Remote forward deployed engineer jobs: how many exist and what ‘remote’ means in an FDE posting

By FDE Interview Prep, a SourceStrongAI company

In this post11 sections

1. The short answer
2. How many FDE postings are remote-eligible
3. Employer by employer: who lists remote roles
4. Remote, except at the customer
5. When a posting’s remote fields disagree
6. The fully remote exception
7. How to search for remote FDE roles
8. What to ask before you apply
9. Questions people ask
10. Keep reading
11. More from the blog

You set the job board filter to “remote”, typed “forward deployed engineer”, and got a short list. Then you opened the first posting: the location says “Remote - US”, and a few paragraphs down it says the role requires 25–50% travel. ^[1]Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGleanSource typecompany job posting That is not a typo. In an FDE posting, “remote” can mean “remote, except when you are at the customer”. This post, part of our guide to what a forward deployed engineer is, answers where the remote FDE jobs are.

The short answer

Remote FDE jobs exist, but they were a minority in our count. In our September 2026 count of postings on the 103 job boards we checked, 138 of 806 FDE postings (17.1%) were remote-eligible, and hybrid did not count as remote. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

Among the large FDE employers in our count, ElevenLabs had 30 of its 38 postings flagged remote, and Databricks 14 of its 117. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data Glean, Cohere, MongoDB, Cursor (for EMEA) and LangChain also had remote-listed roles. ^{[1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]}Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGleanSource typecompany job postingSource 3Forward Deployed Engineer, Agentic PlatformPublisherCohere (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 4Senior Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherMongoDB CareersSource typecompany job postingSource 5Senior Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherMongoDB (Greenhouse job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 6Forward Deployed Engineer - EMEAPublisherCursor (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 7Deployed Engineer (Federal) @ LangChainPublisherLangChain (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting

In our count, OpenAI, Palantir and Google, three of the employers with the most FDE postings, had none flagged remote. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data And a remote FDE posting still describes a job built around customers, so read the travel line before you get attached to the location line.

How many FDE postings are remote-eligible

In September 2026 we ran a census that read 103 employer job boards and found 806 live postings whose titles match the FDE patterns, from 92 employers. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

Our count marked a posting remote-eligible when the job board’s remote field said so, or when a location string contained “remote”. It did not read the descriptions, and hybrid did not count. On that basis, our count found 138 of 806 remote-eligible. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

The share barely moves when you narrow it. In our count, 72 of 415 US-located postings (17.3%) and 99 of 650 engineering-titled postings (15.2%) were remote-eligible. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

Three limits to keep in mind:

• The unit is a posting, not a person. In our count, the same role can appear as several postings, one per requisition, and each counts. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data
• Some employers are missing. Our census did not include Accenture, Deloitte and other employers without a public job API. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data
• Keyword-searched boards may be undercounted. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and the Workday boards, Salesforce among them, were read by keyword search rather than whole in our census. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

Another tracker’s figure

FDE Pulse, a job-market tracker, reported that 99 of the 1,321 FDE postings it tracked as of April 2026 (7%) listed the role as remote-eligible. ^[8]Source 8Forward Deployed Engineer Hiring Trends 2026PublisherFDE PulseSource typeindependent analysis

FDE Pulse uses its own method and a different date, so its figure and ours measure different things. Don’t set them side by side.

Employer by employer: who lists remote roles

This is where a search plan starts. In our count, several employers with many FDE postings had no remote-flagged ones at all, while a few had many.

Our census read Google, Amazon and Salesforce by keyword search, so their counts may be low. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

Microsoft is left out of the table on purpose, because its fields disagree; the section on conflicting fields below covers it.

Some of these employers, and Anthropic, say in their postings what they expect instead:

• OpenAI’s FDE postings state a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. ^[9]Source 9Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - SFPublisherOpenAISource typecompany job posting
• Anthropic’s FDE postings expect all staff to be in one of its offices at least 25% of the time. ^[10]Source 10Forward Deployed Engineer (New York City, NY; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA)PublisherAnthropicSource typecompany job posting
• Palantir’s postings encourage employees to work from its offices, and say many teams offer hybrid options of working from home a day or two a week. ^[11]Source 11Palantir Technologies - Forward Deployed Software Engineer (New York, NY)PublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany job posting

So if you only search with the remote filter on, you will miss every OpenAI, Palantir and Google FDE posting in our count. That may be what you want. But know that you are choosing a slice of the market, not seeing all of it.

