By FDE Interview Prep, a SourceStrongAI company

In this post16 sections
  1. Who to ask what
  2. Why the last minutes matter more for FDE roles
  3. Travel and time on customer sites
  4. Quota, OTE and which department the role sits in
  5. How many customers you serve, and how the team says no
  6. If the role is at an AI lab or AI product company
  7. If the role is enterprise or government
  8. Questions for the recruiter
  9. Questions for the hiring manager
  10. Questions for the engineers on the panel
  11. How to follow up on a vague answer
  12. Five mistakes that waste the slot
  13. Good answers, worrying answers, and what to do next
  14. Questions people ask
  15. Keep reading
  16. More from the blog

The interviewer checks the clock and says, “Any questions for us?” For most engineering jobs that is a courtesy. For a (FDE) role it is your one chance to learn which job you are being offered, because the same title covers roles that differ in travel, pay structure, reporting line and how many customers you serve. So ask about exactly those: how much time the team spent at customer sites last quarter, whether any of the pay is incentive pay, which department the team sits in, and how many customers each engineer works with at once. This post gives you the words, grouped by interviewer, with what a good and a worrying answer sounds like. It covers the last minutes of each round; the FDE interview guide covers everything before them.

Only have five minutes? Ask these

  1. “What share of their time did people on this team spend at customer sites last quarter, and who decided it?” Ask the recruiter or the hiring manager.
  2. “Is any part of the pay variable, and if so, what is it measured on?” Ask the recruiter.
  3. “Which department does this team sit in, and who does its leader report to?” Ask the hiring manager.
  4. “How many customers is each engineer carrying right now?” Ask the hiring manager.
  5. “Walk me through last week: where were you, and what did you build?” Ask an engineer.

Who to ask what

Each interviewer sees one part of the job most clearly. Aim your questions at what they can see.

InterviewerAsk about
RecruiterTravel policy, level, pay structure, next steps
Hiring managerCustomers, purpose, success, reporting line
EngineersLast week, code, on-call, friction

Why the last minutes matter more for FDE roles

A software engineering job at one company looks a lot like the same job at the next. An FDE job does not.

Natalie Meurer, who leads engineering at Sierra, said in a talk at the 2026 AI Engineer World’s Fair that the role comes in many versions, from DevOps and enablement to custom solutions and data integration, and that the one constant is that every forward-deployed engineer is accountable to the customer. Source 1The Dirty Secret of Forward Deployed Engineering (Natalie Meurer, Head of Agent Engineering, Sierra; AI Engineer World's Fair 2026)PublisherAI EngineerSource typerecorded talk or interview

Colin Jarvis, who leads forward deployed engineering at OpenAI, said in a November 2025 interview that his advice to founders was to be very clear about what an FDE team is for. Source 2Colin Jarvis | Head of Forward Deployed Engineering at OpenAI: Trust. Product. Impact.PublisherAltimeter Capital (YouTube)Source typerecorded talk or interview If the people who build these teams say that, ask. Our lesson on reading an FDE job posting line by line shows how far the posting gets you; the interviewers have the rest.

There is a second reason: some employers check fit before you ever interview. As of September 2026, Palantir’s application form for its US Government role asks whether you support the advertised travel percentage and whether you are comfortable with the advertised compensation range. Source 3Apply: Forward Deployed Software Engineer - US Government (Washington, D.C.) - Palantir on LeverPublisherPalantir Technologies (Lever)Source typecompany job posting The end of each interview is where you run the same check in the other direction.

Make the questions count

In our view, sharp, specific questions also show the habit the job runs on: asking before you build. A vague “What’s the culture like?” wastes the slot. “What did last week look like for you?” does not.

Travel and time on customer sites

Stated travel varies widely. As of September 2026, Palantir’s Vilnius FDSE posting asks for travel 10-20% of the time, while its London NATO posting asks for 70-90%. Source 4Forward Deployed Software Engineer (Vilnius, Lithuania)PublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany job postingSource 5Forward Deployed Software Engineer - NATO (London)PublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany job postingSource 6Forward Deployed Software Engineer - UK Government (London)PublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany job posting How much forward deployed engineers travel has the full comparison.

