FDE Info

FDE Info FDEIndustries2026: which industries hire forward deployed engineers

Where forward deployed engineers get deployed: 978 open roles, sorted by the industry of the customer.

See the ranking

Which industries hire forward deployed engineers?

21% of open forward deployed engineer roles serve government, defense or public-safety customers. By single industry, the most FDE roles serve defense & national security (11%), civilian government (9%) and financial services (6%). 57% of postings name no industry at all.

open FDE roles read
978open FDE roles read
companies hiring
323companies hiring
name a customer industry
43%name a customer industry
serve the public sector
21%serve the public sector

Every open role on Top FDE Jobs, October 26, 2026. How we count

RankingIndustries FDE roles serve

Share of all 978 open roles whose posting names customers in each industry. A role can serve several.

  1. #1Defense & national security11% · 111
  2. #2Civilian government9% · 90
  3. #3Financial services6% · 62
  4. #4Healthcare4% · 41
  5. #5Manufacturing & industrial3% · 28
  6. #6Public safety2% · 22
  7. #7Software & tech2% · 15
  8. #8Insurance2% · 15
  9. #9Life sciences & pharma2% · 15
  10. #10Real estate & construction1% · 14
  11. #11Retail & consumer1% · 12
  12. #12Logistics & supply chain1% · 11
  13. #13Media & entertainment1% · 10
  14. #14Telecom1% · 10
  15. #15Legal1% · 8
  16. #16Energy & utilities1% · 7
  17. #17Aerospace & space1% · 6
  18. #18Automotive0% · 4
  19. #19Education0% · 2

Public sectorGovernment, defense, safety

How many FDE roles deploy into the public sector?

21 in every 100. 207 of 978 open roles serve defense, civilian-government or public-safety customers, and 60% of those ask for a security clearance.

Dig deeper

public sectorall other roles

HorizontalMost name no industry

57% of FDE postings describe the customer only as "enterprise", "strategic" or "Fortune 500". These are platform companies that deploy one product into any business.

43%name a customer industry
57%name no industry

Most roles with no industry

  1. OpenAI56
  2. Databricks33
  3. Palantir30
  4. LangChain24
  5. Sierra20
  6. Cognition16

CompareSame title, different job

Share of roles in each industry that ask for a clearance, mention travel, or are on-site or remote. Darker means more.

IndustryAsk for a clearanceMention travelOn-siteRemote
All FDE roles14%43%47%15%
Defense & national security69% 68% 65% 5%
Civilian government67% 58% 58% 8%
Financial services0% 39% 45% 18%
Healthcare0% 29% 44% 32%
Manufacturing & industrial4% 61% 54% 7%

#1Defense & national security

Forward deployed engineers in defense & national security

111 of 978 open FDE roles (11%) serve defense & national security customers, at 38 companies. The most come from Palantir (28), Shield AI (11), Anduril Industries (8).

69%
14%
Ask for a clearance
68%
43%
Mention travel
65%
47%
On-site

Small column: all FDE roles.

“You will be responsible for working shoulder to shoulder with military customers to design and deliver the end-to-end capabilities for real missions.”
Picogrid, Forward Deployed Engineer

What these roles ask for

  1. Python82% · all 67%
  2. TypeScript41% · all 36%
  3. C++39% · all 11%
  4. AWS29% · all 31%
  5. JavaScript25% · all 26%
  6. LLMs23% · all 48%

Indigo: asked for clearly more often than across all FDE roles.

The whole public sector: 207 roles

Defense, civilian government and public safety together: 21% of open FDE roles, at 55 companies. 60% ask for a clearance, 48 state US citizenship, and 40 are outside the US.

  1. 57ask for Top Secret or TS/SCI
  2. 125ask for a clearance
  3. 207public-sector FDE roles

Clearance level named

  • 82 No clearance mentioned
  • 49 Clearance, level not stated
  • 33 Top Secret
  • 24 TS/SCI
  • 17 Secret
  • 2 UK or Australian vetting

#2Civilian government

Forward deployed engineers in civilian government

90 of 978 open FDE roles (9%) serve civilian government customers, at 28 companies. The most come from Palantir (27), Scale AI (12), Deloitte (9).

67%
14%
Ask for a clearance
58%
43%
Mention travel
58%
47%
On-site

Small column: all FDE roles.

“You will embed with our most strategic government and public sector customers—where model performance matters, delivery is urgent, and ambiguity is the default.”
OpenAI, Forward Deployed Software Engineer, Gov

What these roles ask for

  1. Python78% · all 67%
  2. LLMs44% · all 48%
  3. AWS43% · all 31%
  4. Azure37% · all 26%
  5. JavaScript36% · all 26%
  6. TypeScript34% · all 36%

Indigo: asked for clearly more often than across all FDE roles.

