Nextmove counts 1,056 new FDE-titled postings in September, up from 667 in June

Nextmove published a data page built from 2,544 US forward deployed engineer and related postings it read on October 11, 2026. By its reading, 78.3% of them describe writing production code as the main coding work, 77.3% serve external customers, and 94.4% are senior or staff+ roles. Only 29 postings read as junior.

Its monthly series counts postings worldwide with FDE in the title by the month Nextmove first saw them: 402 in May, 667 in June, 490 in July, 624 in August and 1,056 in September. Nextmove notes that it also tracked more careers pages over that time (about 4,200 rising to 4,500), so part of the jump is wider coverage rather than market growth.

Other figures: Python is named in 57% of postings, 40.9% mention travel, 18.2% are listed as remote, and among the 314 postings that address visa sponsorship, 237 rule it out. Databricks has the most postings (77), followed by Deloitte US, with Anduril and Booz Allen also in the top ten.

For FDE job seekers, the picture is a senior, customer-facing building role: most employers expect people who can lead an ambiguous project to production, and entry-level openings are rare.