OpenAI, Anthropic are chasing this ‘rare breed’ of software engineers

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence companies including OpenAI and Anthropic are in a race to recruit a specialised kind of software engineer known as a forward-deployed engineer (FDE). These engineers are hard to find because they combine strong coding skills with the ability to work directly with clients — a mix of technical expertise and business communication that most traditional developers lack.

The push to hire FDEs reflects a wider industry shift toward monetising AI through hands-on customer deployment. By embedding these engineers within client organisations, AI firms can help businesses customise and integrate powerful AI models into real-world operations. The result: faster adoption, more value creation, and higher revenue.

According to data cited by the Financial Times, job listings for forward-deployed engineers have surged by more than 800% between January and September 2025 on Indeed. Industries from manufacturing to finance are eager to leverage AI but often struggle with how to implement it effectively — a gap these engineers are meant to fill.

How AI companies are using forward-deployed engineers

OpenAI created its FDE division earlier this year and plans to expand it to around 50 engineers across Europe and the Middle East in 2025, said Arnaud Fournier, who leads the team. Though small in number, the group’s impact has been substantial. One example is OpenAI’s collaboration with agricultural equipment giant John Deere, where FDEs helped fine-tune AI tools that reduced chemical spraying by 60–70%.

“We learn what customers in different industries really need, experiment and innovate together, and then feed those insights back into OpenAI’s research and product development,” Fournier said.

Anthropic is also scaling up its applied AI team, which includes FDEs and product engineers, fivefold this year to handle growing demand. “A Fortune 500 bank has completely different needs than a start-up building an AI-native product,” said Cat de Jong, Anthropic’s head of applied AI.

Palantir, which pioneered the FDE model nearly two decades ago, describes the approach as “product discovery from the inside.” The company deploys teams directly into customer environments — from military bases in Afghanistan to factory floors in the US. Palantir pairs two employees, internally known as “Echo” and “Delta”: one focuses on understanding customer requirements, while the other handles technical execution.

“Forward-deployed engineers know that software only matters if it makes a real difference for the end customer,” said Nic Prettejohn, head of AI at Palantir UK.

Start-ups adopt the same playbook

Other AI start-ups are adopting Palantir’s model. Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said embedding engineers early in a client’s contract builds stronger partnerships and ensures the solution fits from the start. “We embed engineers at the beginning to ensure customers get exactly what they need, and scale back once they’re up and running,” Gomez explained.

As AI adoption accelerates, the forward-deployed engineer is fast becoming one of the most sought-after roles in the tech industry — a hybrid of coder, strategist, and problem-solver who turns abstract AI capability into tangible business outcomes.