AWS, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google are racing to build forward deployed engineering teams as companies seek returns on their AI investments.
US forward-deployed engineer job ads rose 6x year-over-year for two consecutive years, reaching 7,300 roles in the first nine months of 2026, according to Lightcast research.
Three of the four top companies advertising FDE roles were consultancies Deloitte, Accenture and KPMG, with Google the only tech firm among them.
OpenAI has backed its FDE business with a $4 billion investment, AWS has committed $1 billion to FDEs, and Anthropic plans to train 10,000 specialist engineers by the end of 2027.
