Kello study of 15,857 FDE postings: no pay premium over software engineers in the US and UK, and consulting firms now post a third of FDE jobs

Recruiting-data company Kello published a hiring guide on November 2 built on 15,857 distinct forward deployed engineer postings from LinkedIn and Naukri and the work histories of 23,123 people who currently hold the FDE title (data as of October 27). It counts 4,220 new FDE postings in Q3 2026 against 857 a year earlier, about 10,386 live postings from roughly 2,900 employers, and a shift in who is hiring: consulting and IT services firms rose from 18% to 32% of postings, with Deloitte alone showing 211 live US postings.

On pay, the report finds no FDE premium over software engineers at the same employer in the US and UK, a 15-16% premium over solutions engineers, and a 25% premium over software engineers in India. The median advertised US range is $150k to $230k, with the top quarter of postings starting at a $268k maximum. Higher-paying job descriptions are more likely to mention owning production (87% vs 70%), evals (25% vs 6%) and equity, while lower-paid ones lean on prompt engineering and named cloud certifications.

For candidates, the data suggests the role is mostly filled from software engineering (29-39% of current FDEs, versus 7-12% from solutions or implementation roles), and that one in five US FDEs moved into the title at their existing employer. It also flags Dublin, Tokyo and Zurich as the most competitive hiring markets and notes that many FDE-style jobs are posted under other titles such as deployed engineer or applied AI engineer, which is worth knowing when searching. Pay figures are advertised ranges rather than offers.