Most AI training teaches people to use a model. This programme teaches engineers to embed inside a customer, diagnose a real business problem in days, and deliver a governed, production-ready agentic AI solution on-site and under pressure, without a sales team in the room.
What Is a Forward Deployed Engineer?
A Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) is an embedded technical specialist who works directly alongside an organisation's own team to design, build and operationalise agentic AI systems. Unlike a consultant who recommends and leaves, an FDE gets hands-on: building agent loops, wiring tool integrations, stress-testing guardrails, and handing ownership to the client's engineers once the system is live.
Agentic AI is moving from prototype to production. The engineering discipline to do that well, safely and at scale is still scarce. This programme closes that gap.
The Pathway
The programme runs as a three-tier pathway. Experienced candidates can enter at the tier that fits them.
Foundation
Structured discovery, rapid prototyping and agentic AI fundamentals. Learn to turn a messy customer ask into a one-page problem brief and a working first build.
Practitioner
Production-grade builds: tool integration, memory architectures, cost-aware design, governance and the stakeholder fluency needed to operate inside an enterprise.
Advanced / CFDE
Leading embedded engagements end-to-end, including failure diagnosis, incident and escalation management, and executive readouts. Leads to the Certified Forward Deployed Engineer credential.
Graduates of Tier 3 earn the Certified Forward Deployed Engineer (CFDE) badge from Tactics Solutions, a credential awarded on demonstrated delivery in a graded capstone, not on attendance.
What You Will Learn
- Design and implement multi-step agentic AI systems using current orchestration frameworks
- Build robust tool-use layers with proper error handling and retry logic
- Implement memory architectures: in-context, external vector and episodic
- Apply governance and guardrail frameworks to autonomous agent deployments
- Diagnose and remediate failure modes in live agent systems
- Communicate system design and risk posture to non-technical stakeholders
How It Is Taught
This is a practitioner programme. Every concept is anchored to working code, following a simple cycle: concept briefing, live build, guided lab, group debrief. Scenario exercises put participants inside realistic enterprise situations where they must design, debug or defend an architecture, and structured peer review mirrors real code and architecture review.
Every tier ends in a graded, scenario-based delivery capstone in which participants act as FDEs deploying an agent system for a client. There is no multiple-choice exam. Cohorts are capped at 16 participants to protect coaching quality.
WHY THIS PROGRAMME
- Built from real embedded-engagement patterns, not vendor slideware
- Governance and AI evaluation taught as part of the build, not as an afterthought
- Graduates leave with a working agent codebase, full lab materials and a personal FDE deployment playbook
- Designed and delivered by a practitioner running enterprise AI governance and deployment across 20+ countries
Who Should Enrol
- Solutions and pre-sales engineers moving into deployment-heavy roles
- Software and AI engineers moving from product teams into customer-facing delivery
- Consulting and systems integration engineers building an agentic AI practice
- Technical leads being prepared to run embedded customer engagements
- Organisations standing up an internal Forward Deployed function
Participants should be comfortable with Python, REST APIs and at least one cloud platform.
Build Your Forward Deployed Bench
Available as the full three-tier pathway, by individual tier, or as on-site delivery for an internal cohort. Talk to us about the right entry point for your team.
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