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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AI News
Self-Hosting Kimi K3: Trading 20% More Hardware Cost for 20% Better Task Resolution
Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 breaks the self-hosting cost barrier. We dissect the 20%-for-20% hardware trade-off, analyze the Mixture-of-Experts architecture that makes it possible, and provide a practical engineer's guide to running it on your own metal.
10 min read
AI News
Benchmarking Political Bias in LLMs: Even Grok Leans Left, Half the Time
A new benchmark reveals that every major LLM skews lib-left on the political compass. We break down the methodology, why it matters for engineers building on these models, and how to test for ideological drift in your own RAG pipelines.
10 min read
AI News
Context Collapse: How Malicious Docs Self-Propagate Through Copilot
A deep-dive into the novel attack vector where poisoned Word documents use Microsoft Copilot's retrieval-augmented generation to spread silently across enterprise tenants.
10 min read
AI News
How to Run Gemma 4 26B on 2 GB RAM Using Your Mac's Neural Engine
A deep dive into the open-source engine that fits a 26B-parameter model on a Mac with 2 GB of RAM. We break down the quantization math, the Core ML pipeline, and why this changes the game for local AI.
9 min read
Build Guides
Build a Slack Digest Bot That Summarizes Every Channel's Key Discussions Each Morning
Ship a serverless morning digest bot using Cloudflare Workers, Groq's free Llama 3, and Slack Bolt. Summarize yesterday's key themes and decisions across channels automatically.
9 min read
Guides
Palantir FDE Salary & Levels: Base Pay, Bonuses & Total Comp 2025
A data-backed breakdown of Palantir Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) salary levels, from new grad to senior. Covers base pay, equity, bonuses, and total comp.
8 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer Salary in Paris: 2025 Ranges, Bonuses & Cost of Living
Real compensation data for Forward Deployed Engineers in Paris: base salaries, equity, bonuses, and a cost-of-living analysis for France's tech capital.
9 min read
Guides
AI Engineer Entry Level Salary: 2025 Guide to Pay & Negotiation
Real 2025 data on AI engineer entry level salary: what top companies pay, how location shapes comp, and negotiation scripts to maximize your first offer.
12 min read
Guides
Solutions Engineer vs Software Engineer: Day-to-Day, Comp & Career Growth
Compare Solutions Engineer vs Software Engineer roles: daily responsibilities, salary trajectories, skills required, and which career path offers better growth in the AI era.
9 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer vs Data Engineer: Scope, Skills & Career Paths
Forward Deployed Engineer vs Data Engineer: compare scope, technical skills, salary, and career paths. Learn which role fits your strengths in 2026.
9 min read
Guides
What Does a Solutions Engineer Do? Role, Skills & FDE Comparison
Solutions Engineers bridge technical expertise and business value. Learn what they do daily, required skills, salary data, and how the role compares to a Forward Deployed Engineer.
11 min read
Guides
What Degree Do You Need to Be an AI Engineer? Traditional vs. Bootcamp Paths
Cut through the noise: compare CS degrees, bootcamps, and self-taught routes for AI engineering. Learn which path delivers ROI, salary outcomes, and practical skills.
10 min read
Guides
What Is a Forward Deployed Engineer? Role, Responsibilities & Career Path
Forward Deployed Engineers bridge product and the battlefield. Learn the FDE role, responsibilities, salary, and how it differs from SWE and Solutions Architects.
9 min read
Guides
Palantir FDE Interview Process: Reddit Insights & How to Prepare
Decode the Palantir FDE interview from real Reddit experiences. Learn the 5-round process, decomp, learning, hiring manager stages, and a battle-tested prep plan.
9 min read
Guides
Google FDE Interview Insights from Blind: Process, Tips & What to Expect
Real Google FDE interview insights from Blind and Reddit: the 5-stage loop, coding vs. architecture expectations, L4 vs L6 differences, and a prep plan to win the offer.
13 min read
Forward Deployed
From FDE to Founder: Why Forward Deployed Engineering Is a Startup Bootcamp
Forward deployed engineers operate exactly like early-stage founders: high ambiguity, direct customer pain, and rapid shipping. This playbook maps FDE skills to startup success.
12 min read
Forward Deployed
How FDEs Turn a Messy Customer Problem into a Shipped Prototype in a Week
A concrete playbook for the forward deployed engineer workflow: from scoping a vague customer pain point to shipping a functional prototype in 5 days. Real decisions, tools, and the comp context that makes FDEs worth it.
11 min read
Forward Deployed
LLM Deployment at a Regulated Enterprise: An FDE Case Study
A concrete walkthrough of shipping an LLM feature inside a bank. Covers on-prem tooling, compliance firewalls, Databricks integration, and real FDE salary data.
6 min read
Forward Deployed
How Palantir-Style FDEs Embed with Customers to Drive Mission-Critical Outcomes
A concrete playbook on how Forward Deployed Engineers embed inside customer operations, navigate classified or air-gapped environments, and ship software that bends reality to the mission. No theory—just the real workflows, trust mechanics, and comp context.
10 min read
Forward Deployed
On-Site vs Remote FDE Work: Travel Realities and Building Rapport from Afar
A practical breakdown of the FDE travel cadence: when you fly, when you Zoom, and how to build elite customer rapport without ever stepping foot on site.
8 min read
Forward Deployed
How FDEs Work with Product and Engineering After the Sale to Prevent Churn
A concrete playbook for Forward Deployed Engineers on bridging post-sale gaps between product and engineering. Learn the weekly rhythms, escalation frameworks, and internal advocacy tactics that turn churn risks into product wins.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
Debugging in the Customer's Environment Without Direct Access: A Black-Box Playbook
A concrete FDE playbook for debugging production issues in air-gapped customer environments. Learn telemetry design, proxy recording, and binary-search deploys to resolve incidents fast.
10 min read
Forward Deployed
Building Trust with Non-Technical Stakeholders as an FDE Under Pressure
A concrete playbook for Forward Deployed Engineers to build trust with non-technical stakeholders during high-stakes deployments. Learn to translate latency into revenue risk, structure readouts that prevent churn, and turn technical crises into relationship capital.
14 min read
Forward Deployed
The Highest-Leverage Skills for an FDE in the AI Era (Beyond Prompting)
Prompting is table stakes. Learn the 5 highest-leverage skills for Forward Deployed Engineers in the AI era: system decomposition, evaluation-driven engineering, black-box debugging, stakeholder translation, and pipeline design. Real workflows, comp context, and no hype.
8 min read
1,162 articles and counting