Where the remote postings are

The remote postings we read come from AI product companies, data platforms and public-sector teams alike:

• Glean’s Founding Forward Deployed Engineer posting is listed as “Remote - US” and says the role is remote. ^[1]Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGleanSource typecompany job posting
• Cohere’s US “Forward Deployed Engineer, Agentic Platform” posting is marked remote, with the United States as its primary location. ^[3]Source 3Forward Deployed Engineer, Agentic PlatformPublisherCohere (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting
• MongoDB’s Senior Forward Deployed Engineer posting will be based remotely on the US East Coast. ^{[4, 5]}Source 4Senior Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherMongoDB CareersSource typecompany job postingSource 5Senior Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherMongoDB (Greenhouse job board)Source typecompany job posting
• Cursor’s “Forward Deployed Engineer - EMEA” posting is located in London with a workplace type of Remote. ^[6]Source 6Forward Deployed Engineer - EMEAPublisherCursor (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting
• Databricks’ “AI Engineer – Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE)” posting in the United States says it is open to remote locations. ^[12]Source 12AI Engineer – Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE)PublisherDatabricks (careers site / Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting
• LangChain’s Deployed Engineer (Federal) posting is listed as Washington DC, remote, and serves US government customers. ^[7]Source 7Deployed Engineer (Federal) @ LangChainPublisherLangChain (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting
• Salesforce’s Missionforce Associate FDE posting for the public sector lists Washington D.C. - Remote and Maryland - Remote among its locations. ^[13]Source 13Missionforce - Associate Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Public SectorPublisherSalesforce (Workday careers site)Source typecompany job posting

Look at the last two. “Remote” in a public-sector posting sits next to government customers, and that Salesforce posting requires an active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph. ^[13]Source 13Missionforce - Associate Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Public SectorPublisherSalesforce (Workday careers site)Source typecompany job posting Our post on FDE jobs that need a security clearance covers how to read those lines.

Remote, except at the customer

An FDE works inside a customer’s systems and with the customer’s people. A remote label tells you where you live between visits. The travel line tells you how many visits there are.

Here is what remote-listed postings say about travel:

• Glean, “Remote - US”: as of September 2026, the role requires 25–50% travel. ^[1]Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGleanSource typecompany job posting
• Cohere: its FDE postings, including some listed as remote, state travel of up to 20–40% to work on-site with customers and partners. ^{[3, 14]}Source 3Forward Deployed Engineer, Agentic PlatformPublisherCohere (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 14Forward Deployed Engineer, Agentic Platform (UK/Europe)PublisherCohereSource typecompany job posting
• MongoDB, remote on the US East Coast: travel of up to 30% to customer sites. ^{[4, 5]}Source 4Senior Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherMongoDB CareersSource typecompany job postingSource 5Senior Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherMongoDB (Greenhouse job board)Source typecompany job posting
• LangChain, Deployed Architect in Amsterdam and London: both postings describe the role as “Remote with up to 25% travel”. ^{[15, 16]}Source 15Deployed Architect, Professional Services (Amsterdam) @ LangChainPublisherLangChain (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 16Deployed Architect, Professional Services (London) @ LangChainPublisherLangChain (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting
• ElevenLabs, North America: remote-first anywhere in the United States, with a preference for New York or San Francisco, and “Expect regular travel for customer onsites”, with no percentage. ^{[17, 18]}Source 17Forward Deployed Engineer - Software Engineer - North America @ ElevenLabsPublisherElevenLabs (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 18Forward Deployed Engineer - Software Engineer - North America (ElevenLabs careers)PublisherElevenLabsSource typecompany job posting

ElevenLabs’ board as a whole reads the same way. In our count, 30 of its 38 postings were marked remote and all 38 mentioned travel. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

Across our whole census, 512 of 806 postings mentioned travel somewhere in the description. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

The location line hides more than the word remote:

• Country and time zone. “Remote - US” is not “remote anywhere”, and “based remotely in the United States (East Coast)” narrows it again. Check that you can work in the country the posting names.
• A preferred city. “Preference for New York or San Francisco” tells you where the office is, and where the team may gather. It is worth asking how much that preference weighs.

For what a travel percentage means in weeks away, and how it gets spread across a quarter, read how much forward deployed engineers travel.

