42 profiles · facts checked October 11, 2026
Forward deployed engineering firms: every profile
These forward deployed engineering firms and companies with their own FDE teams are profiled from their own sites, job postings and filings. Search them from the home page, or browse by type below.
Sponsored
Dplyz
Senior AI engineers who work inside your company. Dplyz connects your data, builds the product and runs AI agents and workflows in production, as an embedded team, a defined project or technical leadership.
- Senior AI engineers
- Embedded in your team
- Agents, data and integrations
- Project or ongoing
Every one of these forward deployed engineering firms puts engineers inside its customers' businesses. Each profile says who it fits, how you buy it and what it has published about its forward deployed work. Profiles are grouped the way buyers shop for forward deployed engineering firms: AI-native firms, consultancies, companies with their own FDE teams and talent networks. Compare them side by side on the forward deployed engineering companies list.
AI-native engineering firms
Back to the listBest for: Mid-size companies putting AI agents into operations
- Embedded team, project or advisory
- Agents, integration and data
- 20 industries listed
Dplyz puts senior engineers inside a business to connect its data, build products and run AI agents and workflows in production. It offers three ways to work: an embedded team, project delivery or technical leadership. Its services cover agentic AI and automation, AI integration, product development, platform and cloud work, and integration and data. It doesn't publish a price list and proposes pricing once the work is scoped.
Best for: Teams building and evaluating AI agents, including government
- Agent builds for government
- Cortex agent evaluation
- $500M gross run rate (reported)
micro1 makes expert human data, RL environments and evaluations for frontier AI labs, and builds AI agents for clients. Its government page describes end-to-end agent development, from mapping workflows to production deployment, and says it holds Awardable status on the CDAO Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace. Its Cortex platform evaluates AI agents in production. TechCrunch reported in August 2026 that micro1 reached a $500 million gross run rate.
Best for: Large enterprises running company-wide AI programs
- Forward deployed teams
- $175M raised, Sept 2025
- New York and San Francisco
Distyl sends teams of engineers and researchers into large companies to design and run AI programs, alongside its own enterprise AI software. It announced a $175 million raise at a $1.8 billion valuation in September 2025, and a Google Cloud partnership pairing its forward deployed engineer model with Gemini in April 2026.
Best for: Fortune 1000 companies that want embedded AI builders
- Founded 2019
- SOC 2 Type II
- NYC, SF and Lisbon
Tribe AI places forward deployed engineers inside large enterprises to build, deploy and maintain AI systems, paired with industry specialists. It was founded in 2019, lists offices in New York, San Francisco and Lisbon, and says it partners with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and AWS. In July 2026 it hired a new CTO to grow its forward deployed engineering team.
Best for: Enterprises automating operations with AI workflows
- Founded 2015
- $100M raised, Sept 2025
- Also sells AI training data
Invisible pairs a workflow platform with forward deployed engineers who work inside a client's operation instead of handing over specifications. It also supplies training data and evaluations to AI model builders. Founded in 2015, it raised $100 million in September 2025 and listed a team of 350 across New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and London.
Best for: Companies that want AI engineering billed by output
- Squads with FDEs
- Two-week sprints
- On site in New York
Tenex sells AI engineering squads, each with a technical product manager and forward deployed engineers, and bills by output measured in story points over two-week sprints. It also runs AI strategy work. Its managing partners are Alex Lieberman, a Morning Brew co-founder, and Arman Hezarkhani. It doesn't publish rates.
Best for: Enterprises deploying AI agents at scale
- $2.2B valuation, Mar 2025
- Also serves AI labs
- San Francisco
Turing embeds forward deployed engineers in enterprises to build and operate AI agents, alongside its own agent control software. It also supplies training data, evaluations and RL environments to frontier AI labs, and started as a remote developer marketplace. It raised $111 million at a $2.2 billion valuation in March 2025.
Best for: Mid-size companies putting Claude into production
- Formerly Fractional AI
- Launched July 2026
- Backed by Anthropic
Ode is the applied AI engineering firm formerly called Fractional AI, acquired in May 2026 and relaunched in July 2026 with Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman as founding partners. It builds production AI systems for companies and says it works with Anthropic's Applied AI and product teams. It doesn't publish prices.
