, look for the same employer’s other postings, or comparable titles at other employers; the free lesson Who hires FDEs, and under which titles helps you find them. The salary guide collects posted bands and the offered base wages in H-1B filings, each labeled with what it covers.

Base, OTE or unstated: read the pay line

A range is only an anchor once you know what it measures. FDE postings label pay in several ways, and some don’t label it at all. Here is how each of these postings describes its pay line, as of September 2026. Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGlean (Greenhouse job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 3Missionforce - Associate Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Public SectorPublisherSalesforce (Workday)Source typecompany job postingSource 4Principal Forward Deployed Engineer - Okta for AI AgentsPublisherOkta (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job postingSource 5AI Engineer – Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE)PublisherDatabricks (careers site / Greenhouse)Source typecompany job postingSource 6Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - SF | OpenAIPublisherOpenAISource typecompany job postingSource 7Forward Deployed Engineer (New York City, NY; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA)PublisherAnthropic (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job postingSource 8Agent Deployment Engineer @ Decagon (San Francisco)PublisherDecagon (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 9Agent Deployment Engineer @ Decagon (New York City)PublisherDecagon (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting

PostingHow the pay line is labeled
Salesforce, Assoc. FDEBase salary only; the range leaves out bonus, equity and benefits
Okta, Principal FDEOTE, “inclusive of base salary and incentive compensation”
Databricks, AI FDE (US)Salary for non-commissionable roles, OTE for commissionable ones; doesn’t say which this is
OpenAI, FDE (SF)A salary range, with equity and bonuses on top
Anthropic, FDE (NY, SF, Seattle)“Annual Salary”; a shared line says sales roles show OTE
Glean, Founding FDEA “standard range”, not labeled base or total
Decagon, Agent Deployment Eng.A range plus “Offers Equity”, not labeled base or total

Each label changes what you say:

  • Base. You can set your base target straight against it. Say “base” out loud every time you mention it.
  • . Part of the figure arrives only if a target is met. Ask for the split and what the variable part is measured on before you anchor to it. Why some FDE jobs pay OTE has the questions, and our glossary entry on on-target earnings has the definition.
  • Either, or not stated. Don’t guess, and don’t fill the gap with an assumption. Ask: “Is the posted range base salary, or does it include bonus or commission?”
  • Equity on top. Keep it separate. A strong base band with thin equity and a weaker base band with strong equity aren’t comparable until you have both numbers.

The free lesson How to read an FDE job posting line by line shows how to note the pay basis for every posting you track, so you compare base with base later.

Script one: hold off until you know the level

When to use it: the posting has no range, or you haven’t confirmed what the range covers.

“Happy to talk numbers, and I’d rather know now than after the onsite. Before I give you one, can you share the range budgeted for this role, and which level you’re hiring into?”

If they share it, move to script two.

If they say they’d like to hear yours first:

“That’s fair. I just don’t want to guess at a level I don’t know yet. Is the role open at one level or several? If it’s several, I’d rather the interviews show where I fit, and then we talk about where in the band.”

This works because it answers the recruiter’s real question, overlap, with a question about the same thing. You’re not refusing; you’re asking for the one fact that makes any number meaningful.

Avoid these lines. “I’m flexible” and “whatever’s fair” hand the recruiter nothing and signal you haven’t done the research. “What’s the most you can do?” sounds like a negotiation before there’s anything to negotiate. And “I don’t discuss compensation” ends the conversation you need to have.

Script two: anchor to the posted band

When to use it: the posting prints a range, or the recruiter has just shared one.

“I read your posting this month, and it lists [the range as printed], which reads as base salary. Is that the band for the level you’re hiring at? If so, it works for me.”

If the posting doesn’t say what the range covers, swap the middle for: “which doesn’t say whether it’s base or total. Which is it?”

Then stop. Don’t place yourself inside the band. If they ask where you’d land, turn it back to level:

“That depends on the level you bring me in at, and I’d like the interviews to show that. Can you walk me through how your team sets it?”

That question matters more than any figure you could say. A range that spans levels, like Glean’s, is really several bands in one. The level decides which part of it you negotiate inside, so move the conversation there. What level do you think you are, and why? shows how to argue for a level with evidence.

If the band is below your floor, say so now, while it costs nothing:

“Thanks for being clear. The top of that band is below where I’d need to be at this level. Is there room on level, or on anything other than base? If not, it’s better we both know now.”

If the recruiter says the band is fixed, believe them for now (one Blind poster in June 2026 was told base wasn’t negotiable for Anthropic’s Applied AI Architect role, which isn’t an FDE title Source 10Applied AI Architect AnthropicPublisherBlind (teamblind.com)Source typecandidate report on Blind). When you hear that, level is the lever left, so ask how it’s decided.