A posting’s figure is not a schedule, and one employer’s teams can differ a lot. The Engineering Leadership newsletter reported, in August 2026, that OpenAI generally tells new FDE joiners to expect around 50% of their time on customer sites, and that Jarvis said this varies by project, with some people in the UAE and Japan on site around 80% of the time. Source 7Inside OpenAI's Forward Deployed Engineer RolePublisherEngineering Leadership (Gregor Ojstersek)Source typenews report Same company, same title, very different lives.

So don’t ask “How much travel is there?” You will get the posting’s figure read back to you. Ask what happened:

“What share of their time did people on this team spend at customer sites last quarter, and who decided it?”

Then follow up with whichever of these matters to you:

  • “Does travel follow the customer, so it changes when I change projects?”
  • “How much notice do people get before a trip?”
  • “Is on-site work a few days at a time, or longer stretches?”
  • “Can I choose which engagements I join, or am I assigned?”

Before you ask, know your own answer. Recruiters may turn it around and ask what you can commit to, which is why the travel question is worth preparing. Our lesson on travel, location and on-site time walks through reading the posting first.

Quota, OTE and which department the role sits in

Some FDE postings state pay as (OTE): a base salary plus incentive pay that depends on hitting targets.

As of September 2026, Okta’s Principal Forward Deployed Engineer posting gives its pay as an OTE range that includes base salary and incentive compensation, and it also says the role still writes code. Source 8Principal Forward Deployed Engineer - Okta for AI AgentsPublisherOkta (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting Notion’s “Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM, AMER” posting sits in its Sales department and states its range as total on-target earnings, including base salary and on-target incentive pay, as of September 2026. Source 9Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM, AMER @ NotionPublisherNotion (Ashby job board)Source typecompany job posting

Neither makes these bad jobs. It means part of your pay depends on something, and you need to know what: which targets, who sets them, and how much of the range they move.

For contrast, look at a role that is not an FDE. Cloudflare’s Customer Engineer posting places the role in its go-to-market organization, calls it quota-carrying with a variable quota tied to new business and account growth, and says the engineer oversees implementation but does not execute it. Source 10Customer Engineer, KoreaPublisherCloudflare (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting Variable pay alone doesn’t make a role something other than an FDE; Notion’s sales-department FDE shows that. The tell is the last clause. If the interviewers describe overseeing the build rather than doing it, you may be looking at a different job with an FDE title. FDE or a solutions architect role in disguise? covers the lines in a posting that give it away.

The questions:

“Is any part of the pay variable? If so, what is it measured on: new revenue, renewals, usage, or something the team controls?”

“Which department does this team sit in, and who does the team’s leader report to?”

“At review time, what decides whether an FDE had a good year?”

The department answer tells you a lot. A team in engineering and a team in sales can both call their people FDEs, and in our reading each is likely to judge your work by what that department is measured on. For pay figures, see the FDE salary guide.

How many customers you serve, and how the team says no

Jarvis said on a South Park Commons panel in May 2026 that OpenAI’s FDE unit is a business unit separate from solutions engineering (pre-sales) and solutions architecture (post-sales), that it works only about 10 engagements at a time, and that it has to say no more often than yes. Source 11The Future of Forward Deployed Engineering | OpenAI, Ramp, Nominal, DatalandPublisherSouth Park Commons (YouTube)Source typerecorded talk or interview

That is one team at one point in time, but it gives you the template: how many engagements are live, how they are picked, and who turns work down.

The number of customers you carry decides whether you go deep with one or spread thin across many. The way the team says no decides whether you get to build or spend your weeks on requests nobody filtered.

“How many customers is each engineer working with right now?”

“When a customer asks for something outside the engagement, who decides, and when did the team last say no?”

“When an engagement ends, where does the work go: into the product, or does it stay with that customer?”

