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FDE Advisory Materials

Battle-tested guidance for building Forward Deployed Engineering organizations.

These materials come from 7+ years of running FDE teams at Palantir, 1000+ technical interviews, and hands-on advisory work with companies building FDE capabilities from scratch.

FDE Advisory Materials: Three Critical Areas - Hiring & Talent Strategy, Product-FDE Interface, and Technical Enablement

MVP Scope: This repository focuses on the 3 critical areas that solve immediate problems:

Challenge Solution
Just starting? FDE Startup Kit — Get the essentials in one document
Hiring FDEs? Hiring Strategy — Interview process, evaluation criteria, scorecards
FDE-Product friction? Product Interface — Clear ownership boundaries and escalation paths
Environment issues? Technical Enablement — Technical standards for FDE-ready products

Why These Materials?

Most organizations trying to build FDE teams fail because they:

  • Hire wrong — Using standard engineering interviews that miss FDE-specific traits
  • Structure wrong — Unclear boundaries between FDE and Product teams
  • Enable wrong — Products that aren't ready for field deployment

These materials solve those problems with concrete processes, templates, and checklists that work.

"Featured in The Pragmatic Engineer — the definitive deep-dive on Forward Deployed Engineering."

What is FDE?

Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) are technical, client-facing engineers who solve customer problems by building on and extending product platforms. They differ from traditional consulting or staff augmentation roles by:

  • Taking ownership of customer outcomes
  • Contributing directly to product/platform development
  • Working across the full technical stack
  • Operating with high autonomy and pain tolerance

What's Included

Core Documents

Resources

Ready-to-use resources for building your FDE program:

  • Hiring: Job descriptions, interview scorecards, onboarding checklists
  • Product Interface: FDE-Product team agreements

Getting Started by Challenge

About the Author

Anjor Kanekar spent 7 years at Palantir as a Forward Deployed Engineer and hiring manager, building and scaling FDE teams across commercial and UK operations.

  • 1000+ technical interviews conducted and calibrated
  • Trained hundreds of interviewers on FDE evaluation
  • Built hiring systems that identified exceptional FDEs at scale
  • Featured in The Pragmatic Engineer on FDE organizations

Currently runs Platypus Technologies, helping companies build elite technical organizations through hiring systems design and FDE program advisory.

Recent FDE Advisory Work:

Frequently Asked Questions

Is FDE the right model for my company?

FDE works best when your product requires significant customization per customer, deployments need technical expertise close to the customer, and customer success requires ongoing technical adaptation.

If your product is self-serve or requires minimal customization, FDE may be overkill. See Barry McCardel's critical perspective on why most companies shouldn't adopt FDE.

How is FDE different from Solutions Engineering or Professional Services?

Key differences: FDEs own customer outcomes (not hours billed), write production code (not just configure), and contribute upstream to the product. Many "Solutions Engineers" are actually FDEs under different titles. The distinction matters for hiring and org design.

How many FDEs do I need to start?

Start with 2-3 FDEs for your first cohort. This gives you peer support, coverage, and multiple data points on what works. A single FDE operating alone is high-risk — no one to learn from and high burnout risk.

Can I use these materials for my company?

Yes! These materials are open source and designed to be adapted. Use templates directly, modify for your context, or reference in internal documentation. Attribution appreciated but not required.

How do I get hands-on help building my FDE program?

Platypus Technologies offers FDE advisory services: hiring system design, interview process development, organizational design, and Interviewing as a Service for FDE hiring. Get in touch →

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Current version: 1.3.2 (updated 2026-02-07)

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