The Job Big Tech Is Suddenly Fighting Over
In the last twelve months, one job title has gone from obscure to the most in-demand role in tech: the Forward Deployed Engineer, or FDE.
Job postings for it grew more than 800% year-on-year. OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and a long list of AI startups are hiring FDEs as fast as they can find them, with total pay packages running from $238,000 at Palantir to $350,000–$550,000 at the top AI labs. OpenAI even launched a multi-billion-dollar "Deployment Company" built almost entirely around putting these engineers inside large organisations.
So why is a job most people have never heard of suddenly worth half a million dollars a year? And, more usefully if you run a small business in New Zealand: is there anything in this for you?
There is. But not in the way the headlines suggest.
So What Is a Forward Deployed Engineer, Actually?
The role was invented at Palantir in the early 2010s. The name comes from the military idea of "forward-deployed" troops: people sent out to where the actual problem is, rather than sitting back at headquarters.
A Forward Deployed Engineer does the same thing with software. Instead of building one product and hoping it fits everyone, an FDE embeds with a single customer, learns that customer's real workflow in detail, and builds or configures software to solve that customer's exact problem.
Palantir put it well: a normal engineer builds one capability for many customers. A Forward Deployed Engineer builds many capabilities for one customer.
The reason this model exists is simple and a little uncomfortable: most businesses cannot fully describe what they need until they see it working. You know your business better than anyone, but turning that knowledge into a precise software specification is genuinely hard. The FDE model skips the specification fight. The engineer comes to you, watches how the work actually happens, and builds the thing in front of you, adjusting as you react.
That is the opposite of how most software gets sold.
Why This Matters More Than the Job Title
Forget the salaries for a moment. The interesting part is not the job. It is the way of buying software that the job represents.
Most small businesses have only ever had two options:
- Off-the-shelf software (SaaS). You pay a monthly fee and bend your business to fit the software. Fine when the fit is good, frustrating when it is not.
- A custom build from an agency. You pay $20,000–$80,000, wait three to six months, and hope the thing they deliver matches what you described at the start.
The Forward Deployed model is a third option. An engineer sits with you, understands your process, and builds software that fits you, not the other way around. Big tech worked out that this is the only reliable way to make AI genuinely useful inside a real organisation. Selling a chatbot licence does very little. Putting an engineer next to the work, and building the workflow around it, is what actually moves the needle.
That insight is correct. It is also exactly what small businesses have always needed and almost never been able to afford.
The Catch: A Real FDE Costs More Than Your Annual Rent
Here is where the headlines stop being useful for a small business.
The Forward Deployed Engineers at OpenAI, Google and Palantir are aimed at banks, government agencies, insurers and Fortune 500 companies. The economics only work at that scale. A $400,000-a-year engineer who flies to client sites cannot break even on a small job. So even the newer "FDE studios" that claim to serve smaller companies are really targeting funded startups with 11 to 500 staff, charging the equivalent of one engineer's annual salary for a single project.
If you run a plumbing business, a cafe, a salon or a real estate office in Auckland, none of that is built for you. The model is brilliant. The price tag assumes you are a bank.
So the honest position is this: the Forward Deployed approach is the right approach for small business, but the Silicon Valley version of it is priced completely out of reach.
That gap is the entire reason BestAI exists.
How a Small Business Gets the FDE Approach Without the FDE Price Tag
We are, in plain terms, Forward Deployed Engineers for New Zealand small business. We just do not charge half a million dollars, and we do not make you wait six months.
The approach is the same one the big labs use, scaled down to fit a real Kiwi small business:
- We embed in your reality, not on a $550k salary. A short, honest conversation about how your work actually flows, where the time goes, and which one task drives you up the wall.
- We learn your specific workflow. Not a generic template. The way you quote, book, follow up, or chase invoices, including the NZ-specific bits like GST, IRD rules and local payment methods.
- We build the actual tool, fast. A focused, working custom tool delivered in 48 hours, from $399. Not advice. Not a slide deck. A thing you can use on Monday.
- We stay around. Training, a plain-language guide, and a round of changes are included. We do not throw software over the wall and disappear.
Call it custom software, call it a rapid tool, call it automation. The label matters less than the method, and the method is the one big tech just spent a year proving works: put someone next to the actual work, understand it properly, and build something that fits.
