AI Firms Send Engineers Inside Corporate Systems

Forward-deployed engineers enter large companies to decide where AI fits, connect it to existing systems and build workflows that business teams can use. They work inside customer operations, where companies define the problem and judge whether a project delivers value.

Inside the Customer’s Business

Patrick Kelly, the Brooklyn-based cofounder and CEO of Port of Context, said demand for forward-deployed engineers has grown as businesses seek help connecting AI to their existing systems. The role isn’t new so much as newly visible: companies have also called this work solutions engineering, solutions architecture, customer engineering, implementation engineering or field engineering, Kelly said.

Kelly worked in the role before it had that title. He started as a solutions engineer at a legal AI company, entering large companies to identify where AI might help and working with employees to build usable systems. Today, an FDE may spend a few weeks or a few months writing code and creating a workflow, then hand the work over and leave.

The customer company helps decide what gets built. Engineers work with the customer’s engineers to gain access to systems, while business teams measure the project’s value. Technical decisions connect directly to business priorities; the customer decides what counts as useful.

People using Claude quickly found that turning a chatbot into a system a business could trust to operate independently was difficult, Kelly said. “That is where an FDE comes in,” he said. The job isn’t only writing code. It also means choosing which company problem deserves a technical solution and explaining the payoff in business terms.

A New Job Title, Familiar Pressure

Kelly described FDEs as “a jack-of-all-trades and a master of three”: AI, software engineering and quickly learning a new business domain. He compared that last skill to being a McKinsey consultant and said each skill could be a career on its own.

The role can bring pressure. Engineers enter a customer’s business and must determine what to build, Kelly said. When several of his friends left technology companies for fast-growing startups, he helped start Forward Deployed Engineers of New York, where people in the field could exchange ideas. Kelly founded the group in June 2026. It hosts events and keeps a list of FDE job openings on its website.

Kelly said hiring for the role had run counter to talk of a technology job recession. He attributed its increased visibility to growth in AI subscriptions, while saying the underlying job description hadn’t changed. Businesses still need people to connect products to their systems and processes.

Who Sets the Work—and Measures It

Some banks are building internal teams to run projects themselves rather than relying on AI companies, Kelly said. Large consulting firms are also changing how they deliver AI projects. Highly technical consultants from firms such as McKinsey and Bain are finding paths into forward-deployed engineering.

People without software-engineering experience may also work on deployments. At Kelly’s company, FDEs pair with deployment strategists, a role Palantir first invented. FDEs handle coding and technical work; strategists work with customers, manage projects, understand the AI product and deliver for clients.

Kelly said agents are doing more coding, so teams can deliver results faster. That puts more weight on deciding what to build and how. For candidates, he advised explaining projects in business terms: the opportunity, how they gained support, what the work delivered and, when available, the return on investment. Technical work is only part of the pitch in this labor market. The company’s goals and its measure of value sit at the center.