If saying no is part of the job, our lesson on saying no and holding scope shows how to do it without losing the customer.

If the role is at an AI lab or AI product company

Here the product is a model or an agent, and it will be wrong sometimes in front of a customer. Ask how the team lives with that.

  • “How do you decide a deployment is working before the customer does: is there an eval set, and who writes it?”
  • “When the model gets something wrong in front of a customer, what happens in the next hour?”
  • “How does what you learn in the field reach the model or product teams, and can you name something that changed because of it?”

If the first question gets turned back on you, be ready: our practice question on designing an eval harness lets you rehearse an answer out loud.

If the role is enterprise or government

Here the hard part is often getting to the data at all. Ask what stands between you and it.

  • “What data could I touch in my first week, and what security review stands between me and the rest?”
  • “How do security review or clearance shape the first weeks on a new engagement?”
  • “Who owns the data model or after I leave the engagement: us, or the customer?”

The last one tells you whether you are building something the customer can run, or something that needs you forever.

Questions for the recruiter

The recruiter knows the logistics and the offer structure. Pay structure is a normal question here, not a rude one; the travel and pay questions above belong here too.

  1. “What level is this role scoped at, and how is the level decided?”
  2. “What made the last person in this seat succeed, or leave?”
  3. “How does the interview loop map to what I would do in the first months?”
  4. “Who will I meet next, and what does each of them focus on?”

Question 1 invites the recruiter to ask you the same thing back, so have an answer ready. Practice it with what level do you think you are, and why?

Questions for the hiring manager

The hiring manager knows the customers, what the team is for, and how you will be judged. This is where Jarvis’s point about purpose becomes a question.

  1. “What is this team for, in one sentence, and what is it not for?”
  2. “Which customers would I work with in my first quarter, and what are they trying to get done?”
  3. “What did the last person who joined find hardest in their first month?”
  4. “When a customer wants something the product doesn’t do, who decides between a custom build and a product change?”
  5. “Day to day, who do I answer to: you, the account team or the customer?”

The last one matters because of Meurer’s point: every FDE is accountable to the customer. You want to know who else you are accountable to, and what happens when they disagree. The FDE hiring manager interview covers what this interviewer probes before your turn comes.

A question about a customer they named earlier also shows why you want this team. Pair it with a real answer to why this company, and why now?

Questions for the engineers on the panel

Engineers know what the week feels like, and they can answer from their own calendar rather than from the job description.

  1. “Walk me through last week. Where were you, and what did you build?”
  2. “When did you last ship code that went into the core product?”
  3. “After a deployment goes live, who supports it?”
  4. “What is the most tiring part of the job that the posting doesn’t mention?”
  5. “When did you last disagree with a customer, and how did it end?”

Question 1 is the most useful question in this post. It turns “up to” into a real week, and it tells you whether the job is mostly building, mostly meetings, or mostly travel. If the week sounds nothing like what FDEs do, ask why.

How to follow up on a vague answer

Vague first answers are normal. The move is to ask for one concrete moment. These two exchanges are illustrative, not transcripts.

The week.

You: “Walk me through last week.”

Engineer: “Pretty varied, a lot of customer stuff.”

You: “Where were you on Tuesday, and what was open in your editor?”

Engineer: “On site at the customer’s, fixing their data sync. Then a call with product about a connector we keep rebuilding.”

That one answer tells you three things: real building, real travel, and a path back to product.

The pay.

You: “Is the pay base salary and equity, or does it include incentive pay?”

Recruiter: “It’s competitive.”

You: “Is any of it variable, and if so, what is it measured on?”

Stay polite: you are asking for the one detail that lets you compare offers.

Five mistakes that waste the slot

  • Asking what the posting already says. Fix: quote the posting and ask what changed.
  • Asking the engineers about pay. Fix: save it for the recruiter.
  • Bringing ten questions. Fix: rank three per interviewer and ask the top one first.
  • Asking “What’s the culture like?” Fix: ask about last week.
  • Asking everyone the same thing. Fix: use the table at the top of this post.

