Hey Friend ,
The CEO of Google Cloud is posting job openings on LinkedIn.
Himself. Not the recruiter.
When was the last time you saw that..
That's not a flex. That's a panic signal. The talent pool is empty.
The role he can't fill is called Forward Deployed Engineer. FDE.
It's about to be the hottest title in tech for the next three years.
And it's not a new job. It's a Technical Solutions Engineer with a faster cycle and a fatter paycheck.
The old way:
Solutions Engineer talks to customer → goes back to engineers → builds → demos → customer says "no I wanted this" → repeat for six months → everyone hates each other (quietly, with a smile).
The new way:
FDE sits inside the customer's office. Watches the actual workflow. Builds with AI right then and there. Ships same week.
Same wine. Different bottle.
The bottle just happens to be made of money.
Why the comp is high
Some numbers:
1. FDE job postings grew 800%+ between Jan and Sept 2025 (Indeed + Financial Times analysis)
2. Staff-level FDEs are clearing $630K total comp. OpenAI and Anthropic mid-to-senior FDEs are at $350K–$550K (Levels.fyi)
3. Salesforce alone has committed to hiring 1,000 Forward Deployed Engineers (public commitment)
Translation — there are not enough qualified people. The market is paying a premium until that changes.
5 Skills to Build (start this week)
AI-native engineering. Claude, Cursor, Windsurf — daily, not weekly.
Customer fluency. Read Never Split the Difference. Ask more, talk less.
Domain depth. Pick one industry. Read its trade press for 60 days.
Production portfolio. Two or three things real humans use. This is your interview.
Demo muscle. Loom walkthroughs. Live demos that don't break.
90 days of focused work. Maybe less if you're already partway there.
The honest catch
You have to be sweet-spoken.
The most technical person in the room still gets walked out if they bruise the customer's ego. The only engineers who get a pass on the people skills are the ones who are genuinely, undeniably brilliant.
That's a tiny club. Plan to be in the larger club. Smile and code at the same time.
What we're seeing at Wynisco
The candidates who landed FDE-adjacent roles fast had two things in common:
Not LeetCode. Not certifications. Those two things.
If you can code AND read a room — FDE is the seat with your name on it.
Same wine, different bottle. But the wine is good — drink it before the market catches up.
If you want help with the rebuild — skill stack, portfolio, interview prep — that's what we do at Wynisco.
See you next Thursday.
Reply and tell me: where are you right now in your job search?
Just one line. I read every reply personally.
Talk soon,
Sachin Rajgire
Founder, Wynisco Inc.
sachin@wynisco.com
