Home → The Program
The FDE Program
Nine to twelve months at a desk in Koramangala, building AI agents that someone actually has to use. Preceded by a one-month trial, so neither of us commits blind. The Founding Cohort starts in November 2026.
What does a Forward Deployed Engineer actually do?
A Forward Deployed Engineer sits inside the customer's business rather than behind a product roadmap. They learn how that business really works, then build, deploy and fix the software — increasingly AI agents — that makes it work better. Part engineer, part consultant, part translator between what a customer says they want and what they actually need.
The job, concretely
- Sit with the customer's team and map a messy, undocumented process
- Design an agent workflow that survives that mess
- Build it, integrate it against real systems and real data
- Watch it fail in production and fix it the same week
- Explain, to a non-engineer, why it now works
Why AI created this role
Models are general. Businesses are specific. The gap between a capable model and a working system is filled by someone who understands both — the messy domain and the engineering. That gap is not automatable, because it is made of judgement, context and trust. Which is why demand for the role rose while entry-level coding demand fell.
A day at 6Qs
Standup
What you shipped yesterday, what you're shipping today, what's blocking you. Said out loud, to people who will remember.
Build
Deep work on your current brief, punctuated by mentor reviews you did not schedule and cannot dodge.
Write it down
A written status update, every day. What moved, what didn't, what you decided and why. This is the habit that compounds.
Five days a week, in the room. Fridays end with a demo or a review, depending on the phase.
What the year looks like
A month to test each other
You get a real brief, a desk and a mentor for four weeks. We watch how you handle ambiguity, feedback and a deadline. You watch whether this room is where you want to spend a year. At the end we both decide — and a "no" from either side costs you nothing further.
Foundations, learned by building
Python and API fundamentals, how LLMs actually behave, prompt and context design, agent frameworks, retrieval, evaluation, version control and code review discipline. Taught as briefs to deliver, not chapters to finish.
Real forward-deployed work
Document analysis, KYC-style verification, compliance and reconciliation workflows — the document-heavy, rule-heavy problems that BFSI runs on. Client-style reviews. Scope changes mid-week. Things that break in front of an audience.
Turning work into offers
Portfolio hardening, README and demo-video discipline, mock interviews conducted on your own code, and introductions as our partner relationships develop.
How you're assessed
- Did it ship, and does it work for someone other than you?
- Can you defend a design decision under questioning?
- Did the daily update go out, and was it honest?
- How did you respond the week everything broke?
- Did you question the brief, or just execute it?
There is no final exam and no certificate. The assessment is continuous, written, and shared with you.
Who this is for — and who it isn't
A good fit if you
- Have finished, or are finishing, an engineering or computing degree
- Can write some code and want to be genuinely good at it
- Can relocate to or already live in Bangalore
- Would rather be corrected than complimented
- Are prepared to give this a year, full-time
Not a fit if you
- Want a certificate to add to your CV
- Want the outcome without the year of work that earns it
- Are looking for evening or weekend classes
- Want to do it remotely
- Are planning to prepare for other exams alongside
Currently in second or third year? A virtual PreFDE summer programme is planned separately — tell us you're interested and we'll write when it opens.
The Trial Month is how you find out.
Four weeks, a real brief, no obligation at the end.