Become an FDE in 30 Days: Complete Playbook
Master the $1M/year AI Forward Deployed Engineer role with this step-by-step action checklist.
Based on: FDE: The $1M/Year AI Job Explained by Greg Isenberg
Master the $1M/year AI Forward Deployed Engineer role with this step-by-step action checklist.
Based on: FDE: The $1M/Year AI Job Explained by Greg Isenberg
What if the most valuable job in tech right now isn't the one everyone is chasing — and almost nobody actually knows how to get it? Greg Isenberg sat down with Voss, founder of Veric Agents and a former Meta engineer who built one of the most in-demand AI practices from scratch, and what came out of that conversation is the clearest breakdown of Forward Deployed Engineering on the internet. No fluff, no hype — just the full playbook.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: companies are blowing through million-dollar AI budgets and seeing almost nothing back. A recent stat says 95% of generative AI pilots fail. The reason isn't the models — it's that nobody is bridging the gap between the raw intelligence those models provide and the messy, exception-filled, undocumented reality of how businesses actually operate. That gap is exactly where the Forward Deployed Engineer lives. And right now, there are not nearly enough of them to go around.
Imagine landing a role — or building a practice — where you are the person companies trust to make AI actually work inside their business. Where you walk in, map the real workflows, design systems that handle the thousand ways things go wrong, and deploy agents that measurably save time, reduce risk, and drive revenue. Where your compensation ranges from $150,000 base with equity to over a million dollars a year. That is the FDE opportunity, and it is wide open right now.
Voss built this from the ground up — starting as a software engineer with no consulting background, figuring it out by doing it with real enterprise clients, and distilling every hard-won lesson into a 30-day roadmap that has never been shared publicly before this episode. Greg Isenberg, one of the most trusted voices in the startup and AI space, pulled every tactical detail out of him on camera so you don't have to learn it the expensive way.
This checklist captures every actionable step from that masterclass. From understanding how work really happens inside a company, to building your first real agent loop, to running evals, to pitching your system with the language of a VP — it is all here, sequenced in the exact order Voss recommends. Use it to go from zero to a job-ready FDE portfolio in 30 days, or use it to start landing your first paid audit client this week. Either way, the window is open and it won't stay this wide for long.
Every checklist item comes with actionable notes to guide you — things like "Don't forget to do this before you start," "Avoid this common mistake," or "Set a reminder for 30 days out." Nothing vague, just clear next steps.
+ 21 more action items inside...
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