Pre-vetted FDEs who ship production code inside your customer's environment — not just slide decks. AI-matched, delivered in 72 hours, flat 15% fee.
Trusted by 60+ enterprise AI teams shipping FDEs globally
72h
To Shortlist
15%
Flat Fee
14-day
Replacement
Top 5%
Acceptance Rate
60+
Vetted FDEs
3 Types
Integration · Agent · Deployment
$0
Matching Fee
72h
To Shortlist
15%
Flat Management Fee
14-day
Free Replacement
FDEs matched on integration stack depth, agent tooling experience, and client-facing track record
Most enterprise AI pilots don't fail because the model is weak. They fail at the handoff — legacy SQL, SSO and SAML, data residency rules, a 500-warehouse rollout nobody scoped for.
That's not a prompt engineering problem. It's an engineering-plus-client problem, and it's the reason "forward deployed engineer" is now one of the fastest-growing — and hardest to fill — roles in tech.
OTF pre-vets for exactly this hybrid before a candidate ever reaches your inbox.
Check the statements that apply to your situation right now.
If two or more of these are true, you need an FDE — not another generalist contractor. If none are, a solutions engineer or backend hire is probably the better fit — and we'll say so.
A checklist, not a badge. Every criterion below is assessed in our live screen before a candidate reaches your inbox.
We verify shipped work in live customer environments, not take-home tests or demo repos. Every FDE in our pool has pushed production code that moved a customer metric — not just a side project that demos well. We check deployment history, not GitHub stars.
FDEs scope and build with incomplete requirements — that's the job. We assess whether candidates have actually designed and shipped something where the requirements changed mid-engagement, not just executed a pre-scoped ticket queue. Architecture decisions under pressure are a screening criterion.
An FDE who can't explain a 2am production fix to a VP the next morning is a half-FDE. We verify that candidates have been embedded with, or presented directly to, non-technical stakeholders and maintained trust under pressure. Soft skills are assessed in our screen, not assumed.
Hands-on with API auth (OAuth, SAML, API keys), legacy data systems, cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure), and where relevant, LLM and agent tooling. We distinguish between engineers who have read the docs and engineers who have debugged a production SSO failure at 11pm in a customer environment.
FDEs live in the grey zone between your product and your customer's ops team. We screen for clarity under pressure: the ability to triage an incident, communicate status without overpromising, and keep a non-technical customer informed while simultaneously fixing the thing. These are different skills from engineering alone.
FDE agencies charge $200–350/hr for engineers who cost $100–150/hr. Our fee is a flat 15% on the engineer rate, published in every contract. You see exactly what the engineer earns. No matching fee, no cost to receive your shortlist.
Anonymised profiles from our active pool. Every FDE has passed a live screen covering production deployment history, integration depth, and client-facing capability.
Integration FDE — AWS & LLM APIs
South Asia · 7 years
Deployed LLM-powered document processing pipeline inside a Fortune 500 logistics customer's AWS environment. Handled SSO integration, data residency rules, and custom tool-use chains per customer subsidiary. Reduced manual processing time by 70% across 3 customer accounts.
Agent-Building FDE — Enterprise AI
Eastern Europe · 5 years
Built and shipped multi-agent orchestration systems for 4 enterprise SaaS customers. Each agent stack is bespoke: custom eval harnesses, tool-use chains scoped per customer data model, deployed to customer-owned GCP infrastructure. Ships between sales calls, not on quarterly releases.
Deployment FDE — SSO & Legacy Data
Latin America · 8 years
Specialises in the hardest last-mile problems: SAML-based SSO rollouts, legacy data pipeline integration, and multi-tenant Snowflake deployments. Has delivered 12+ enterprise integrations where the customer's stack was the blocker, not the product. Deals closed because of his work.
Full Last-Mile Owner — AI + Integration
South Asia · 6 years
End-to-end ownership from sales handoff to go-live. Builds the integration, presents to the customer's technical team, owns the go-live support window, and hands off with monitoring dashboards and runbooks. 100% of his engagements reached go-live within the agreed timeline.
Eval-Engineering FDE — LLM Quality
Eastern Europe · 5 years
Specialist in LLM eval and quality infrastructure for enterprise deployments. Builds per-customer eval harnesses, automated regression pipelines, and prompt governance workflows. Ensures agent output quality is measurable and defensible before customers go live — not discovered in prod.