Worked example: a range that covers several levels

Take Glean’s Founding Forward Deployed Engineer posting, as of September 2026. Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGlean (Greenhouse job board)Source typecompany job posting Its pay line is a “standard range” that doesn’t say whether it’s base or total, and it covers several levels, with yours set during the interviews. Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGlean (Greenhouse job board)Source typecompany job posting Your note reads: basis not stated, levels several. So script two needs two questions before any number:

“Your posting lists a standard range. Is that base salary, or total?”

“It says the range covers several levels. Which one are you hiring at, or will the loop decide?”

If the answer is “the loop decides”, you have nothing to anchor to yet, and that’s the honest reason to wait. If the recruiter still presses, go to script three and tie your range to a level: “for a senior level, base only.”

Script three: when they insist on a number

If the recruiter won’t move on without a figure, give a range, never a point, and build it before the call:

  1. The bottom is the base you’d accept and sign. Not a wish, and not a bluff. If they come in there, you say yes.
  2. The top is a stretch you can defend. Use posted ranges for comparable roles at your level, from the salary guide, not a figure you can’t trace to a source.
  3. Say what it covers. Base, not total, and at which level.
  4. Put equity and level beside it.
  5. Close the loop. Invite them to say now if it’s out of range.

As a template, that’s three sentences:

“For a [level] role, I’m looking at [bottom] to [top] in base, from the posted bands I’ve tracked. I’ll weigh equity and level alongside it. If that misses your band, let’s find out now.”

Fill in the brackets with real figures before the call. To hear all three scripts in one recruiter call, with real numbers, read the model answer.

Two follow-ups that come next

“What are you making now?” You don’t have to volunteer it. Redirect to the role:

“My current job is a different shape, so I don’t think it’s a useful guide here. The band you’ve given me for this role is the number I’m working from, and it’s fine.”

“Where else are you interviewing?” Tell the truth, in stages, without names you promised to keep private. Never invent an offer: if it’s checked, nothing else you said is believed. Where else are you interviewing, and how far along are you? has the framework. When an offer does arrive, How to negotiate a forward deployed engineer offer picks up from there.

When the application form asks first

Sometimes the question comes before any call. As of September 2026, Palantir’s application form for its , US Government posting in Washington, D.C., asks: “Are you comfortable with the compensation range advertised on the role posting?” Source 11Apply: Forward Deployed Software Engineer - US Government (Washington, D.C.) - Palantir on LeverPublisherPalantir Technologies (Lever)Source typecompany job postingSource 12Forward Deployed Software Engineer - US Government (Washington, D.C.) - Palantir on LeverPublisherPalantir Technologies (Lever)Source typecompany job posting

Treat that box as your first answer to the salary question, because it is one. A yes tells them the range works for you, so asking for more than its top later contradicts your own form. Before you tick it:

Before you answer a pay question on a form

  • Read the posted range and what it covers: base, OTE or not stated.
  • Check it against your floor for the level you expect.
  • Say yes only if the range works for you.
  • If the form has a free-text field, give a range tied to the posting and a level, not a single number.
  • Save a copy of the posting and note the month you read it, since postings change or close.

If the top of the posted range is below your floor, think before you apply. A form answer you have to walk back on the recruiter call starts the process on the wrong foot.

Mistakes that cost you money

  • Comparing different kinds of number. A base target against an OTE or total range makes you look expensive; a total against a base band makes you look cheap. Fix: learn the basis before you compare, and say “base” every time.
  • Anchoring on a figure you can’t trace. A number from a prep site gives you nothing to defend when the recruiter asks where it came from. Fix: use posted bands and filings, each with its date and basis.
  • Leveling yourself down to seem safe. It hands the recruiter a lower band before anyone has interviewed you. Fix: argue for the level your evidence supports.
  • Inventing leverage. A made-up competing offer or an inflated current salary can be checked. Fix: say only what’s true, and say when it changes.

Practice the question before the call

These scripts are easy to read and harder to say while a recruiter waits in silence. Say each one out loud once, with your real numbers in the brackets, before the call.

Then practice the two questions above out loud: the compensation one first, then the level one, since level is where the money is decided. The FDE recruiter screen covers the rest of the first call, from “tell me about yourself” to travel.

Every recruiter-round question shows its framework free. Pro opens the model answers to the rest, including the one on other processes, and starts with a 7-day free trial. See Pro.

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 earningsGlossaryForward deployed software engineerPalantir’s title for its FDE role, called Delta internally; OpenAI and EY also post FDSE titles, each with its own duties.More on Forward deployed software engineer

Questions people ask

Should I give a number when a recruiter asks my salary expectations for an FDE role?

Not first. Ask for the band and the level, then say the band works if it does. If they insist, give a base range whose bottom you would accept, tied to a level, and say that equity and level matter to you as much as base.

What if the FDE job posting already lists a salary range?

Use it. Check whether the range is base, OTE or unstated before you anchor to it, name the posting and the month you read it, and ask which level in the range the role is being hired at.

Should I tell the recruiter my current salary?

You don’t have to volunteer it. Redirect to the role’s range. Say the scope of this role is different from your current one, and that the posted band works for you if it does.

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