Good answers, worrying answers, and what to do next

These readings are our judgment, not a rule any employer publishes. One worrying answer is not a reason to walk away. A pattern is.

Travel.

  • Good: a specific answer about last quarter, who decided it, and how it shifts by project.
  • Worrying: “It depends,” with nothing after it, or three interviewers giving three different pictures.

Pay structure.

  • Good: a clear split between base and variable pay, with a measure you can influence.
  • Worrying: incentive pay tied to new revenue in a role described to you as pure engineering.

Department and reporting line.

  • Good: the team has its own leader and a purpose they can state in a sentence.
  • Worrying: nobody can say who the team reports to, or the answer changes between rounds.

Customer load.

  • Good: a number, plus a process for turning work down.
  • Worrying: “We take whatever comes in.”

The engineers’ week.

  • Good: they name something they built, for whom, and why.
  • Worrying: they cannot recall the last time they shipped code.

After each interview

  • Write down the answers within the hour, word for word where you can.
  • Note where two interviewers disagreed.
  • Mark anything that changes whether you would take the job.
  • Take the conflicts to the recruiter before the offer.

When answers conflict, say so plainly and let the recruiter resolve it: “The hiring manager described travel one way and the engineers another. Which should I plan around?” It is a fair question, and asking it before the offer beats finding out in your first month.

Before your next round, spend an evening on the free module The FDE role, decoded. Read the posting line by line with its lesson, so your questions start where the posting stops. Then rehearse your own answers to the travel question and the level question, because a sharp question often gets turned back on you.

GlossaryForward deployed engineerA software engineer who builds and ships production systems inside a customer’s problem and environment, accountable to that customer’s outcome.More on Forward deployed engineerGlossaryAgentA system in which a model chooses steps and tool calls to complete a task, within limits the design sets.More on AgentGlossaryForward deployed software engineerPalantir’s title for its FDE role, called Delta internally; OpenAI and EY also post FDSE titles, each with its own duties.More on Forward deployed software engineerGlossaryOn-target earningsBase pay plus variable pay if targets are met; a posting that states pay as OTE includes incentive pay in the figure.More on On-target earningsGlossaryOntologyA shared model of a customer’s business objects and their relationships, mapped onto the underlying data so people and applications use the same terms.More on Ontology

Questions people ask

What should I ask about travel in an FDE interview?

Ask what share of time people on this team spent at customer sites last quarter and who decides it. Stated travel varies widely: as of September 2026, Palantir’s Vilnius FDSE posting asked for the ability to travel 10-20% of the time, while its NATO role in London asked for travel throughout Europe 70-90% of the time.Source 4Forward Deployed Software Engineer (Vilnius, Lithuania)PublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany job postingSource 5Forward Deployed Software Engineer - NATO (London)PublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany job postingSource 6Forward Deployed Software Engineer - UK Government (London)PublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany job posting

Is it OK to ask whether an FDE role carries a quota or OTE?

Yes, and it is worth asking, because some FDE postings state pay as OTE. Okta’s Principal Forward Deployed Engineer posting, for example, gives its pay as an OTE range that includes base salary and incentive compensation.Source 8Principal Forward Deployed Engineer - Okta for AI AgentsPublisherOkta (Greenhouse)Source typecompany job posting

What are good questions to ask at the end of an FDE interview?

Ask what share of time the team spent at customer sites last quarter and who decided it, whether any of the pay is variable and what it is measured on, which department the team sits in and who its leader reports to, how many customers each engineer carries right now, and, to an engineer, “Walk me through last week.”

How many questions should I ask at the end of an FDE interview?

Rank three for each interviewer and ask the top one first. If time runs short, one specific question that gets a real answer beats a long list asked in a rush.

Which interviewer should I ask about day-to-day work?

The engineers. Ask them: “Walk me through last week: where were you, and what did you build?” Save logistics for the recruiter, and customers and success measures for the hiring manager.

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