There is a new kind of race within AI startups and companies to hire for an old role that lends itself perfectly to selling products powered by technology that is changing as we speak. 

We are talking of the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE). The techie, consultant and product person all rolled into one. 

Open AI created its FDE team early last year and Anthropic is rapidly growing its applied AI team, which includes FDEs and product engineers.

VC firm A16z calls its the “hottest” job in tech right now, while Salesforce says the role can make or break your AI agent launch. The hiring spree shows in the numbers. Job search platform indeed estimates that monthly job listings for FDEs increased more than 800 per cent between January and September last year.

In India too, the race is on. Startups have started hiring FDEs and are doubling down. 

In this episode, we explore the history of the FDE role, the function it solves for AI startups as they compete to sell their products, and answer how you become one. 

We feature: 

• Prakash Balasubramanian, Executive VP of Engineering, Ascendion
• Maitreya Wagh, Founder of Bolna, a voice AI company part of the 2025 Fall YC batch 
• Manvi Jaju, an FDE at Bolna
• Naman Jain, an FDE at Sarvam 

A quick question before you head off: Are you a founder or hiring manager? We want to hear your best curveball interview questions. Take our survey.

Credits: 

Written and produced by Vidhatri Rao
Edited by Rajiv CN