Step 1
Active search
We go looking for people already doing deployment work at AI and infrastructure companies, whatever their title says.
Your customers are waiting. Hire the FDE who gets them live.
Most engineers can write the code. Far fewer can keep a frustrated customer on your side while they do it. Before you meet anyone we send, someone who does this job has watched them do both.
Free to interview. 90-day replacement guarantee. First candidates in under 5 days.
"We were promised this would be live by Friday. Why isn't it?"
Finding an engineer is easy. Finding one your customer trusts is the hard part.
FDE hires rarely fail in the code review. They fail in the customer meeting, usually a month after the hire, when a skeptical VP decides they'd rather not deal with your engineer again.
Built for whoever owns the FDE hire
We recruit Forward Deployed Engineers and the people who deploy beside them. Nothing else.
You can stop running every deployment yourself
- We look for people who have taken a customer from signed contract to live without anyone to escalate to.
- If you haven't defined the role yet, we'll work it out with you on the first call.
Your interviewers only meet people who can code and run a customer call
- Every candidate has written working code against a messy API before you see them.
- We look for engineers who bring what they learn on customer sites back to your product team.
You see how they handle a customer before you interview them
- Every candidate does a role-play modeled on one of your customers, complete with a skeptical VP and a vague request.
- Each one comes with our scorecard and our honest concerns, so you can decide quickly.
Hand us the FDE roles and keep the rest
- Your recruiters stay on every other role.
- We'll catch the solutions engineer with an FDE title before your hiring managers spend a loop on them.
How every search works
Three things you get on every search
01
We scope the role with you
Before we search, we pin down the title, level, stack and how much travel the job really involves. Then we write the scorecard together.
02
We test the customer half
Every candidate writes real code and does a live role-play built around your customer, and you see the evidence along with the resume.
03
We stay until it's live
A working FDE runs your search from the first call to your hire's first customer go-live, and every hire has a 90-day replacement guarantee.
Free to interview. 90-day replacement guarantee.
Most recruiters test the code. We test the customer too.
The customer half is where FDE hires usually go wrong, so it's where we spend most of our time.
| A generalist tech recruiter | EmbedHire | |
|---|---|---|
| Who screens | A recruiter with a keyword list | An FDE who does the job every week |
| What gets tested | Code | Code, plus a live role-play built around your customer |
| The role itself | Whatever the job post says | Scoped with you first, down to level and travel |
| Where they look | Profiles with "FDE" in the title | People already doing the work, whatever their title |
You only meet the people who pass all four steps
That way your team spends its time on final interviews instead of first screens.
Step 2
FDE review
An FDE checks each person against the scorecard we wrote with you, looking at the deployments they've actually shipped.
Step 3
Technical screen
They write working code against a messy API with incomplete docs, which is what the job is really like.
Step 4
Customer role-play
They get on a call with a skeptical "customer" modeled on one of yours. We score how they scope the problem, how they listen and when they push back.
If we wouldn't trust someone alone with your customer, they don't make your shortlist. See how we vet →
The FDEs we go looking for
Every search gets its own scorecard, but these are the profiles we're asked for most.
The first FDESeed to Series A
Has taken a customer from signed contract to live with nobody to escalate to.
The senior FDE for hard accountsEnterprise and regulated
Has shipped inside a customer's VPC and made it through their security review.
The AI deployment engineerLLM and agent products
Gets retrieval, agents and evals working on a customer's messy data.
The head of FDEBuilding the team
Has hired and led deployment engineers, and kept the quality up as the team grew.
From the first call to your FDE's first go-live
You tell us about the role, and we handle everything up to your final interviews.
1. Discovery call
We learn your product, your customers and what your FDE will really spend the week doing.
2. Kickoff and calibration
We write the scorecard with you and build the role-play around one of your real customers.
3. Vetted shortlist
You see your first vetted candidates in under 5 days.
4. Your final interviews
You run the final round, and we take care of scheduling and follow-up.
5. Offer and close
We help you land the person you picked.
6. After the hire
We check in after your FDE's first customer goes live.
What we believe about hiring FDEs
A short list beats a long one
We'd rather send you a few people worth a final round than twenty resumes you have to sort through.
We'll tell you when nobody is good enough
If no one clears the bar, we say so and keep looking. The wrong FDE can cost you a customer.
A hire only counts once your customer is live
We judge our work by whether your customer goes live on what your FDE built, which is why we check in after the first go-live.
Hire for every role on your deployment team
Your first FDE, the leader who builds the team, and the strategists and solutions engineers who work beside them.
Signed contracts don't deploy themselves
Tell us about the role, and an FDE will get back to you within one business day.
Interviewing is free, and every hire comes with a 90-day replacement guarantee.
Questions we get asked
Have a different question? Email hello@embedhire.com and an FDE will write back.
We already have recruiters. Why would we use you?
Keep them for every other role. A good tech recruiter will find you strong engineers. What they can't tell you is who holds up in front of your customer, and that's where most FDE hires go wrong. We've done the job, so that's the part we test.
You're a new firm. Why should we trust you with this search?
It's a fair question. We don't have a wall of logos yet, and we won't fake one. What you can do is check our work: every candidate comes with our scorecard and our honest concerns, so you can judge the vetting yourself. Interviewing is free, every hire has a 90-day replacement guarantee, and from the first call you're talking to someone who does the job.
Will you push us to hire someone?
No. If a candidate is great at the code but struggles with your customer, we'll tell you, even if it means starting the search again. Waiting a few more weeks is cheaper than losing a customer to the wrong hire.
How do you make sure we don't get a solutions engineer with an FDE title?
Our technical screen asks for working code against a messy API, and slides or a configured demo won't get anyone through it. We also ask what they last shipped into a customer's environment and what broke. If the honest answer is a demo, you'll see that on the scorecard.
We're a seed-stage startup hiring our first FDE. Is that a fit?
Yes, and it's where the hire matters most. Your first FDE usually writes the playbook with nobody to escalate to but you. We look for people who have run a deployment end to end and will tell you when a customer request is really a product gap. If you haven't defined the role yet, we'll work it out with you on the first call.
Do you hire remote, hybrid or on-site FDEs? What about travel?
All three. Before we search, we pin down how much travel the job really involves: days a month, how much notice, and any long stays on a customer site. We confirm that with every candidate before you meet them, because vague "some travel" is how good FDEs end up quitting.
What if the hire doesn't work out?
If your hire leaves or isn't working out in the first 90 days, we find you a replacement. We rerun the search with everything we learned and vet the same way, and we treat it as urgent because your customer is still waiting.
What exactly is a Forward Deployed Engineer?
An engineer who gets your product live inside a customer's business. They scope the problem, write the integrations and run them in production, often in the customer's own cloud, then bring what they learned back to your product team. Unlike a solutions or sales engineer, they write production code every week. See the full comparison.
Free download
The FDE Hiring Playbook
The scorecard, customer role-play script and interview questions we use on every candidate. Download it and use them in your own interviews.