Forward Deployed Engineers operate at the intersection of engineering, product, and customer success — translating ambiguous problems into shipped software in unfamiliar environments. This is a private community for practitioners: a place to develop the craft, prepare for interviews, and exchange candid advice with peers who have already solved what you're working on.
A working library: postmortems on real deployments, prompt patterns that survived contact with customers, evals you can copy, and the boring infra glue nobody writes about.
Hear from fellow FDEs about the challenges they face. Customer studies that deliver value and benchmarks to help you be more effective.
A private Slack with senior FDEs on the other side. Scope creep, demo politics, the “customer wants a chatbot but needs a workflow” problem — get a real answer in an hour, not a year.
My first six months as an FDE, I would have paid five figures for a Slack channel of people who'd already done it. This is that channel.
A growing library of deployment postmortems written by people who shipped the thing. Searchable by industry, model, and failure mode. No vendor pitches.
One member walks the room through a real engagement — what they scoped, what broke, what they'd undo. Recorded, transcribed, fully off the record.
Live, video, with fellow FDEs who've recently been through the same loops at the labs you're applying to. Customer‑sim, take‑home review, and the dreaded systems round — feedback from people who know exactly what the bar looks like.
Anonymous, member‑maintained. Bands by company, level, and equity vesting style. Updated quarterly. Visible only to members who contribute.
Two senior FDEs hold open hours every week — drop in with a screenshot, a customer email, or a Loom. Walk out with a next step.
One quarterly 1:1 with a member further along the curve. For when you're choosing between two offers, negotiating a scope, or deciding whether to leave.
Mara Okonkwo
Forward Deployed · Frontier Lab
Daniyar Ibragim
Solutions Eng · Public‑Sector AI
June Tanaka
Eng Manager · Deployments
Cosima Beltran
Founding FDE · Vertical SaaS
Photos placeholder — real members shown after invite
60 minutes. One member walks the group through a live deployment, anonymized. Recorded for the library.
Drop in with whatever's stuck. Two senior FDEs on call. Bring a screenshot or a customer thread.
Three rounds with fellow FDEs running the rubrics they were graded on. Video feedback within 48 hours. Optional — sign up when you're cycling.
One in‑person dinner per quarter in NYC / SF / LDN. Members‑only. Chatham House rule.
The actual product. ~200 vetted FDEs, one channel per topic, a search bar that's worth more than the dues.
Book a 1:1 with a member further along when you need it. Cap of one per quarter so it stays useful.
We're opening with 200 founding members in summer 2026. Tell us a little about your work — we read every application. If we can't take you now, you'll get the public field notes anyway.