Forward deployed engineers, inside your business
Forward deployed engineering: a senior Devute engineer embedded with your team, building against your real operation week by week.
What is a forward deployed engineer?
A forward deployed engineer (FDE) is a senior software engineer who works inside a client's business rather than from a ticket queue. They learn the operation first-hand, find the problems that cost the most, and build fixes on the client's own systems week by week. Palantir made the role well known; Devute offers it as a service.
Some problems cannot be written into a brief. The ones that cost the most are usually invisible from outside the business — a handover nobody documented, a report rebuilt by hand every month, three systems that almost talk to each other. A forward deployed engineer sits close enough to see those, and has the authority to fix them the same week rather than putting them in a backlog.
Operations-heavy businesses and scale-ups with more internal problems than internal engineers, and anyone who has learned that a fixed-scope project cannot describe what they actually need.
What FDE Services covers.
Embedded, not assigned
Your standups, your tools, your context. The engineer learns how the business actually runs, which is the part a statement of work never captures.
Ships weekly
Small things fixed the week they surface, big things built in slices you can see. No six-week silence ending in a demo.
Builds on your stack
Whatever you already run. The point is to leave you with less to maintain, not another system only we understand.
Two days a week upward
Part-time embedding suits most businesses. Full-time when there is a platform to stand up, and it can flex without renegotiating a contract.
Handover as you go
Documented and explained to your people continuously, so the engagement can end without the knowledge leaving with us.
No quotes theatre. Four steps.
You get an indicative range before discovery and a fixed scope after it. Nothing about the price should be a surprise.
What you get that you didn’t last time.
UK-based senior team
You deal directly with the people building your product — same time zone, no quality lottery from anonymous offshore subcontractors.
Transparent pricing
Indicative ranges up front and a fixed-scope proposal after discovery. You always know what you are paying for.
One team, idea to scale
Strategy, design, build and infrastructure under one roof — one accountable team from first sketch to launch and beyond.
You own the code
All source, designs and IP transfer to you, in clean documented repositories. You are never locked in.
Things we shipped.
Every project below ran through the same four steps.
Guides that go deeper.
Where we do this most.
Often bought together.
What does a forward deployed engineer do day to day?
They sit with your team, in person or remotely, watch how work actually gets done, and fix what slows it down: automating manual reports, connecting systems, building internal tools and adding AI where it helps. Every week ends with something shipped and in use.
How is an FDE different from hiring a contractor?
A contractor usually works through a spec you write. A forward deployed engineer works out what needs building by being close to the work, and has the authority to change priorities as they learn. You get outcomes rather than tickets.
How much do forward deployed engineering services cost?
Our FDE service starts at £4,800 a month for two days a week, and rises with the time you need. The scope moves with your priorities each week, so you're paying for an engineer's time and judgement, not a fixed list of tickets.
Do you need access to our systems?
Yes. The engineer works on your own stack, with access agreed and logged. We sign an NDA and a data processing agreement where personal data is involved, and everything built is documented and handed over as we go.
What kind of businesses use forward deployed engineers?
Operations-heavy businesses and scale-ups with more internal problems than engineers: logistics, manufacturing, professional services and healthcare providers, and software companies that need an engineer embedded with a major customer.
Can an FDE help us adopt AI?
Yes. Much of the work is finding where AI genuinely saves time, such as document handling, triage, reporting and support, then building and measuring it in your real operation rather than in a demo.
Tell us what you need.
A senior person replies within one working day with a plan and a fixed price. No sales script, no obligation.
- Free audit of what you have now
- Fixed quote before any work starts
- You own the code, content and accounts
Tell us the goal. We’ll tell you the price.
A free audit, a fixed scope and a number — usually within two working days. No obligation, no sales theatre.