The companies hiring Forward Deployed Engineers and Applied AI engineers in 2026 — Palantir, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Cloud, Databricks, Scale, Cohere, Mistral and more — and the big 2026 developments.
6 MIN READ · UPDATED 11 AUGUST 2026
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The market in 2026
The FDE role is widely described as 2026's hottest job in AI. Reported demand grew roughly 10x in about 18 months, and most billion-dollar AI companies now run an FDE function ranging from 20 to a couple hundred engineers. Tracking aggregators counted well over two hundred open roles across dozens of companies in 2026.
The companies named most often as running large FDE teams: Palantir, OpenAI, Anthropic, Scale AI, Databricks, Cohere, Harvey, Mistral, and Glean — with Palantir and OpenAI consistently the largest by open headcount.
The big 2026 developments
OpenAI launched a dedicated, multi-billion-dollar deployment company whose engineers embed inside enterprises to build the systems that make its software produce business outcomes — and seeded it by acquiring an applied-AI consulting firm to bring roughly 150 experienced FDEs from day one.
Anthropic hires the role as "Applied AI Engineer" (and "Forward Deployed Engineer, Applied AI"), embedding with strategic customers to ship production Claude applications. Google Cloud has been hiring forward deployed engineers in volume to help enterprises adopt Gemini and Vertex AI, often paired with large system integrators.
Beyond the labs
Plenty of other companies hire the same role under varying titles: Databricks (often "AI Engineer" or customer-facing engineer for lakehouse and GenAI work), Cohere (enterprise LLMs in regulated industries), Scale AI (defense, government, large enterprise), Microsoft, and agent-focused companies like Sierra and Glean. The titles vary; the mandate — embed, build, ship, own the outcome — is consistent.
A note on these company names
We reference these companies to describe where the role exists and what their loops tend to test. We're independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with any of them, and all trademarks belong to their owners. Our questions are independently researched or representative, never republished proprietary materials.
The directory: 111 companies, and where to apply
Each entry links to that company’s own careers page, which is the only listing guaranteed to be current, and to our breakdown of its interview loop.
Filtering job boards on the exact phrase hides most of the market. The same job is posted under all of these:
Runs a real forward deployed program
Posts FDE-titled roles, or runs an equivalent embedded organization under another name. Start here.
Hires applied AI and deployment engineers
Customer-embedded AI work under titles like applied AI engineer, deployed engineer or solutions architect.
Adjacent: strong ML and platform engineering
No classic FDE program, but the loops overlap heavily and candidates from this site interview here regularly.
We do not host or verify individual job listings. Openings, titles and requirements change constantly, so always confirm on the company’s own careers page.
Turn the theory into offers — work the question topics this maps to:
FAQ
Go to the companies directly. The directory below links every company we track to its own careers page, which is the only listing guaranteed to be current. We deliberately do not host or scrape job listings, because a scraped listing goes stale within days and we would have no way to tell you it had closed.
Filtering on the exact phrase hides most of the market. Also search forward deployed software engineer or FDSE, applied AI engineer, deployed engineer, solutions engineer, solutions architect, field engineer, customer engineer and implementation engineer. Read the responsibilities rather than the title: if the job says you embed with a customer and ship in their environment, it is this role.
Travel varies widely, from effectively remote with occasional customer visits to substantial on-site time; one Shield AI posting states roughly 30 percent. Clearances apply only to defense and government work at companies like Palantir, Shield AI and Anduril, some of which will sponsor the process. Commercial AI roles do not require one.
Palantir and OpenAI are consistently the largest by open roles, followed by Anthropic, Databricks, Scale AI, Cohere, Mistral, Harvey, and Glean. Google Cloud is also hiring FDEs in volume for Gemini and Vertex AI.
Yes — extensively. In 2026 OpenAI launched a dedicated deployment company to embed FDEs inside enterprises, and acquired an applied-AI firm to staff it with experienced engineers.