The FDE Coach blog · new articles every day
Practical guides for engineers who ship AI.
Step-by-step builds with free AI tools, what just shipped in AI and why it matters, and Forward Deployed Engineer playbooks on interviews, pay and client work.
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Forward Deployed
What a Forward Deployed Engineer Actually Does in a Week: A Palantir-Style Breakdown
A concrete, week-in-the-life breakdown of a Forward Deployed Engineer—moving from a high-stakes Monday morning fire to shipping a prototype by Friday. Covers real workflows, comp numbers, and the core difference between FDEs and standard SWEs.
8 min read
Forward Deployed
Case Study: Deploying a RAG-Powered LLM Feature at a Regulated Enterprise
A concrete engineering walkthrough of shipping a retrieval-augmented generation feature inside a Fortune 500 insurer. Covers air-gapped deployment, chunking strategy, audit logging, and the FDE comp context.
8 min read
Forward Deployed
On-Site vs Remote FDE Work: Travel Realities, Burnout, and Comp Implications
A deep-dive into the FDE lifestyle tradeoffs: why on-site deployment weeks hit different, how travel and burnout risk affect compensation, and a decision framework for engineers.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
The Tools an FDE Ships With: Data Pipelines, Integration Scaffolds, and Demo Kits
A concrete inventory of the tools a Forward Deployed Engineer actually ships with—from data pipelines and integration scaffolds to demo kits. Real scenarios, stack decisions, and comp context.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
How AI-Native Startups Use FDEs to Win and Expand Enterprise Deals
A concrete playbook on how AI-native startups deploy Forward Deployed Engineers to close complex pilots, navigate enterprise security, and scale from $50k POCs to $500k+ platforms.
8 min read
Forward Deployed
Writing Customer-Facing Technical Docs That Enterprise Stakeholders Actually Read
Engineer's guide to writing customer-facing technical docs that enterprise stakeholders read instead of archive. Tactics for scoping, architecture decision records, and slashing support tickets.
11 min read
AI News
AI in Drug Discovery: The Real Engineering Bottlenecks Nobody Talks About
AI hasn't cured cancer yet. Here's the unvarnished engineering reality of AI in pharma—data scarcity, validation debt, and why the lab always wins—and what it means for Forward Deployed Engineers.
9 min read
AI News
LLMs Trained Only Below a Fifth-Grade Reading Level: What Breaks?
When an LLM sees only sub-fifth-grade text, it still learns syntax, but its reasoning collapses. Explore the surprising gaps, why it matters for domain-specific fine-tuning, and how to replicate the experiment.
10 min read
AI News
The AI Credit Resale Economy: How Token Brokers Arbitrage Inference Costs
Token brokers are exploiting pricing gaps between AI providers to resell inference credits. Here's how the arbitrage works, what it means for your API bill, and how engineers can exploit the same dynamics.
9 min read
AI News
Multi-Agent Systems: Architectural Patterns and Failure Modes Engineers Must Know
Anthropic's research reveals multi-agent systems don't always beat single agents. We dissect the architectures, emergent failure modes, and when to use them in production.
9 min read
AI News
Claude System Prompts: Operationalizing Model Behavior at the API Layer
Anthropic just shipped native system prompt support in the Claude API. For engineers, this isn't a UI tweak—it's a contract for deterministic model behavior, eliminating fragile pre-prompt hacks and finally making Claude a reliable component in production pipelines.
10 min read
Build Guides
Build a Multi-Agent Research Assistant with Gemini, Planning & Search
Build a free, multi-agent research assistant using Gemini, SerpAPI, LangChain, and Streamlit. One agent plans, another searches, and a third writes a cited brief—no paid tools.
11 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer vs SRE: Role, Impact, and Career Paths Compared
Forward Deployed Engineer vs SRE: a tactical breakdown of responsibilities, coding depth, compensation, and career leverage. Learn which path fits your engineering DNA.
11 min read
Guides
AI Engineer vs Software Engineer: Career Path, Skills, and Salary Compared
AI engineer vs software engineer: a no-fluff comparison of skills, career paths, and salary data. Learn which role fits your strengths and how to pivot without starting over.
10 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer vs Software Engineer: Role, Skills, and Career Path
Forward Deployed Engineer vs Software Engineer: a deep dive into responsibilities, skills, compensation, and career arcs. Learn which path fits your engineering DNA.
9 min read
Guides
AI Engineer Job Scope 2025: Defining the Boundaries of the Role
The AI Engineer job scope in 2025 blends applied research, backend engineering, and product sense. Learn the exact role boundaries, required skills, salary bands, and daily workflows.
11 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer Careers: Your Launchpad to CTO and Founder Roles
Forward deployed engineer careers blend elite coding, client empathy, and systems thinking. Learn the FDE role, salary data, required skills, and how this path fast-tracks you to CTO and founder.
12 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir Australia: Salary, Perks, and How to Get Hired
Real data on Palantir FDE salary in Australia, from AUD $120k to $300k+. Explore comp structure, perks, the interview loop, and how to position yourself for success.
7 min read
Guides
AI Engineer vs Software Engineer: Career Path, Skills, and Salary Compared
AI engineer vs software engineer: a practical comparison of day-to-day work, required skills, career paths, and salary data. Learn which role fits your goals.
10 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer Average Salary: 2025 Global City-by-City Breakdown
Real forward deployed engineer average salary data for SF, NYC, London, and 8 other hubs. See how equity, travel, and security clearance factor into FDE comp.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
The FDE Interview Loop: How to Prepare for Decomposition, Debugging, and Client Swirl
A concrete guide to the FDE interview loop covering decomposition, debugging under pressure, and navigating client ambiguity. Real scenarios, signal patterns, and prep tactics.
10 min read
Forward Deployed
From FDE to Founder: Why Forward Deployment Is the Ultimate Startup Prep in the AI Era
Forward Deployed Engineers master the exact skills founders need: zero-to-one prototyping in messy customer environments, ruthless scope-cutting, and turning ambiguous problems into shipped AI products. Here's why the FDE path is a startup founder's secret weapon.
10 min read
Forward Deployed
The FDE Weekly Rhythm: Embed, Ship, and Expand in a Live Customer Environment
Master the Forward Deployed Engineer's weekly operating cadence. Learn the concrete rhythms of embedding, shipping, and expanding inside high-stakes customer environments—from Monday triage to Friday expansion.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
The FDE Interview Loop: Prepare for Decomposition, Debugging & Client Swirl
A concrete breakdown of the Palantir FDE interview loop—decomposition, debugging, and client swirl. Real scenarios, prep tactics, comp numbers, and no fluff.
9 min read
1,162 articles and counting