Customer discovery
Translate operational pain into crisp technical requirements.
Forward Deployed Engineering Fellowship · Fall 2026
Build AI
in the real world.
A three-month, full-time fellowship for exceptional engineers who want to turn ambiguous customer problems into production systems.
Customer problem→Production system
SHIP WITH CUSTOMERS · OWN THE OUTCOME · PROTOTYPE FAST · WRITE PRODUCTION CODE · DEPLOY IN WEEKS · SHIP WITH CUSTOMERS · OWN THE OUTCOME · PROTOTYPE FAST · WRITE PRODUCTION CODE · DEPLOY IN WEEKS ·
The premise
Experience is built by doing the work.
Companies do not need more toy demos. They need engineers who can understand a messy operating environment, earn user trust, and ship durable software under real constraints.
12weeks of full-time, hands-on deployment work
1:4mentor-to-fellow ratio for direct technical feedback
2–3production-grade customer deployments per team
100%focused on building, shipping, and learning in public
Three months.
One steep curve.
You will work in a small pod with experienced engineers and customer operators. The curriculum follows the deployment cycle—not a classroom syllabus.
01
Discover the actual problem
Interview users, map workflows, inspect data, identify constraints, and turn a vague mandate into a measurable deployment plan.
02
Prototype at operating speed
Build the narrowest complete solution. Pair with fellows, review code daily, and use modern AI tooling without outsourcing your judgment.
03
Deploy into production
Integrate with real systems, instrument reliability, handle security and edge cases, train users, and iterate from observed behavior.
04
Prove what changed
Measure adoption and business impact, document the system, publish a technical case study, and present your work to hiring partners.
What you will practice
Not just code.
Deployment.
Forward deployed engineers combine product sense, technical range, and direct customer ownership. The fellowship is designed around that full stack of responsibility.
Applied AI systems
Build retrieval, agentic, multimodal, and workflow automation products.
Production engineering
Own APIs, data pipelines, observability, security, and deployment.
Executive communication
Explain tradeoffs, manage scope, and keep stakeholders aligned.
Who should apply
High agency beats a perfect résumé.
We are looking for builders who learn quickly, communicate clearly, and take responsibility for outcomes.
01
You can write solid software.
Professional experience helps, but strong projects and open-source work count.
Professional experience helps, but strong projects and open-source work count.
02
You are comfortable with ambiguity.
You ask good questions and create structure rather than waiting for a complete spec.
You ask good questions and create structure rather than waiting for a complete spec.
03
You like being close to users.
You see customer conversations as part of engineering, not a distraction from it.
You see customer conversations as part of engineering, not a distraction from it.
04
You can commit full-time for three months.
The program is remote-first with optional in-person build weeks.
The program is remote-first with optional in-person build weeks.
Applications open
Your fastest path to becoming a forward deployed engineer.
Submit a short application with your background, one project you are proud of, and why customer-facing engineering appeals to you.
Priority deadline · August 31, 2026