AI AND DATA ROLES
FDE vs applied ai engineer
Quick answer
Often the same job under another title; the difference is whether the role is customer-embedded or internal.
| APPLIED AI ENGINEER | FORWARD DEPLOYED ENGINEER | |
|---|---|---|
| MAIN OUTPUT | LLM features applied to a business problem | A working deployment inside one customer's systems |
| CLIENT TIME | Lower than an FDE | High: discovery, demos and handover every week |
| WRITES PRODUCTION CODE | Yes | Yes |
| PAY | See FDE salary in India for bands by experience and city. | |