This as-told essay is based on a conversation with Patrick Kelly, Brooklyn-based co-founder and CEO of Port of Context, which helps companies connect AI to their existing systems. Kelly founded Forward Deployed Engineers of New York in June 2026, which frequently hosts events and has a listing of FDE job openings on its website. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I was a forward deployed engineer before I had the title.
I started as a solutions engineer at a legal AI company, before big language models took off. I would go into a big company, find out where AI could help, and work with the people there to create something they could actually use.
When we started Forward Deployed Engineers of New York, a few friends left tech companies to work at fast-growing startups. There’s a lot of pressure on you when you’re jumping into a client’s business and figuring out what to build, and we thought people could use a place to exchange notes.
When we talk about a recession in tech employment, we’re actually seeing the opposite in this specific role. Here are some of the latest hiring trends in FDE positions and how people from different backgrounds could all land in this role.
Work finally has a name everyone agrees on
Solutions engineer, solutions architect, client engineer, implementation engineer, field engineer — I have a whole list of names of what used to be called this role.
While the job description hasn’t changed, the explosion of AI subscriptions has helped make the position more visible. People started chatting with Claude and quickly discovered that it was difficult to move from a chatbot to a system that a business could trust to operate on its own. This is where an FDE comes in.
The role is different from that of a traditional software engineer. You walk into a big company and see where AI could really help you. You work with customer engineers to access systems and with the sales team to determine how you will measure value. You might spend a few weeks or months writing code and creating the workflow, then you hand it in before you leave.
New hiring trends at FDE
Many new opportunities and roles adjacent to FDE are opening up.
I have an analogy with the FDE: you have to be a jack of all trades and master three professions. It’s about AI, software engineering, and learning a new business domain quickly. The latter is basically like being a McKinsey consultant. Any one of these things could be a career on its own.
New York has AI companies hiring FDEs and has plenty of places to deploy them. Banks and other large companies have seen how the work is done, which is why some banks are now building in-house teams to run these projects themselves without relying on AI companies.
Large consulting firms are also changing the way they deliver their AI projects.
I see very technical consultants from places like McKinsey and Bain finding the path to forward deployed engineering. There is also a role for people who have not worked as software engineers. At my company, we pair FDEs with deployment strategists, a role first invented by Palantir.
While the FDE does the coding and technical work, a deployment strategist works with the client and moves the technical project forward as a manager. You need to speak the language, understand the AI product, and be very good at meeting customer expectations.
Land the job
If you’re a software engineer who’s never worked directly with a client, think about a project you started within your own company. Maybe you spotted a multi-million dollar opportunity, figured out how long it would take, and assembled the team to make it happen. This is a good story to tell in an interview.
It is also important to explain the project in terms that interest the company. What was the opportunity? How did you get people on board? What did the work bring? If you can point to a return on investment, bring that number.
Ultimately, the rise of the FDE is a reflection of changes in the labor market.
Agents now do more coding and teams can deliver results faster. This gives more weight to the decision what to do and how to do it. Being able to explain what you chose to build, why it was worth it, and what the company got out of it matters more than technical skills.
Gn bussni