Consultancies with forward deployed teams
Top AI consulting firms
Best for: Large enterprises that want AI built, integrated and run
- $5.9B gen AI bookings, FY25
- Anthropic business group
- Bought Faculty, 2026
Accenture launched forward deployed engineering practices with Microsoft and ServiceNow in 2026. It formed an Anthropic business group in December 2025 to train about 30,000 staff on Claude, and OpenAI named it a Frontier Alliance partner in February 2026. Its SEC filing reports $5.9 billion in generative AI bookings for fiscal 2025. It completed its purchase of London AI firm Faculty in March 2026.
Best for: Regulated enterprises that want AI with audit-grade governance
- $3B gen AI through FY2030
- Claude for 470,000 staff
- Anthropic FDE roles
Deloitte's AI & Engineering practice hires forward deployed engineers tied to platforms like Anthropic, AWS, ServiceNow and Palantir. It has committed $3 billion to generative AI through fiscal 2030. In October 2025 it expanded its Anthropic alliance to bring Claude to more than 470,000 people and to certify 15,000 professionals.
Best for: Enterprises already on IBM software and infrastructure
- Forward Deployed Units, May 2026
- Anthropic partner
- Riyadh Air, Nestlé
IBM Consulting launched Forward Deployed Units in May 2026: small pods of people working with AI agents that handle coding, testing and documentation. IBM names Riyadh Air, Nestlé, Heineken and Pearson as clients and says a six-person pod does the work of a 30-person team. It partnered with Anthropic in October 2025.
Best for: Companies that want strategy and AI build from one firm
- ~3,000 technologists
- OpenAI Frontier Alliance
- Hires FDEs
BCG X is Boston Consulting Group's build and design unit, with nearly 3,000 technologists, scientists, engineers and designers across 80+ cities. It recruits forward deployed AI engineers, joined OpenAI's Frontier Alliance in February 2026, and has worked with Anthropic since 2023.
Best for: Leadership teams pairing AI builds with operating-model change
- Joined McKinsey 2015
- OpenAI Frontier Alliance
QuantumBlack is McKinsey's AI and engineering unit. It builds AI models and agents for clients, usually alongside McKinsey's strategy and operating-model work. It joined McKinsey in 2015 as a 45-person start-up, and OpenAI named McKinsey a Frontier Alliance partner in February 2026.
Best for: AWS-based companies that want embedded AI build teams
- Forward Deployed Expertise
- Anthropic partner, 2024
- 54 offices
Slalom's Forward Deployed Expertise offer puts cross-functional teams inside client organizations to find, test and build AI on AWS. It partnered with Anthropic in November 2024 and lists 54 local offices in 12 countries.
Best for: Large enterprises on Google Cloud or OpenAI
- €2B AI investment
- Outcome Deployed Engineers
- OpenAI Frontier Alliance
Capgemini launched Outcome Deployed Engineer pods in April 2026 that work inside client environments alongside Google's forward deployed engineers. It joined OpenAI's Frontier Alliance in February 2026 and committed €2 billion to AI over three years in 2023.
Best for: Firms that want AI tied to tax, audit and risk work
- $1B AI investment, 2023
- Anthropic and OpenAI alliances
PwC US committed $1 billion over three years in 2023 to expand its AI offerings and train its 65,000 people on AI tools. It lists Anthropic and OpenAI among its technology alliances.
Companies with their own forward deployed teams
Palantir competitors
Best for: Governments and large enterprises with complex operational data
- Founded 2003
- $4.475B revenue, FY25
- 5-day AIP Bootcamp
Palantir sells the Foundry, AIP, Gotham and Apollo platforms and pairs them with forward deployed software engineers, a job it says it pioneered. Its five-day AIP Bootcamp aims to get a customer from zero to a working use case. It reported $4.475 billion in revenue for 2025, up 56%.
Best for: Enterprises shipping production systems on OpenAI models
- FDE team
- Frontier Alliance partners
OpenAI's forward deployed engineering team runs end-to-end deployments with strategic customers in fields like healthcare, finance and legal, owning scoping, design, build and rollout. It also works through Frontier Alliance partners such as Accenture, BCG, McKinsey and Capgemini.
Best for: Enterprises deploying Claude in core workflows
- Applied AI FDEs
- Claude Partner Network
Anthropic's Applied AI team includes forward deployed engineers who embed with strategic customers and build with Claude, from MCP servers to sub-agents. In May 2026 it formed an AI services company with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and Goldman Sachs for mid-sized companies, and its partner network includes Accenture, Deloitte and PwC.
