The AI job nobody explains, explained daily.

Forward Deploy breaks down the Forward Deployed Engineer career path — the fastest-growing role in AI — in 30–45 second episodes. What the job is, why 95% of AI pilots fail without it, and how to get in early.

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The thesis

Intelligence is commoditized. Deployment isn't.

Every company can buy the same AI models, so the advantage moved from having AI to deploying it well. The person who does that — part engineer, part consultant, part translator — is the Forward Deployed Engineer.

95%of AI pilots fail without deployment judgment (MIT)
$280KOpenAI's posted FDE base pay — no CS degree required
86engineers actually trained vs the tens of thousands promised
24episodes published and counting — new ones daily
What we cover

One insight per episode.

What the job actually is

The three stages of forward deployment: understand the business reality, decide where intelligence belongs, build and own it until it works.

War stories

The $10M token-max that moved nothing. The unsigned page that cost 2,000 days a month. Why "an email arrives" is never true.

The skills that pay

Evals over code. The sommelier rule. Never forcing a migration. Revenue, risk, cost — the only three numbers a business measures.

How to break in

The 30-day plan: build an agent loop, make it survive failure, make it measurable, defend it like a VP — before anyone gives you the title.

Free download

The FDE 30-Day Roadmap

A four-week plan to do the Forward Deployed Engineer job before anyone gives you the title: build an agent loop, make it survive failure, make it measurable, defend it like a VP. One PDF, no fluff.

One email with the PDF link. No list-spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Latest episodes

Start with the fan favorites.

Anthropic Promised Thousands of AI Engineers… Only 86 Exist 🤯
MIT: 95% of AI Projects FAIL. Here's the Real Reason
AI Is Worthless Now… Except For This One Skill
Your AI Agent Is Worthless (Here's the 1,000 Ways It Breaks)
Why 95% of AI Rollouts Flop: The Sommelier Rule 🍷
Stop Being 'Model Agnostic' (Worst Advice in AI)

All 24 episodes →