Salesforce reported on Mar. 18 that the demand for forward deployed engineers (FDEs) has surged, with an 800% increase in job postings between January and September 2025, as companies rapidly adopt artificial intelligence agents but require specialized expertise to implement them. The company described how FDEs bridge the gap between technical development and customer needs by coding, consulting, and translating agentic AI into practical solutions while working closely with clients.
This trend is significant because it shows that new technology does not necessarily eliminate jobs but instead creates new roles that did not exist before. Salesforce compared the rise of FDEs to the earlier emergence of data scientists, noting that both positions combine technical skills with business understanding.
Sarah Khalid, now an FDE Director at Salesforce, said her path to becoming an FDE was unplanned: “I didn’t plan on becoming an FDE. It’s something that I grew into.” She explained that while traditional engineers build solutions in isolation, FDEs focus on ensuring those solutions deliver value for customers. “Implementation teams build solutions,” Khalid said. “The FDEs make sure those solutions drive value.”
Ruth Hickin, Vice President of Agentic Workforce Strategy and Innovation at Salesforce, described the unique nature of deploying AI agents: “This is not a typical implementation of software. It’s really, how do we help people get the value and the outcomes of AI? Not just implement it but understand what problems they’re trying to solve.” Hickin emphasized human judgment as essential in working with AI: “How do I know when AI is wrong, when AI is right, how it can solve the right problem? That truly is human-AI collaboration.”
Salesforce has tripled its FDE team within six months by combining talent from engineering, professional services, and customer success departments. The company also launched a six-week onboarding program in September 2025 to train new hires through technical instruction and hands-on experience. According to Hickin, curiosity is more important than credentials for this role: “The most important thing is, can you solve a customer’s problem?”
Khalid noted that automation has reduced administrative tasks for FDEs by up to 40%, allowing them to focus more on solving customer issues directly. She shared examples where nontechnical skills such as communication and trust-building were crucial for project success: “There’s not much coding involved… It’s actually more judgment, trust, and communication skills. And not something that AI can replace.”
Looking ahead, Hickin suggested that the skills required for FDEs may become standard across many technical roles as technology continues to evolve toward closer collaboration with customers.