Best for: Google Cloud customers building agents on Gemini
- Google Cloud and Public Sector
- $207K–$300K + bonus posted
Google Cloud sells cloud infrastructure and AI products, including Gemini models and the Vertex AI platform. Google Cloud\'s GenAI FDEs embed with strategic accounts to code, debug and ship custom agent systems inside the customer\'s environment, clearing data, integration and state-management blockers. They also feed field findings back into Google Cloud\'s product roadmap; Google Public Sector runs its own FDE squad for federal, state and local government.
Best for: Strategic Microsoft accounts building AI systems
- Frontier Company, $2.5B
- 6,000 embedded experts
Microsoft makes software and cloud services, and its Frontier Company unit embeds engineers at customers to deliver AI systems. Microsoft\'s FDEs are embedded with a strategic account as its main technical leader, building and shipping production solutions with the customer. Senior FDEs scope the work and hand it to FDE crews, staying with the engagement over time.
Best for: Data teams building pipelines, analytics and AI agents
- Founded 2013
- $7B run-rate, Aug 2026
- Billable FDEs
Databricks runs a cloud data and AI platform, and its professional services group staffs forward deployed engineers who are billed on customer projects. It was founded in 2013 by the creators of Apache Spark and reported passing a $7 billion revenue run-rate in August 2026.
Best for: Enterprises centralizing data and AI on one cloud platform
- $4.47B product revenue, FY26
- $200M Anthropic deal
Snowflake's forward deployed engineering team embeds with customers on data migrations and AI builds. Its platform covers storage, SQL analytics, data sharing and AI features. It reported $4.47 billion in product revenue for fiscal 2026 and signed a $200 million partnership with Anthropic in December 2025.
Best for: Enterprises and agencies deploying custom AI agents
- Founded 2016
- Meta investment, 2025
- Public-sector unit
Scale AI provides training data and model evaluation, and its forward deployed engineers build and run AI agents and applications with enterprise and government customers. Founded in 2016, it took a Meta investment at a valuation of over $29 billion in June 2025.
Best for: Industrial, energy, defense and government AI applications
- $250.3M revenue, FY26
- Prebuilt AI apps
C3 AI sells an enterprise AI platform, prebuilt applications for reliability, demand planning and supply chain, and a coding agent. Its forward deployed engineers build applications on the platform with customers. It reported $250.3 million in revenue for fiscal 2026.
Best for: Salesforce customers deploying AI agents on CRM data
- Agentforce
- $41.5B revenue, FY26
Salesforce hires forward deployed engineers, paired with deployment strategists, to build and ship Agentforce agents inside enterprise customers. Agentforce is priced from $2 per conversation or $500 per 100,000 Flex Credits. Salesforce reported $41.5 billion in revenue for fiscal 2026.
Best for: Enterprises deploying Cohere's North and agents
- 11 FDE postings
- Toronto HQ
Cohere builds foundation AI models and enterprise products, including North, its secure AI workspace platform. Cohere\'s FDEs design, build and deploy LLM-powered agent workflows inside enterprise customers, from first prototype to production. They work directly with client engineering teams in sectors like finance, healthcare, telecom and the public sector, and connect that work back to the North product.
Best for: Enterprises building on ElevenLabs voice and agents
- $22B valuation (its posting)
- Embedded with customers
ElevenLabs makes AI voice and audio models and sells them through its agents, creative and developer API platforms. ElevenLabs FDEs embed with its most strategic customers and own major projects end to end, from technical architecture to full integrations. They work daily with the customer\'s engineers and executives to get the most out of ElevenLabs\' technology.
Best for: Engineering orgs rolling out coding agents
- 11 forward-deployed postings
- FDE leaders hiring
Cursor builds an AI coding tool for professional programmers, with the stated mission of automating coding. Cursor FDEs embed with customer teams as the engineer on the ground, putting production agents on business workflows or shipping agent-powered paths inside the customer\'s own repos and delivery systems. They own the work from discovery to launch and feed what they learn back to product engineering.
Best for: Enterprises wiring Notion into their systems
- FDEs and FD Architects
- $175K–$240K OTE posted
Notion makes a collaborative AI workspace where teams keep docs, projects, meetings and AI agents in one place. Notion FDEs lead hands-on technical delivery on its most complex enterprise engagements, designing and building production solutions that wire Notion into a customer\'s systems. They embed with enterprise customers and write and maintain the integration code themselves.
