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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Guides
FDE Coding Interview: What You'll Actually Be Asked to Build
Forget LeetCode marathons. The FDE coding interview tests real-world integration, debugging, and API orchestration. Learn the 4 problem types, see real prompts, and prepare to build.
11 min read
Forward Deployed
Case Study: Deploying an LLM Feature That Survived Enterprise Security Review
A step-by-step technical playbook for deploying an LLM feature at an enterprise customer, navigating InfoSec reviews, data residency, and air-gapped inference. Real decisions, architecture, and the career context for Forward Deployed Engineers.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
Building Trust with Non-Technical Stakeholders as a Forward Deployed Engineer
Concrete tactics for FDEs to translate technical chaos into business confidence. Learn to scope, communicate risk, and present data without losing the room.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
Metrics an FDE Actually Owns: Time-to-Value, Adoption, and Expansion Revenue
Stop measuring vanity activity. Forward Deployed Engineers own business outcomes: compress Time-to-Value to days, drive deep feature adoption, and design expansion paths that compound revenue. Real workflows, comp impact, and no fluff.
10 min read
Forward Deployed
How AI-Native Startups Use Forward Deployed Engineers to Win Enterprise Deals
A concrete playbook on how AI-native startups weaponize FDEs to close enterprise deals. Covers the technical integration playbook, security review survival, and the multi-million dollar bridge from API to production.
8 min read
Forward Deployed
Case Study: Deploying an LLM Feature That Survived Enterprise Security Review
A step-by-step FDE playbook for shipping an LLM-powered summarization feature into a locked-down bank. Covers data egress, zero-retention prompts, air-gapped deployment, and the SOC2 audit that almost killed the project.
8 min read
Forward Deployed
Debugging in the Customer's Environment Without Direct Access: The FDE Playbook
A concrete playbook for Forward Deployed Engineers debugging production issues in locked-down customer environments. Techniques for remote diagnosis, evidence collection, and resolving critical bugs when you can't touch the system.
10 min read
AI News
Training a Meta-RL Agent to Train Other Models for Under $1.3K
A solo engineer built a meta-reinforcement learning agent that trains child models, all for ~$1.3K in compute. Here's the architecture, why it matters for FDEs, and how to run it today.
10 min read
AI News
Deja Vu: SSH-Synced Agent Memory for Self-Hosted Coding Workflows
Deja Vu gives coding agents persistent memory by syncing a SQLite database over SSH. Here's how it works, why it matters for self-hosted AI workflows, and how to wire it up today.
12 min read
AI News
Classical ML vs. Neural Detectors: Spotting LLM Text Like an Engineer
Forget the AI detector snake oil. We break down a practical approach using classical machine learning to catch LLM-generated text, why it outperforms neural networks, and how to build your own.
8 min read
AI News
LM Studio Bionic: Running AI Agents with 100% Local Open Models
LM Studio Bionic lets you build and run AI agents entirely on local, open-weight models. No cloud APIs, no data leakage. Here's how it works, why it matters for forward-deployed engineers, and a hands-on guide to getting started.
9 min read
AI News
Kimi K3: What Open-Source Frontier Models Reveal About RL Scaling for Reasoning
Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 hits the open-source scene with frontier-level reasoning. We dissect its RL scaling recipe, multimodal MoE architecture, and what it means for engineers shipping real products.
9 min read
Build Guides
Build a Screenshot-to-Code Agent Using LLaVA via Ollama and Open-Source Tools
Turn UI screenshots into live HTML/CSS with a local pipeline. Use LLaVA via Ollama for vision-to-code generation and Playwright for instant previews, all running free on your machine.
9 min read
Build Guides
Build a Calendar-Scheduling Agent That Negotiates Over Email with Gemini Free Tier
Engineer an AI bot that parses meeting requests, checks Google Calendar, and auto-negotiates times via Gmail using Gemini free tier, n8n, and GCP free credits.
10 min read
Guides
AI Engineer Job Market 2025: Demand, Hiring Trends, and Required Skills
The AI Engineer job market in 2025 is exploding, but the role is splitting into deep research and product engineering. Here's the data breakdown, salary bands, and exact skills you need.
10 min read
Guides
Databricks FDE Interview: Coding, System Design, and Customer Scenarios
Master the Databricks FDE interview loop with a deep dive into coding, system design, and customer-scenario rounds. Learn what to expect, how to prepare, and the exact technical depth required to land the $600K+ offer.
10 min read
Guides
AI Engineer Salary in India 2025: Bands by Experience, City & Company
Real AI engineer salary in India data for 2025. See bands for 0-10+ years experience, city-wise pay in Bangalore vs Pune, and tier-1 vs startup equity. No fluff.
10 min read
Guides
Are AI Engineering Bootcamps Worth It in 2025? Skills ROI Decoded
Hard data on whether coding bootcamps deliver ROI in the age of AI. We break down costs, placement stats, and the specific skills that actually get you hired.
7 min read
Guides
AI Engineer Salary NYC 2025: Market Rates, Equity & Negotiation Tactics
Real 2025 AI engineer salary data for NYC: from $145K entry-level to $600K+ at OpenAI. Includes equity structures, hourly rates, and negotiation scripts for senior roles.
10 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer vs Software Engineer Salary: Scope, Ownership & Comp
A data-driven breakdown of FDE vs SWE roles: salary bands, equity, skills, and the brutal ownership trade-offs. Includes Palantir/Google comp data and tactical career advice.
9 min read
Guides
AI Engineer Job Responsibilities: Core Duties and What You'll Actually Build
Cut through the hype. A practical breakdown of AI engineer job responsibilities—from prompt engineering to deploying RAG systems—and the code you'll ship daily.
10 min read
Guides
What a Forward Deployed Engineer Does: Role, Scope, and Daily Reality
Forward Deployed Engineers bridge the gap between complex AI products and high-stakes customer problems. Learn the real role, scope, skills, and daily grind of an FDE.
9 min read
Guides
AI Prompt Engineer Jobs: Qualifications, Skills & Portfolio Guide
Crack AI prompt engineer jobs: qualifications that matter, the 5 core skills, portfolio projects that get you hired, and salary bands—without the fluff.
11 min read
Guides
Land AI Engineer Jobs with No Experience: The Portfolio-First Blueprint
Stop chasing degrees. Learn the portfolio-first strategy that lands AI Engineer jobs with no experience by building production-grade artifacts that prove you can ship.
9 min read
1,162 articles and counting