Palantir and Google hired the most US forward deployed engineers in 2026, Live Data figures show

Live Data Technologies published a November 10 breakdown, produced with Lenny's Newsletter and TrueUp, of who has hired forward deployed engineers in the US this year. Counting only people who moved into an FDE title from a different employer between January 1 and November 6, Palantir leads with at least 151 hires, followed by Google with 122, Accenture with 50, Salesforce with 45 and Northslope Technologies with 36. Databricks, Tribe AI, Snorkel AI, IBM, Deloitte, C3 AI, Microsoft and OpenAI also appear in the top 20.

The report calls forward deployed engineer the fastest-growing engineering title in Lenny's data. It says Palantir used to account for about half of FDE hiring, but more than 2,400 people have been hired into the title elsewhere so far in 2026.

The counts are a floor: they exclude internal moves, interns and contractors, and job changes from the last month or two are still being recorded from public sources.

For FDE candidates, the list is a useful map of where outside hiring is actually happening, from AI labs and data platforms to consultancies and specialist shops like Northslope and Tribe AI, rather than just where job ads are posted.