Forward Deployed Engineer Job Trends
Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)
UK
The median Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) salary in the UK is £100,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 12 November 2026.
The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.
| 6 months to 12 Nov 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 782 | 646 | - |
| Rank change year-on-year | -136 | - | - |
| Permanent Forward Deployed Engineer jobs | 60 | 6 | 0 |
| As % of all permanent jobs in the UK | 0.049% | 0.011% | - |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 0.053% | 0.013% | - |
| Number of salaries quoted | 45 | 6 | 0 |
| 10th Percentile | £76,000 | - | - |
| 25th Percentile | £80,000 | £55,000 | - |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £100,000 | £70,000 | - |
| Median % change year-on-year | +42.86% | - | - |
| 75th Percentile | - | £85,000 | - |
| 90th Percentile | £109,000 | - | - |
| UK excluding London median annual salary | £80,000 | - | - |
All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK
For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job adverts matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all permanent IT job adverts they make up.
| 6 months to 12 Nov 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent job adverts in the UK matching a recognised job title | 113,326 | 47,055 | 63,902 |
| % of permanent job adverts matching a recognised job title | 91.78% | 89.88% | 94.87% |
| Number of salaries quoted | 74,791 | 28,951 | 35,850 |
| 10th Percentile | £31,250 | £28,250 | £31,250 |
| 25th Percentile | £41,250 | £35,000 | £42,500 |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £60,000 | £52,500 | £57,500 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +14.29% | -8.70% | -4.17% |
| 75th Percentile | £76,444 | £73,750 | £75,000 |
| 90th Percentile | £98,000 | £92,500 | £95,000 |
| UK excluding London median annual salary | £55,000 | £46,350 | £50,000 |
| % change year-on-year | +18.66% | -7.30% | -4.76% |
Forward Deployed Engineer Salary Histogram
Salary distribution for Forward Deployed Engineer jobs over the 6 months to 12 November 2026.
Forward Deployed Engineer Top 10 Job Locations
The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in Forward Deployed Engineer jobs within the UK over the 6 months to 12 November 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.
| Location | Rank Change on Same Period Last Year |
Job Ads Past 6 Months |
Median Salary Past 6 Months |
Median Salary % Change on Same Period Last Year |
Live Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | -122 | 60 | £100,000 | +42.86% | 48 |
| London | -28 | 49 | £100,000 | +42.86% | 38 |
| Work from Home | -56 | 17 | £80,000 | - | 12 |
| UK excluding London | - | 10 | £80,000 | - | 19 |
| North of England | - | 8 | £80,000 | - | 5 |
| North West | - | 7 | £80,000 | - | 4 |
| West Midlands | - | 1 | £77,000 | - | |
| Yorkshire | - | 1 | £85,000 | - | |
| Midlands | - | 1 | £77,000 | - | |
| East of England | - | 1 | - | - |
Forward Deployed Engineer Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities
For the 6 months to 12 November 2026, Forward Deployed Engineer job ads cited the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent Forward Deployed Engineer job ads.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AI | 50.0% | 30 |
| 2 | Python | 41.7% | 25 |
| 3 | Software Engineering | 35.0% | 21 |
| 4 | Infrastructure Engineering | 30.0% | 18 |
| 4 | Retrieval-Augmented Generation | 30.0% | 18 |
| 6 | Customer Experience | 26.7% | 16 |
| 7 | LLM | 25.0% | 15 |
| 8 | GCP | 23.3% | 14 |
| 9 | AWS | 21.7% | 13 |
| 10 | Azure | 16.7% | 10 |
| 10 | 16.7% | 10 | |
| 10 | TypeScript | 16.7% | 10 |
| 10 | Workflow | 16.7% | 10 |
| 14 | CI/CD | 15.0% | 9 |
| 14 | Full-Stack Development | 15.0% | 9 |
| 14 | JavaScript | 15.0% | 9 |
| 14 | Observability | 15.0% | 9 |
| 14 | SQL | 15.0% | 9 |
| 19 | Degree | 13.3% | 8 |
| 20 | Analytics | 11.7% | 7 |
| 20 | Computer Science | 11.7% | 7 |
| 20 | Mentoring | 11.7% | 7 |
| 20 | Prototyping | 11.7% | 7 |
| 20 | Rapid Prototyping | 11.7% | 7 |
| 25 | Data Engineering | 10.0% | 6 |
| 25 | Java | 10.0% | 6 |
| 25 | Machine Learning | 10.0% | 6 |
| 25 | QA | 10.0% | 6 |
| 25 | Validation | 10.0% | 6 |
| 30 | Artificial Intelligence Engineering | 8.3% | 5 |
Forward Deployed Engineer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Job Titles
| Rank | Job Title | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Infrastructure Engineer | 30.0% | 18 |
| 2 | Senior Forward Deployed Engineer | 20.0% | 12 |
| 3 | Artificial Intelligence Engineer | 15.0% | 9 |
| 4 | Cloud Engineer | 13.3% | 8 |
| 4 | GCP Engineer | 13.3% | 8 |
| 6 | Senior Cloud Engineer | 8.3% | 5 |
| 7 | AWS Engineer | 6.7% | 4 |
| 7 | Python Engineer | 6.7% | 4 |
| 9 | Forward Deployed Software Engineer | 5.0% | 3 |
| 9 | Palantir Engineer | 5.0% | 3 |
| 11 | Developer | 3.3% | 2 |
| 11 | Kubernetes Engineer | 3.3% | 2 |
| 13 | Agentic Artificial Intelligence Engineer | 1.7% | 1 |
| 13 | Salesforce Engineer | 1.7% | 1 |