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In short

Of the 170 forward deployed engineer roles at tech companies in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, 59 are senior, more than at any other level. AI engineer roles share 6 of the 12 required skills listed for forward deployed engineer roles; no other role shares more.

Levels in order

Each level counts its own roles. A median shows only where 50 or more of that level’s roles state pay, and each is taken over a different set of roles.

LevelRolesMedian stated payAt least half ask for
Junior forward deployed engineer11 rolesNot shown2+ years, 6 of 10
Mid-level forward deployed engineer48 rolesNot shown5+ years, 24 of 48
Senior forward deployed engineer59 rolesNot shown5+ years, 44 of 52 (85%)
Staff forward deployed engineer16 rolesNot shown8+ years, 6 of 11
Principal forward deployed engineer6 rolesNot shown10+ years, 4 of 5
Lead forward deployed engineer5 rolesNot shown8+ years, 2 of 4

Lead titles say who leads a team, not a step above principal, so lead is listed last and not compared with the level before it.

What rises at the next level

No two neighbouring levels have 50 or more roles whose requirements we read, so no level is compared with the next yet.

Roles closest to forward deployed engineer, by shared skills

Compared over each role’s most-required skills, umbrella labels such as “Programming” left out. The more skills two roles share, the shorter the move between them.

  • AI engineer220 roles

    6 shared: Python, AI, LLMs, AWS, AI Agents, Machine Learning

    Median stated pay: $198.8k a year

  • Platform engineer213 roles

    6 shared: Python, AWS, Azure, GCP, Go, Docker

    Median stated pay: $176.8k a year

  • Security engineer392 roles

    5 shared: Python, AWS, Azure, GCP, Go

    Median stated pay: $197.5k a year

  • Machine learning engineer323 roles

    5 shared: Python, AI, LLMs, AWS, Machine Learning

    Median stated pay: $218.9k a year

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How we count: 170 roles from 130 employers in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, each role counted once however many boards post it. Methodology