Only 12% of FDE job ads are open to new grads, and the way in runs through Palantir-style internships and real customer projects

A new FDE Times guide for students and recent graduates starts from a hard number: in Bloomberry's analysis of 1,000 forward deployed engineer ads posted between January and October 2025, only 12% accepted candidates with 0–2 years of experience. Ads asking for 3–5 years made up 60%, 6–8 years 20%, and nine years or more 8%. Entry-level openings cluster at companies that are building an FDE programme from scratch.

The guide uses Palantir's Forward Deployed Software Engineer internship and new-grad postings as the model. The internship asks only for one common language such as Python, Java, C++ or TypeScript, but the job itself is building custom applications and LLM workflows for a specific customer's real circumstances, with 25–50% travel. It also cites The Pragmatic Engineer reporting that Ramp still hires some outstanding new grads into FDE roles and that Palantir takes people with about a year of experience.

It lays out three routes in: an internship on an FDE team (apply a full year before graduating), a software engineering job at an AI company with a switch after 12–18 months, or a seed or Series A startup where role boundaries are blurred. Its practical advice is to build one project for a real nearby user, handle their messy data, measure the result over a trial week, and write CV lines around that measured outcome rather than the tools used.

Why it matters: the FDE door for graduates is narrow but real, and the guide is specific about what hiring teams test for, which is evidence of solving a real person's problem rather than years on a CV. Graduates can filter fde.me listings for intern and new-grad roles at companies like Palantir.