For AI teams that need shipping, not slideware.
The demo worked. Then a real customer's data hit it and the agent did something nobody expected. A forward deployed engineer is one senior person embedded with your product team, on the critical path, shipping the production version.
Six things an FDE delivers
I use Claude Code, agents, MCP servers, and eval harnesses every day in my own products. You get that stack applied to yours.
Agents and tool integrations
Connecting models to APIs, CRMs, data stores, and internal tools, with auth, retries, and failure handling done properly.
Eval and quality loops
Evaluation harnesses, regression sets, and feedback paths so you know whether a change helped.
Demo-to-production hardening
Observability, rate limits, secrets management, cost controls, and reliability work.
Customer-facing AI features
Assistants, workflows, and document pipelines with graceful failure states and human approval where it matters.
Maintainable architecture
Clear modules and docs so the engineers you hire next can take over without a séance.
Honest scope cuts
Recommending a vendor or dropping a feature when that's the faster path, even when it means less work for me.
A good fit if you…
- Have users or a launch coming and a demo that isn't ready for them
- Need senior hands, not another planning document
- Will give repo and Slack access on day one
- Want code your own team owns and can read
Not a fit if you want…
- A multi-person staff-augmentation squad
- Strategy only, with no shipping
- A full-time CTO (see fractional CTO instead)
- To skip the data and security basics first
Staff aug vs. fractional CTO vs. FDE
| Staff augmentation / agency | Fractional CTO | Forward deployed engineer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary output | Hours and tickets | Decisions and oversight | Shipped product paths |
| Who you work with | A rotating bench | One senior advisor | One senior engineer, embedded |
| Best for | Volume of routine work | Leadership gap | Demo-to-production gap on AI features |
| Code ownership | Often murky | Yours | Yours, readable, in your repo |
FDE questions
What is a forward deployed engineer?
An embedded engineer who ships real software inside your team rather than producing documents about it. The term comes from companies that put engineers on-site with customers to make the product actually work in the field.
How is it different from a fractional CTO?
FDE is hands-on shipping on the critical path. Fractional CTO is part-time leadership and oversight. Many clients start with one and add the other.
How do engagements work?
Free strategy call, then a scoped proposal. The embedded retainer is $9,000/month, month to month, with weekly sessions, Slack access, and repo work. Alternatively, a fixed-price build phase. Never open-ended hourly billing.
Will you work with our in-house engineers?
Yes. I pair with your team, review their PRs, and leave them more capable than I found them. You keep ownership of everything.
Remote or on-site?
Remote-first. On-site sprints anywhere in the U.S. when they're worth the trip.
Need an FDE on the critical path?
Tell me what you're shipping and when. You'll get a straight answer about whether I can help.