Integration FDE — GCP & Healthcare
Latin America · 7 years
Deploys AI systems inside regulated healthcare environments: HIPAA-compliant GCP infrastructure, FHIR and HL7 data model integration, and Vertex AI fine-tuning pipelines within customer VPCs. Has navigated procurement, security review, and BAA signing on every engagement.
All profiles are anonymised. Full profiles including deployment references shared after brief submission. Rates are engineer rates before the 15% management fee.
Scoped to your FDE type, AI-matched in 72 hours. Every candidate pre-screened on production deployment history, integration depth, and client-facing track record.
Not all FDEs are the same hire. A deployment closer who unblocks stalled integrations is a different profile from an agent builder who ships bespoke LLM tooling per customer, which is different again from a full last-mile integration owner who lives in the customer's environment from handoff to go-live. We scope which type your brief actually requires — and tell you honestly if a solutions engineer or backend hire is the cheaper fit.
We match on verified production deployment history, integration stack depth (AWS/GCP/Azure, SSO/SAML, data systems), agent and LLM tooling experience where required, and client-facing track record. Your shortlist contains 2–3 profiles with deployment references, rate range, and a plain-English summary of why each one fits your specific brief. No generic talent pool spam.
Start the work, confirm technical fit and working style, then decide on the longer-term engagement. FDE work is high-stakes — we structure the early engagement to give you a real signal before you're locked in. The FDE hits the ground running on your actual integration challenge, not a contrived test. 14-day free replacement if the fit isn't right.
No retained search costs, no per-search deposits, no surprise markup once the FDE is senior enough to negotiate. Our flat 15% management fee is published in every contract. You see exactly what the engineer earns. Engagement models include contract, full-time placement, and fixed-term embedded. A dedicated account manager oversees delivery, escalations, and any replacement needs throughout.
FDE roles are senior-skewed — this isn't a junior contractor hire. Rates below are engineer rates before the flat 15% OTF management fee.
Integration FDE
API auth, cloud, legacy data
Agent-Building FDE
LLM tooling, eval, bespoke chains
Last-Mile Owner
Full ownership, client-facing
Integration FDE
API auth, cloud, legacy data
Agent-Building FDE
LLM tooling, eval, bespoke chains
Last-Mile Owner
Full ownership, client-facing
Integration FDE
API auth, cloud, legacy data
Agent-Building FDE
LLM tooling, eval, bespoke chains
Last-Mile Owner
Full ownership, client-facing
Integration FDE
API auth, cloud, legacy data
Agent-Building FDE
LLM tooling, eval, bespoke chains
Last-Mile Owner
Full ownership, client-facing
All rates are engineer rates. OTF flat 15% management fee added on top. No placement fees, no per-search deposits.
An FDE is not a solutions engineer, a backend hire, or an agency contractor. Here is what each hire actually does.
| Criterion | OTF FDE | Solutions Engineer | Generalist Backend | Agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ships production code | ||||
| Embedded in customer environment | ||||
| Handles legacy system integration | ||||
| Client-facing, non-technical stakeholders | ||||
| AI agent & LLM tooling | ||||
| Time to first candidate | 72 hours | 2–4 weeks | 2–4 weeks | 4–8 weeks |
| Fee structure | Flat 15% | Salary + OTE | Salary | 25–40% |
| Replacement guarantee | 14-day free | Varies |
Not sure which hire you need? Our scope call will tell you honestly — and if a solutions engineer or backend hire is the better fit, we'll say so rather than close the wrong deal.
Contract vs full-time, what to expect in the screen, replacement policy — the real questions clients ask before hiring their first FDE.
Before You Hire
Written by our engineering team - no fluff, just the frameworks that work.
Developer rates by region, hidden cost breakdown, TCO comparison across DIY vs managed platforms, and a complete budgeting guide.
The 7-day vetting framework, technical interview questions, take-home test design, and red flags - built for non-technical founders.
Stage-by-stage decision framework for founders and CTOs. Cost, speed, and risk tradeoffs - with a clear verdict for each company type.
Our FDE Vetting Funnel
Only the top 5% of FDE applicants join our talent pool.
Submit your brief. Receive matched FDE profiles within 72 hours. Flat 15% management fee — no surprises.
72-hour shortlist
Matched FDE profiles delivered within 72 hours of your brief
Live FDE screen
Every FDE passes a production deployment and client-facing capability assessment
14-day replacement
Free replacement within 14 days if the FDE is not the right fit
Flat 15% fee
Published in every contract — no hidden markups or placement charges
No placement fee. No lock-in contracts. 14-day free replacement guarantee.