CLIENT-FACING ROLES

FDE vs solutions architect

Quick answer

A solutions architect designs; an FDE designs and then builds and deploys the design.

	SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT	FORWARD DEPLOYED ENGINEER
MAIN OUTPUT	Reference architectures and designs	A working deployment inside one customer's systems
CLIENT TIME	Similar than an FDE	High: discovery, demos and handover every week
WRITES PRODUCTION CODE	Rarely	Yes
PAY	See FDE salary in India for bands by experience and city.

The default language of data, integrations and LLM tooling.

Automated checks that prove your code still works after a change.

Packaging code and its dependencies so it runs anywhere.