Many big companies have cited AI as a reason for recent layoffs. But the new technology transforming the workforce may create some new jobs, too.
AI startups are racing to hire a certain kind of software engineer who works with both customer teams and product engineering teams: Candidates are expected to have tech skills, but also, understand the business model so they can help customize customers’ AI models for their companies’ specific needs.
The emerging role is called a forward-deployed engineer (FDE), and according to the Financial Times, job postings for the position are absolutely skyrocketing, increasing more than 800% from the start of 2025 through September.
The origins of the role come from data software company Palantir, which pioneered the job in the early 2010s. Today, the company says FDEs make up about half of their workforce. Nic Prettejohn, head of AI in the U.K. at Palantir, said, per the Financial Times, described the job as “product discovery from the inside.”
The specific tasks an FDE is responsible for may vary from company to company, but the job certainly seems to encompass a lot.
According to Planitir, “FDEs responsibilities look similar to those of a startup CTO: you’ll work in small teams and own end-to-end execution of high-stakes projects.” Likewise, a job ad for an FDE at the financial tech company Ramp says the role includes working with “sales and go-to-market teams to close exciting deals, activate customers, and expand the value Ramp provides over time.”
While many worry that AI will take their jobs, some say that AI also has the power to create jobs, too, and maybe even, at a greater rate. And as AI companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and others, recruit FDEs, perhaps both arguments have weight, especially because it’s not just FDE job postings that are rising.
According to the 2025 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report, while AI could displace around nine million jobs over the next five years, it could also create 11 million new jobs. Some of the roles could be things like AI trainers, AI auditors, AI translators, and more. Aneesh Raman, LinkedIn’s chief economic opportunity officer, spoke to the undeniable rise in new AI jobs, telling the New York Times, “‘Head of AI.’ jobs are up, I think, three times in the last five years,” he said. “AI engineers are the fastest growing role in the U.S., followed by AI consultants.”
Other experts agree that new jobs can help to bridge the gap between the ever-growing ways that AI technology is being used, and what human beings still need from other humans, working to integrate the technology into real life. Tech innovator Pramod Pallath Vasudevan articulated the point in a post on social media about the surge in FDE hiring, writing, “AI isn’t taking engineers away from the real world. It’s bringing them closer to it.”
Vasudevan added, “AI isn’t replacing us. It’s redeploying us—to the front lines of progress.”
