Applied AI
Mid-market companies do not fail at AI because they picked the wrong model. They fail in the gap between a plan and production. Forward deployed engineering exists to close that gap.
August 17, 2026 · 5 min read
Three client-facing technical roles, three completely different accountabilities. Hiring the wrong one is the most common and most expensive staffing mistake in AI delivery.
The forward deployed engineer is the hardest technical seat to hire for, because the thing that makes someone good at it is invisible to a standard interview loop. Here is what to screen for instead.
A forward deployed engineer is an engineer who works inside the customer's environment instead of behind a roadmap. In AI work the model is rarely the hard part, so the person closest to the messy reality is the one who makes it pay off.
August 17, 2026 · 6 min read
