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
FDE vs Solutions Engineer vs Sales Engineer: Scope, Travel, and Impact Compared
Dissecting the differences between Forward Deployed Engineers, Solutions Engineers, and Sales Engineers. We compare scope, travel, compensation, and real-world impact to help you choose the right path.
7 min read
Forward Deployed
On-Site vs Remote FDE Work: Dubai Travel Realities and Trust Tactics
Cut through the hype of FDE travel. Concrete logistics for forward deployed engineers in Dubai, from embassy rules and visa runs to building trust in high-stakes on-site engagements.
9 min read
AI News
AI Reasoning Right for the Wrong Reasons: Detecting Spurious Logic
AI models often pass benchmarks using spurious correlations, not true reasoning. Learn how shortcut learning breaks in production and how engineers can detect and fix it.
10 min read
AI News
Anatomy of an AI Agent Intrusion: Lessons for Securing Your Deployments
A technical breakdown of the July 2026 frontier lab agent intrusion. We analyze the exploit chain, why tool-calling agents are uniquely vulnerable, and how engineers can harden production AI systems today.
11 min read
AI News
GPT-5.6 Price Cut: What It Means for Your Architecture & Smarter Routing
OpenAI slashed GPT-5.6 API prices by 50% while improving reasoning. Here's how engineers should rethink model routing, cost optimization, and latency budgets.
10 min read
AI News
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731: Latency, Throughput & Cost Tradeoffs for Engineers
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 disrupts the speed-cost frontier. We break down real benchmark data, analyze the throughput vs. latency engineering tradeoffs, and show you how to route it today.
7 min read
AI News
Google Fixed More Chrome Bugs in June Than 2 Years Combined Using AI Patch Generation
Google's AI patching engine fixed 57% of Chrome bugs in June alone, outpacing the previous two years combined. Here's the architecture, why it matters for FDEs shipping secure code, and how to try it today.
11 min read
Build Guides
Build a Free, Offline Voice Assistant for Your Terminal with Whisper, Ollama, and Piper
Wire up a fully local voice assistant in your terminal using open-source STT, LLM, and TTS models. Zero API costs, complete Python code, and a clean event loop architecture.
11 min read
Guides
How to Get Into Forward Deployed Engineer Roles: A Practical 2025 Guide
A zero-fluff engineer's guide to landing an FDE role in 2025: required skills, the interview gauntlet, salary data, and a 90-day upskilling plan.
7 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer Median Salary: 2025 Compensation Data
Real 2025 compensation data for Forward Deployed Engineers: median salary, total comp by tier, equity ranges, and how geography and AI skills shift the numbers.
8 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer Google Salary: Levels, Ranges & Negotiation
Unpack Google FDE salary bands from L4 to L6, equity refreshers, and how to negotiate a $450K+ offer. Real numbers, leveling logic, and a tactical comp breakdown.
9 min read
Guides
How to Land AI Engineer Jobs in Vancouver in 2025: Skills, Salary & Networking
Master the technical stack, salary negotiation, and networking strategy to land top AI engineer jobs in Vancouver. A no-fluff guide for engineers building their career in Canada's fastest-growing AI hub.
11 min read
Guides
Best Books for Forward Deployed Engineers: System Design to Customer Empathy
A curated library for the modern FDE: technical foundations, system design, on-site communication, and the empathy required to ship in the messy enterprise. Stop guessing and start reading.
9 min read
Guides
Training for Forward Deployed Engineer: Cohort-Based Programs vs Self-Study
Compare cohort-based training for forward deployed engineers with self-study. Learn which path accelerates the T-shaped skillset needed to ship production prototypes under enterprise constraints.
14 min read
Forward Deployed
What a Forward Deployed Engineer Actually Does in a Week: From Standup to Shipped Prototype
A concrete walkthrough of an FDE's week: customer standups, debugging in a SCIF, and shipping a prototype by Friday. Includes real workflows, comp context, and tactical advice.
11 min read
Forward Deployed
The FDE Interview Loop: How to Prepare for the Demo, Debugging Gauntlet, and Deployment Rounds
Crack the Forward Deployed Engineer interview loop with a concrete, engineer-to-engineer guide. Deep-dive into the demo, debugging gauntlet, and deployment rounds with real scenarios, code, and prep tactics.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
Writing Customer-Facing Technical Docs That Engineers and Execs Actually Read
Most customer-facing docs are graveyards of good intentions. Learn the FDE playbook for writing technical documentation that engineers trust and executives actually open, avoiding the "wall of text" death spiral.
7 min read
Forward Deployed
On-Site vs Remote FDE: Travel Realities, Embassy Rules, and Building Trust
FDE work isn't just remote or on-site—it's a spectrum of fly-ins, SCIFs, and high-trust async engineering. Unpack the travel cadence, visa realities, and tactical ways to build customer trust when you aren't in the room.
10 min read
Forward Deployed
Forward Deployed Engineer Compensation in 2025: Base, Equity, and Negotiation Tactics
Real FDE compensation data for 2025: base salary bands by level, equity structures, and battle-tested negotiation scripts. Learn how to anchor, counter-offer, and structure your total comp without leaving money on the table.
12 min read
Forward Deployed
From Messy Enterprise Problem to Shipped Prototype in 5 Days: An FDE Playbook
A concrete walkthrough of how forward deployed engineers compress a vague customer crisis into a working prototype in one week. Covers scoping, architecture decisions, and the hard trade-offs that turn chaos into shipped code.
8 min read
Forward Deployed
What a Forward Deployed Engineer Actually Does in a Week: From Standup to Shipped Prototype
A concrete, hour-by-hour breakdown of an FDE's week: navigating standups, writing code in a hotel lobby, and shipping a prototype that closes a $2M deal. No hype, just the workflow.
8 min read
AI News
Distilling DeepSeek Doesn’t Transfer Censorship: How to Unlock Open Weights Fully
A new experiment proves that distilling a censored model like DeepSeek into a smaller one strips the safety filter. Here’s the engineering breakdown, why it matters for FDEs, and how to run it yourself.
9 min read
AI News
Why Long Policy Docs Fail AI Agents—and What to Use Instead
Large language model agents ignore long-form policy documents. Research confirms verbose instructions hurt compliance. Learn why constraint-based architectures, structured tool definitions, and short-circuit rules outperform 50-page policy tomes.
10 min read
AI News
GitHub Stacked PRs Are Live: Slash Review Latency for Incremental Features
GitHub's stacked PRs are now in public preview. Learn the engineer's workflow to break monolithic features into reviewable units, avoid merge hell, and ship faster—with a balanced look at the tool's current limitations.
10 min read
1,162 articles and counting