When a posting’s remote fields disagree

A job posting has two layers. The structured fields (workplace type, location, remote flag) are what a board’s remote filter usually reads. The description is what the hiring team wrote. The two do not always agree.

• Microsoft. In our count, 17 of its 29 FDE postings had a work-site field reading “0 days / week in-office - remote”, while its workLocationOption field read “onsite”. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data Some of its FDE postings say employees who live within fifty miles of the Redmond campus must be in the office at least 3 days a week, while their work-site field reads remote. ^[19]Source 19Microsoft Careers: Senior Forward Deployed Engineer (WPD)PublisherMicrosoftSource typecompany job posting
• ElevenLabs, Brazil. The text says the role is remote-first anywhere in Brazil, with a São Paulo preference, and the job-board record marks the workplace type as OnSite. ^[20]Source 20ElevenLabs job boardPublisherElevenLabs (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting
• Cursor, US. The posting’s primary location is San Francisco, with New York and Remote (United States) as secondary locations, and its workplace type is OnSite. ^{[21, 22]}Source 21Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherCursor (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 22CareersPublisherCursorSource typecompany hiring page
• Baseten. The FDE posting is based in San Francisco, lists Remote (United States) among its secondary locations, and has a workplace type of Hybrid. ^[23]Source 23Forward Deployed Engineer @ BasetenPublisherBaseten (Ashby)Source typecompany job posting

We can’t tell you which layer is right for any of these. Nor can the filter. What it means for you:

1. A remote filter can hide a posting that is open to remote candidates in its text, and show you one whose text asks for office days.
2. A “Remote” secondary location is a question to ask, not an answer.
3. Ask the recruiter which applies to your location, and get the answer in writing before you plan around it.

The fully remote exception

One company describes a fully remote FDE on purpose. PostHog describes its first FDE as fully remote, async and focused on building automation, and calls it “a weird experiment for those used to the typical FDE setup”. ^[24]Source 24WTF is a forward deployed engineer? (and why everyone is hiring them)PublisherPostHog (Jina Yoon)Source typecompany blog

Note what that sentence is: one company describing its own role. It does not show that fully remote FDE work is spreading. It does show a different shape of job: in PostHog’s description, the role is async and focused on building automation, not on weeks at a customer site.

If you find a posting that says fully remote with no travel, ask how customer work happens instead. Who runs the discovery calls? How does the FDE see the customer’s environment? Who is in the room when something breaks? The answers tell you whether it is an FDE role or a support role with a new title.

How the job changes between a small company and a large one is the subject of FDE at a startup vs a big company.

How to search for remote FDE roles

A good search takes a little longer than setting a filter.

1. Search every title, not one. Our census matched “forward deployed”, “deployed engineer”, “deployment strategist”, “agent deployment engineer” and the abbreviation “FDE”, and some postings were caught only by the abbreviation. ^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data The lesson on who hires FDEs, and under which titles lists the variants.
2. Filter for remote, then open everything. For each posting, copy three lines: the location, the workplace type, and the travel sentence.
3. Also search on-site and hybrid postings for “Remote”. As the Cursor and Baseten examples show, a Remote secondary location can sit under an OnSite or Hybrid label.
4. Read the posting on the employer’s own board. That is where you see the secondary locations and the workplace type, which is where the examples in this post come from.
5. Check the country. Some remote roles are tied to one country: Databricks’ FDE ladder includes a Staff Forward Deployed Engineer posting in Remote India. ^{[25, 26]}Source 25Sr. Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, SingaporePublisherDatabricks (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job postingSource 26Sr. Manager, AI Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE), United StatesPublisherDatabricks (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting
6. Read the clearance and citizenship lines on any public-sector posting before you apply.

Our lesson on how to read an FDE job posting line by line turns the reading steps into a worksheet. For how many FDE postings there are overall, and how to read growth claims about them, see whether FDE demand is real.

Two filled-in log entries

Here is what the log looks like with two real postings.

Cursor, Forward Deployed Engineer (US) ^{[21, 22]}Source 21Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherCursor (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 22CareersPublisherCursorSource typecompany hiring page

• Location: San Francisco; secondary locations New York and Remote (United States)
• Workplace type: OnSite
• Fields vs text: they conflict, because a Remote location sits under an OnSite label
• Question to ask: “Is Remote (United States) open to me, or only New York and San Francisco?”