#3Financial services

Forward deployed engineers in financial services

62 of 978 open FDE roles (6%) serve financial services customers, at 39 companies. The most come from Addepar (8), Citi (5), American Express (3).

0%
14%
Ask for a clearance
39%
43%
Mention travel
45%
47%
On-site

Small column: all FDE roles.

“The Forward Deployed Engineer embeds directly within strategic bank clients as a hands-on engineer — translating modernization ambitions into production software at Tier-1 scale.”
FIS, Forward Deployed Engineer

What these roles ask for

  1. AI agents69% · all 47%
  2. LLMs66% · all 48%
  3. Python61% · all 67%
  4. AWS39% · all 31%
  5. RAG35% · all 22%
  6. SQL32% · all 20%

Indigo: asked for clearly more often than across all FDE roles.

#4Healthcare

Forward deployed engineers in healthcare

41 of 978 open FDE roles (4%) serve healthcare customers, at 25 companies. The most come from Qualified Health PBC (4), Hippocratic AI (3), Charta Health (3).

0%
14%
Ask for a clearance
29%
43%
Mention travel
44%
47%
On-site

Small column: all FDE roles.

“As HAI's Forward Deployed Engineer, you will be the technical owner of AI deployments that directly transform how health systems operate.”
Hippocratic AI, Forward Deployed Engineer

What these roles ask for

  1. Python68% · all 67%
  2. AI agents49% · all 47%
  3. LLMs44% · all 48%
  4. SQL34% · all 20%
  5. TypeScript29% · all 36%
  6. Azure29% · all 26%

Indigo: asked for clearly more often than across all FDE roles.

#5Manufacturing & industrial

Forward deployed engineers in manufacturing & industrial

28 of 978 open FDE roles (3%) serve manufacturing & industrial customers, at 18 companies. The most come from Palantir (7), Mind Robotics (2), Re:Build Manufacturing (2).

4%
14%
Ask for a clearance
61%
43%
Mention travel
54%
47%
On-site

Small column: all FDE roles.

“The Forward Deployed Engineer will be embedded with one of our harness manufacturing plants, and support the day-to-day running of Cadonix's harness manufacturing software at that facility.”
Re:Build Manufacturing, Forward Deployed Engineer

What these roles ask for

  1. Python71% · all 67%
  2. TypeScript43% · all 36%
  3. SQL29% · all 20%
  4. JavaScript29% · all 26%
  5. LLMs29% · all 48%
  6. Java21% · all 14%

Indigo: asked for clearly more often than across all FDE roles.

FAQShort answers

Which industries hire forward deployed engineers?

21% of open forward deployed engineer roles serve government, defense or public-safety customers. By single industry, the most FDE roles serve defense & national security (11%), civilian government (9%) and financial services (6%). 57% of postings name no industry at all.

Do forward deployed engineers need a security clearance?

Mostly not. 14% of all open FDE roles mention a security clearance. In roles that serve defense and national-security customers it is 69%, and across the public sector 60%.

What do FDE roles in financial services ask for?

62 open FDE roles at 39 companies serve banks, payments, lending and wealth customers. They are the most AI-heavy group: AI agents 69%, LLMs 66%, against 47%, 48% across all FDE roles.

Are there forward deployed engineer jobs in healthcare?

Yes. 41 open FDE roles (4%) serve healthcare customers such as hospitals, payers and clinics, at 25 companies. The biggest employers here are Qualified Health PBC (4), Hippocratic AI (3), Charta Health (3).

Why do more than half of FDE postings name no industry?

Platform companies hire FDEs to deploy the same product into any customer. 57% of postings describe the customer only as "enterprise" or "strategic". The largest of these employers are OpenAI (56), Databricks (33), Palantir (30).

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How we count

  • Source: every open role on topfdejobs.com on October 26, 2026 (978 roles at 323 companies). Top FDE Jobs collects them from company job boards and checks each one is a forward deployed role.
  • Industry: a role serves an industry when its posting says the customers, clients or deployments are in it ("deploy our platform in hospitals", "US Government team"), or when the employer sells to that one industry only. Text shared by all of a company's postings counts only for single-industry companies, so a list of example industries in a company intro does not count. Benefits and equal-opportunity text are ignored.
  • An AI model read every posting and labelled it; every label comes with a quote from the posting, and we checked the quotes exist and reviewed a sample by hand.
  • Clearance, travel and skills come from the same postings, read the same way: a pattern search, then a second pass that drops mentions that are not about the job. On-site and remote are the workplace each posting states.
  • Industries with at least 25 roles at 5 or more companies get their own section. Snapshot of October 2026; we refresh it monthly.