Artificial intelligence companies are hiring at breakneck speed, but not just for the usual coders and data scientists. The newest, fastest-growing role in the AI world is the Forward-Deployed Engineer (FDE) — a professional who combines deep technical knowledge with hands-on collaboration skills to help businesses integrate AI.
According to a recent analysis by Indeed’s Hiring Lab and reporting by the Financial Times, job postings for these customer-facing engineering roles have soared by more than 800% between January and September 2025. AI leaders like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere are racing to recruit them as they work to turn cutting-edge research into commercial success.
Why Forward-Deployed Engineers Are Suddenly Everywhere
The surge in FDE hiring reflects a broader trend: companies across industries are keen to adopt AI but often lack the in-house expertise to make it work. That is where forward-deployed engineers come in.
According to the Financial Times, OpenAI built its FDE team earlier this year and expects to expand it to around 50 engineers by 2025. Anthropic plans to grow its applied AI division fivefold to meet soaring customer demand. “A Fortune 500 bank has completely different needs than a start-up building an AI-native product,” said Cat de Jong, head of applied AI at Anthropic.
These engineers work directly with clients to customize large language models, train systems on proprietary data, and build tailored workflows. Cohere’s co-founder Aidan Gomez told the FT that embedding engineers at the start of a customer’s journey helps ensure success and strengthens long-term relationships.
AI Is Transforming the Nature of Work
The 800% spike in hiring is backed by broader findings from Indeed’s 2025 AI at Work Report: “How GenAI Is Rewiring the DNA of Jobs.” The research shows that 26% of all jobs listed on Indeed this year could be “highly transformed” by generative AI, while nearly half (46%) of job-related skills already fall into what the report calls “hybrid transformation” — where AI performs most routine tasks while humans oversee, interpret, and refine results.
“Human software developers are likely to shift from doing the work to directing the work,” the report notes, emphasizing that the biggest workforce changes will come from collaboration between people and machines, not replacement.
In fact, software development emerged as the most AI-exposed occupation in the analysis, with 81% of its skills open to hybrid transformation. Nursing, by contrast, remains among the least affected professions due to its need for physical presence and human empathy.
Silicon Valley’s Favorite Title
The concept of the Forward-Deployed Engineer isn’t new. According to Cubiq Recruitment, the role originated at Palantir nearly two decades ago, when engineers were “forward deployed” to work directly with clients in industries like energy, defense, and logistics. “The only valuable software,” said Nic Prettejohn, Palantir’s UK head of AI, in remarks to the Financial Times, “is the kind that means something to the end customer.”
AI startups have borrowed and updated that model. “The trending role in AI startups isn’t AI engineers — it’s Forward-Deployed Engineers,” wrote Michelle Lim, co-founder of tech start-up Flint, in a viral LinkedIn post earlier this year. Lim called the FDE position “an evolution of the solutions engineer,” describing it as the perfect fit for technical professionals who want to engage deeply with customers.
The Human Edge in the Age of Generative AI
While the Indeed Hiring Lab report shows that only 1% of all job skills are fully automatable, it underscores that the greatest opportunity lies in hybrid collaboration between AI and human expertise. Forward-deployed engineers represent that balance: technical enough to work with complex AI systems, and empathetic enough to understand what clients truly need.
For companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, they are the bridge between innovation and impact — the ones who ensure AI tools do not just exist, but actually deliver value.
As OpenAI’s Arnaud Fournier told the Financial Times, “We learn what customers in different industries really need, we experiment and innovate together, and then those insights help advance OpenAI’s research and product offerings.”
In a labor market increasingly shaped by generative AI, the hottest job of 2025 isn’t about replacing humans with machines — it’s about hiring humans who can make machines work for everyone else.
According to a recent analysis by Indeed’s Hiring Lab and reporting by the Financial Times, job postings for these customer-facing engineering roles have soared by more than 800% between January and September 2025. AI leaders like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere are racing to recruit them as they work to turn cutting-edge research into commercial success.
Why Forward-Deployed Engineers Are Suddenly Everywhere
The surge in FDE hiring reflects a broader trend: companies across industries are keen to adopt AI but often lack the in-house expertise to make it work. That is where forward-deployed engineers come in.
According to the Financial Times, OpenAI built its FDE team earlier this year and expects to expand it to around 50 engineers by 2025. Anthropic plans to grow its applied AI division fivefold to meet soaring customer demand. “A Fortune 500 bank has completely different needs than a start-up building an AI-native product,” said Cat de Jong, head of applied AI at Anthropic.
These engineers work directly with clients to customize large language models, train systems on proprietary data, and build tailored workflows. Cohere’s co-founder Aidan Gomez told the FT that embedding engineers at the start of a customer’s journey helps ensure success and strengthens long-term relationships.
AI Is Transforming the Nature of Work
The 800% spike in hiring is backed by broader findings from Indeed’s 2025 AI at Work Report: “How GenAI Is Rewiring the DNA of Jobs.” The research shows that 26% of all jobs listed on Indeed this year could be “highly transformed” by generative AI, while nearly half (46%) of job-related skills already fall into what the report calls “hybrid transformation” — where AI performs most routine tasks while humans oversee, interpret, and refine results.
“Human software developers are likely to shift from doing the work to directing the work,” the report notes, emphasizing that the biggest workforce changes will come from collaboration between people and machines, not replacement.
In fact, software development emerged as the most AI-exposed occupation in the analysis, with 81% of its skills open to hybrid transformation. Nursing, by contrast, remains among the least affected professions due to its need for physical presence and human empathy.
Silicon Valley’s Favorite Title
The concept of the Forward-Deployed Engineer isn’t new. According to Cubiq Recruitment, the role originated at Palantir nearly two decades ago, when engineers were “forward deployed” to work directly with clients in industries like energy, defense, and logistics. “The only valuable software,” said Nic Prettejohn, Palantir’s UK head of AI, in remarks to the Financial Times, “is the kind that means something to the end customer.”
AI startups have borrowed and updated that model. “The trending role in AI startups isn’t AI engineers — it’s Forward-Deployed Engineers,” wrote Michelle Lim, co-founder of tech start-up Flint, in a viral LinkedIn post earlier this year. Lim called the FDE position “an evolution of the solutions engineer,” describing it as the perfect fit for technical professionals who want to engage deeply with customers.
The Human Edge in the Age of Generative AI
While the Indeed Hiring Lab report shows that only 1% of all job skills are fully automatable, it underscores that the greatest opportunity lies in hybrid collaboration between AI and human expertise. Forward-deployed engineers represent that balance: technical enough to work with complex AI systems, and empathetic enough to understand what clients truly need.
For companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, they are the bridge between innovation and impact — the ones who ensure AI tools do not just exist, but actually deliver value.
As OpenAI’s Arnaud Fournier told the Financial Times, “We learn what customers in different industries really need, we experiment and innovate together, and then those insights help advance OpenAI’s research and product offerings.”
In a labor market increasingly shaped by generative AI, the hottest job of 2025 isn’t about replacing humans with machines — it’s about hiring humans who can make machines work for everyone else.
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