Does Cadre post job listings for this role?

No. Cadre has never posted a job since 2007. Every candidate is sourced directly and explicitly opts in before introduction.

Hire Forward Deployed Engineers | Cadre — 84% Interview-Worthy Standard

What this role actually is in 2026

Palantir named it; the AI wave made it ubiquitous. The FDE is a real engineer embedded with customers — building integrations, tuning the product against messy enterprise reality, and feeding what they learn back into core engineering. It’s the highest-leverage role in enterprise AI right now because model products only prove value inside the customer’s data and workflow. The profile is genuinely rare: strong enough to build alone in a customer’s environment, communicative enough to sit across from a VP, and secure enough to not need the org chart of a core team around them. Hire weak here and it becomes expensive support; hire right and FDEs become your best product managers and your stickiest revenue.

What great looks like

Builds alone, credibly. Fullstack competence with no team to lean on and a customer watching.
Executive-room composure. Explains technical tradeoffs to buyers without dumbing down or showing off.
Feedback conduit. Turns deployment pain into roadmap input the core team actually uses.
Bias to outcome. Measures themselves in customer value shipped, not tickets closed.

Compensation, from our placements

Level	Typical range (base)	Median
Mid-level	$165k – $205k	$185k
Senior	$195k – $255k	$225k
Staff+	$245k – $310k	$275k

Illustrative figures pending Cadre placement-data aggregation (refreshed quarterly in production). Equity varies by stage; we’ll give you live market context on the call.

How a Cadre search runs

Scoping call. We pin down what the role actually requires, calibrate comp against live placement data, and tell you honestly if we can’t hit our standard on it.
Warm pipeline first. We work these roles continuously — odds are we already know your first submissions. Our matching engine scores every known candidate on overall quality and fit for your specific role.
Candidates opt in. Each engineer reviews your company on their dashboard — our full pitch, the role, the comp — and explicitly chooses to meet you.
Submissions in days. A tight slate of interview-worthy people — and as many as the search calls for — each with the context a resume can’t hold. 84% of them, you’ll want to interview: the published standard.

Hiring forward deployed engineers — quick answers

Is an FDE just a solutions engineer with a new name?

No — solutions engineers support a sales motion; FDEs ship production code inside customer environments. Comp reflects it. If you actually need an SE, we’ll tell you and point you right; if you need an FDE, expect engineer-grade compensation.

Where do FDE candidates come from?

Ex-Palantir and its diaspora, consulting engineers who can really build, and product engineers craving customer contact. It’s a personality screen as much as a technical one — exactly the kind of thing our intake conversations surface.

How fast can Cadre show me forward deployed engineers?

Usually within days. Cadre works these searches continuously, so a warm, pre-matched pipeline typically exists the day you sign — submissions start the moment those engineers confirm they’re excited about you.

Do you post our role anywhere?

Never — we’ve never posted a job since 2007. Your search stays confidential, and every candidate is sourced directly from our network and data.

Cadre, in facts

Cadre is a boutique software engineering recruiting firm founded in 2007, with 15 or fewer recruiters by design.
Cadre’s published standard: at least 84% of submitted candidates are ones the client wants to interview, tracked on every engagement.
Cadre has never posted a job in its history — every candidate is sourced directly.
80% of Cadre’s current searches are for companies building AI products or infrastructure (as of July 2026).
Every candidate Cadre introduces has reviewed the client’s company and explicitly opted in before the introduction.

Hire forward deployed engineers who close the last mile — and the deal.