// METHODOLOGY
How the State of FDE dataset was built
How the 519-posting, 57-employer snapshot was assembled. The download contains extracted fields, source links and collection metadata. Raw responses, the collection script and the probe log are not included, so this is a method summary rather than a complete reproduction package. Postings may have changed or closed.
1. Sources, and why only these three
Data came from exactly three public, unauthenticated ATS job-board APIs, chosen because each operator documents a public job-listing endpoint:
- Lever Postings API - Lever's own docs state published jobs "may be scraped by third parties."
- Greenhouse Job Board API - "Job Board data is publicly available, so authentication is not required for any GET endpoints."
- Ashby Public Job Posting API - a documented public, no-auth endpoint for currently published postings.
The collection excluded LinkedIn, Indeed, Wellfound/AngelList, YC Work-at-a-Startup, Google for Jobs and republished datasets from those platforms. It used extracted fields and source links for reference analysis. Public API availability does not remove an operator's terms or settle reuse rights for every purpose.
2. Collection
A hand-curated seed list of AI-native, data-platform, fintech, dev-tools, and gov-tech companies known to hire FDE-family roles on those three ATSs. Each company's board slug was resolved from its public careers URL, then its one public JSON endpoint was fetched once, rate-limited to no more than one request per second, with an identified User-Agent. No login, no paywall bypass, no IP rotation. The full list of contributing boards ships inside the dataset's meta.boards_contributing.
3. Inclusion and exclusion
Included if the posting was live and its title or description matched the FDE-family lexicon: forward deployed, FDE, FDSE, applied AI/ML engineer, deployment engineer or strategist, field engineer, implementation engineer, and solutions engineer/architect where the role involves production coding or customer-embedded delivery.
Excluded: pure pre-sales or quota-only solutions/sales roles with no coding, support/success roles, internships, expired postings, and duplicate cross-posts (deduped on employer + normalized title + location).
4. The FDE responsibility coding rubric
Each posting is scored 0-2 on five axes. The broad test requires at least 1 on production coding AND at least 1 on customer embeddingwith no quota/OTE language and no explicit sales reporting line. The stricter test additionally requires an explicit engineering/product reporting line. These are this study's definitions, not an industry certification of a role.
| Axis | 0 | 1 | 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production coding | no coding / aptitude only | scripts, some coding | ships production software |
| Customer embedding | remote advisory only | some on-site collaboration | embedded / heavy travel |
| Reporting line | Sales / GTM | Services / Delivery | Engineering / Product |
| Comp structure | quota + commission + OTE | base + bonus | base + equity, no quota |
| AI / data depth | none | uses vendor APIs | builds ML / RAG / pipelines |
The fields are derived from keyword rules, not individually verified accounts of each job. Raw source-text spans are not included in the download, and live postings may no longer match the snapshot.
5. What gets published (and what doesn't)
Published: aggregate statistics, a per-posting fact table of extracted attributes, and a link back to each live posting. Notpublished: verbatim job-description prose (that is the employer's copyright), and anything from a prohibited source. Source links identify where the fields came from; they are not a blanket license for other uses.
6. Limitations
This is the state of FDE hiring among AI-native and infrastructure companies on public ATS boards, not the whole market. It skews to US / venture-backed companies and under-covers large enterprises on private ATSs, EMEA/APAC, and staffing listings. It is a point-in-time snapshot (open roles, not hires), so trend claims need a second edition. Full limitations are listed on the report.