Best for: Enterprises deploying Glean's work AI
- Founding FDE team
- $160K–$270K posted
Glean sells a Work AI platform that combines enterprise search, an AI assistant and AI agents across a company\'s apps. Glean is building a founding forward deployed team whose engineers discover and build new product surfaces. They work in pods with Forward Deployed PMs, directly with customer C-suites and with Glean\'s own engineering and product teams.
Best for: Enterprises adopting Figma in complex codebases
- Founding FDE team
- $153K–$376K posted
Figma makes a collaborative design platform for brainstorming, prototyping and turning designs into code. Figma\'s FDEs embed with strategic enterprise customers and work inside their codebases, design systems and developer environments to make Figma\'s products work there. They take on hard adoption problems like complex frontend stacks, legacy systems and security requirements.
Best for: Strategic Cloudflare customers mid-migration
- 12 forward-deployed postings
- $184K–$266K posted
Cloudflare runs a global network that protects and speeds up websites, apps and APIs. Cloudflare FDEs are embedded with one strategic customer as its dedicated Cloudflare expert, handling complex migrations and hands-on configuration. Senior FDEs work side by side with the customer\'s engineers, write production code and pass product insights back to Cloudflare engineering.
Best for: Privy's largest wallet and crypto customers
- Privy unit, New York
- TypeScript, React, Next.js
Stripe builds payments and financial infrastructure; its Privy unit makes wallet and crypto APIs for developers. At Privy, the FDE is the main technical owner for building new capabilities with Privy\'s most important customers. They scope requirements with customers, then design, code and launch features in Privy\'s core product with TypeScript, React and Next.js.
Best for: Software vendors building on MongoDB
- Works in partners' codebases
- CA$158K–$220K posted
MongoDB makes a developer database platform used to build and modernize applications. MongoDB\'s FDEs work with software vendors\' engineering teams, inside their codebases, to build MongoDB into their products through integrations and migrations. A separate Forward Deployed AI Engineer team in Ireland explores generative AI tools for app modernization and feeds findings to R&D.
Best for: Enterprises securing AI agents' identities
- Okta for AI Agents
- $200K–$275K posted
Okta provides identity and access management for people and, through Okta for AI Agents, for AI agents. Okta\'s FDEs embed inside four to five strategic enterprise customers as their dedicated technical partner for agent identity. They work alongside the customer\'s identity, platform and security engineers and write production code in the customer\'s environment.
Best for: AI companies running inference at scale
- $165K–$400K posted
- $1.5B Series F (its posting)
Baseten runs production AI inference infrastructure for AI companies. Baseten FDEs partner with customers to architect, build and deploy high-scale AI applications on its platform. They take customers from early exploration to production, with clear targets for quality, latency and cost.
Best for: AI labs and companies running GPU workloads
- $180K–$250K posted
- $4.65B valuation (its posting)
Modal runs cloud infrastructure for AI workloads, with on-demand GPUs, fast containers and sandboxes. Modal\'s FDEs work with AI companies and foundation model labs to architect and tune their production workloads on Modal, from LLM serving to model training. They also contribute to open source and work with Modal\'s product and sales teams.
Best for: US and allied defense customers
- Lattice OS
- $113K–$253K posted
Anduril builds defense systems powered by Lattice OS, its AI command-and-control software, for the US and allied militaries. Anduril FDEs deploy and support its products around the world, going forward with systems early in their lifecycle and working with engineering to improve them. Software-focused FDEs on the Strategic Defense team build mission software for integrated air and missile defense.
Best for: Defense customers flying Hivemind autonomy
- Hivemind autonomy
- 50%+ travel on some roles
Shield AI builds Hivemind autonomy software and the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft for defense customers. Shield AI FDEs deploy, support and sustain its Hivemind autonomy software in real operating environments. They work on site with customers on integration, training and troubleshooting, and with internal engineering teams on new autonomy capabilities.
Talent networks
Best for: Enterprises that want global AI engineering capacity
- Founded 2014
- Talent in 135+ countries
- OpenAI partner page
Andela supplies AI and software engineers from its global network, embedded in client teams or run as fully managed teams. Founded in 2014 with its first engineers in Lagos, it lists talent in 135+ countries and has an OpenAI partner program.
Best for: Teams hiring individual vetted freelance AI engineers
- Hourly, part-time or full-time
- $0 recruiting fee
Toptal is a vetted freelance network for hiring individual developers and AI engineers hourly, part-time or full-time, with a trial period first. Its pricing page lists a $79 monthly platform fee once matching starts and a $0 recruiting fee. It doesn't publish talent rates.