What "Forward Deployed" Looks Like for a Kiwi Business
Here is the model in real, unglamorous examples, the kind we build every week:
- A tradie quoting tool. You enter the job details on your phone, it produces a branded PDF quote with GST already calculated, and sends it before you have left the driveway.
- A salon or clinic reminder system. Automatic SMS and email reminders 24 hours before each appointment, which quietly kills your no-show rate.
- A lead-capture assistant. A smart form on your website that sorts enquiries, answers the obvious questions instantly, and pings you the moment a real lead comes in.
- A follow-up automation. After a job is done, the system asks for a Google review, checks in a month later, and nudges at the right time, without you remembering to.
None of these are "AI" in the science-fiction sense. They are small, sharp tools built around how your business actually runs. That is what forward deployed means in practice.
How We Connect the AI to the Tools You Already Use
Most useful tools are not islands. A quoting tool is far more valuable if it can talk to your accounting software. A reminder system needs to read your calendar. A follow-up assistant needs your customer list.
When a project needs to connect to something you already use, such as Xero, Google Calendar, your website, or your job-management software, we build a small custom connector (an integration) that acts as a bridge between the AI and that system. You do not need to understand the technical side. In plain terms: we make the new tool and your existing tools talk to each other, so you are not copying information by hand between five different apps. That bridge is part of the build, not an expensive afterthought.
Is This Right for Your Business?
We would rather give you a straight answer than sell you something. A forward deployed, custom approach is the right call when:
- You can describe the one task that wastes the most time, and no off-the-shelf tool quite handles it.
- Your workflow is a little different from everyone else's, and standard software keeps forcing you to change how you work.
- You need a couple of systems to talk to each other and they currently do not.
It is not the right call when a good off-the-shelf product already covers 90% of what you need. If Fergus, Timely or Xero solves your problem, we will tell you to use it and save your money. That honesty is the whole point.
FAQ
What is a forward deployed engineer? A forward deployed engineer (FDE) embeds with a single customer, learns that customer's real workflow in detail, and builds or configures software to solve that customer's exact problem. The model started at Palantir in the early 2010s. A normal engineer builds one capability for many customers; an FDE builds many capabilities for one customer.
Why are big tech companies suddenly paying so much for forward deployed engineers? They worked out that selling an AI licence does little on its own. Putting an engineer next to the real work and building the workflow around it is what actually makes AI useful inside an organisation. Demand grew more than 800% year-on-year, with pay from $238,000 at Palantir to $350,000 to $550,000 at the top AI labs, and OpenAI launched a deployment company built around the role.
How is a forward deployed engineer different from an AI consultant or a software agency? An AI consultant gives advice and a plan. A traditional agency builds from a written specification over months. A forward deployed engineer sits with you, learns how your work actually happens, and builds working software that fits you, adjusting as you react. The output is a working tool, not a document.
Can a small business actually get a forward deployed engineer in NZ? Not the Silicon Valley version, which costs $238,000 to $550,000 a year and targets banks and Fortune 500s. But the same embed-and-build approach, scaled for a NZ small business, starts at $399 and is delivered in 48 hours at BestAI. The method is affordable even though the enterprise job title is not.
What does the forward deployed approach look like for a small business? Small, sharp tools built around how your business actually runs: a tradie quoting tool that produces a branded GST quote on your phone, a salon reminder system that cuts no-shows, a lead-capture assistant on your website, or a follow-up automation that asks for reviews at the right moment. We learn your workflow, then build the tool in 48 hours from $399.
Next Steps
If you have read this far, you almost certainly have a specific headache in mind. Here is what to do with it:
- Write down the one task that wastes the most time in your business this week.
- Book a free 45-minute chat. We will tell you honestly whether a $399 tool, a full workflow setup, or an off-the-shelf product is the right answer.
- No obligation. If we think existing software solves it, we will say so.
The world's most valuable companies just spent a year proving that the best way to make software work is to put an engineer next to the real problem. We have been quietly doing exactly that for New Zealand small businesses the whole time. We just call it building you the tool you actually need.
BestAI is an Auckland-based custom software and AI automation company serving New Zealand small businesses. We bring the forward deployed approach big tech uses, building business tools from $399, delivered in 48 hours. Get in touch or see how it works.