Glean, Founding Forward Deployed Engineer ^[1]Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGleanSource typecompany job posting

• Location: “Remote - US”, and the text says the role is remote
• Stated travel: 25–50% ^[1]Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGleanSource typecompany job posting
• Fields vs text: they agree on remote
• Question to ask: “Where are the customers, and how is that travel spread across a quarter?”

The Cursor entry is a question about where you may live. The Glean entry is a question about how often you are away. Both are worth asking before the first interview.

What to ask before you apply

Ask these in the recruiter screen, in these words or your own:

• “The posting says remote. Where are the customers I’d be working with, and how often would I be on site with them?”
• “Is the travel figure spread evenly, or does it come in blocks around launches?”
• “The board lists this as on-site, but the description says remote-first. Which applies if I live where I do now?”
• “Is there a preferred city, and does living elsewhere change the level, the pay or the accounts I’d get?”
• “Do remote team members come to an office for onboarding or team gatherings?”
• “If my main account moves to a customer in another region, what happens to the role?”

The onboarding question has a published example. Baseten’s blog post “Ten reasons to join Baseten”, last updated in December 2025, says the whole team meets in person for offsites twice a year, and that remote teammates get a travel-to-office budget. ^[27]Source 27Ten reasons to join BasetenPublisherBasetenSource typecompany blog Ask whether the employer you are talking to has something similar.

When they ask you about travel

Expect the question back. A recruiter may ask what travel you can commit to, and “I’m flexible” is the weakest answer, because it gives away the one thing you are trying to protect. A stronger shape:

“I’m set up to work remotely from Chicago. I can be on site with customers every month, including longer stretches around a launch. What I can’t do is live out of a hotel for most of a quarter. What does the travel on this team look like in practice?”

It states a limit, shows you understand the job, and turns the question back to facts. Our question page on what travel you can commit to has a model answer and the follow-ups, and why this company? helps when the next question is why you want a remote role there in particular.

A remote role still puts you in front of customers, and our curriculum trains the skill that work runs on: scoping a customer’s problem, building inside their constraints and explaining it to them. Start with The FDE role, decoded, including travel, location and on-site time, and then try scoping out loud. In the free practice case, an AI customer answers only what you ask. It needs a sign-in.

Questions people ask

Are there remote forward deployed engineer jobs, and how many did we count?

Yes, but they were a minority in our count. On the 103 job boards we checked in September 2026, 138 of 806 FDE postings were remote-eligible by the job board’s field or the location text. Hybrid was not counted as remote.^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

Do remote FDE jobs still require travel?

Read the travel line, because remote postings can still state it. As of September 2026, Glean’s remote Founding Forward Deployed Engineer posting states 25–50% travel, and Cohere’s FDE postings, including some listed as remote, state travel of up to 20–40%.^{[1, 3, 14]}Source 1Founding Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherGleanSource typecompany job postingSource 3Forward Deployed Engineer, Agentic PlatformPublisherCohere (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job postingSource 14Forward Deployed Engineer, Agentic Platform (UK/Europe)PublisherCohereSource typecompany job posting

What share of FDE jobs are remote, by our count?

In our September 2026 count, 138 of 806 postings (17.1%) were remote-eligible, and hybrid did not count. Other trackers use their own methods and dates, so their figures measure different things.^[2]Source 2Our analysis: FDE posting censusPublisherfdeinterviewprep.com researchSource typeour analysis of public data

Keep reading

Guides

• What is a forward deployed engineer?

Lessons

• Travel, location and on-site time: read the posting, then ask
• How to read an FDE job posting line by line
• Who hires FDEs, and under which titles

Questions

• This role involves travel to customer sites. What can you commit to, and what would make it unworkable?
• Why this company, and why now?

More from the blog

1. The FDE role

   How much do forward deployed engineers travel? What postings say, and what to ask

   What FDE job postings say about travel, company by company, what a travel percentage means in days away, and what to ask before you accept an offer.

   10 min readPublished September 2026

2. The FDE role

   Can you become a forward deployed engineer as a new grad? Who hires, and what they ask for

   Palantir, C3 AI and a few others post FDE roles for new grads. Who posts them, what they ask for, and how to show customer skill without a job history.

   11 min readPublished September 2026

3. The FDE role

   FDE at a startup or at a big company: how the job, the loop and the offer differ

   The same FDE title can mean a startup’s first customer engineer or one of many at a big company. How scope, interviews and offers differ, and how to tell.

   11 min readPublished September 2026

More in The FDE role, page 2