No CS degree? Palantir, Anthropic and Google FDE postings soften the degree line but not the experience bar
An FDE Times read of Palantir, Anthropic and Google FDE job postings finds the degree requirement usually comes with "or equivalent experience" or "preferred", while the requirements for production LLM work, MCP and customer-facing experience have no alternative.
FDE Times compared forward deployed engineer postings at Palantir, Anthropic and Google to see what candidates without a computer science degree actually need. Anthropic and Google both write "or equivalent experience" next to the bachelor's degree line, and Palantir's full-time Forward Deployed Software Engineer posting lists technical fields such as CS, maths or physics only as "preferred" and states no degree requirement. The exception it notes is Palantir's FDSE internship for US government work, which expects candidates to be studying for or holding a technical degree.
The hard requirements are where the postings stop offering alternatives. Per the article, Palantir asks for at least one year of work after university; Anthropic's Applied AI FDE role wants LLMs in production, including agent development, plus 4+ years in technical roles working directly with customers; and Google's Staff FDE role lists 8 years of software development and experience with MCP and generative AI agents under minimum qualifications.
The piece also points out that a relaxed degree line does not mean easier entry, citing Fortune's report that Palantir's Meritocracy Fellowship for people who skipped university took 22 of more than 500 applicants (a fellowship, not an FDE hiring process).
Why it matters for FDEs: for career switchers and self-taught engineers, the practical takeaway is to replace the degree on the CV with proof, such as an agent with real users, an MCP server you wrote, or an eval set showing the system works outside a demo, since that evidence maps directly onto the requirements these companies won't waive.
Source: fdetimes.net