Guide

Top forward deployed engineering firms in the US

These are fifteen firms with a US office, or a US company that works remotely, that sell forward deployed engineering: they place their own engineers inside a client's team to build software and keep it running. Every fact was checked on 20 October 2026, and each sentence says whether the fact comes from the firm itself, a news report, a filing or a partner directory. No firm publishes a price, and no firm gets a score.

Published October 21, 2026. Editorial.

Key takeaways

Fifteen firms in this guide sell engineers who work inside the client's team: Reveneau, Fluxon, Distyl AI, Ode with Anthropic, Tribe AI, Factored, Grid Dynamics, Turing, Tredence, Percepta, Tenex, 10Pearls, Caylent, Artium and HatchWorks AI.
Anthropic's partner directory, read on 20 October 2026, lists ten of the fifteen. Reveneau, Fluxon, Distyl AI, 10Pearls and HatchWorks AI were not in it.
Four firms belong to, or are part-owned by, a larger company or investor: Anthropic and others own Ode, General Catalyst owns Percepta, AlixPartners bought Artium, and Advent International took a minority stake in Tredence in 2022.
No firm publishes a price. Tenex and Caylent publish only the method they use to charge.
Before you sign, ask who owns the firm, where its engineers will work, what has to pass before each release, and how the work moves to your own team at the end.

This guide lists fifteen firms with an office in the United States that sell forward deployed engineering to other companies. Each one says it places its own engineers inside a client's team to build software, most often AI software, and to keep it running. Every fact was checked on 20 October 2026. Each sentence tells you where its fact comes from: the firm's own website, a news report, a company filing, or a partner directory.

A forward deployed engineer, often shortened to FDE, is a software engineer who works inside the client's organization, with the client's people and on the client's systems, for as long as the work lasts. Wikipedia says the title was made popular by Palantir, which used it for staff by 2009, and that the term comes from US military language [17]. The guide to forward deployed engineering explains the role in full, and what a forward deployed engineer is gives the short definition. This guide is about the firms you can hire to supply one.

Why buyers are looking for FDE firms now

Demand for the role rose fast in 2025. Henley Wing Chiu of Bloomberry, working from job data collected by Revealera, found that postings for forward deployed engineers from January to October 2025 were 1,165 percent higher than in the same months of 2024. He also found that 58 percent of the roles were at companies with 11 to 200 employees [16]. His analysis covers 1,000 job postings and gives no split by country, so read it as a measure of the role's growth in general.

Large companies are building their own teams too. Amazon said on 30 June 2026 that its AWS forward deployed engineering model is backed by a $1 billion investment [18]. On the same day, AWS announced a programme in which a limited set of partner firms will build FDE teams whose engineers pass a technical test that AWS sets. The AWS post names no partner firms, so this guide calls no firm an AWS FDE partner [19].

A company that needs this help has three choices. It can use the FDE team of the company that sells it software, hire its own forward deployed engineers, or hire an outside firm. This guide covers the outside firms. Hiring an FDE firm or your own engineers compares the last two.

The list at a glance

The table shows the US offices each firm names, where its offer of embedded engineers appears, and its tier in Anthropic's partner directory. Anthropic makes the Claude AI models. Its directory lists consulting partners and system integrators, meaning firms that help other companies set up and use Claude, and gives most of them one of three tiers: Global Premier, Preferred or Select. The directory held 321 entries when it was read on 20 October 2026 [1].

Firm	US offices it names	Where the FDE offer appears	Anthropic directory, 20 October 2026
Reveneau	San Francisco	Its forward deployed engineers service page	Not listed
Fluxon	San Francisco (Forbes; Stripe directory)	Its AI development page	Not listed
Distyl AI	New York, San Francisco	Its homepage	Not listed
Ode with Anthropic	San Francisco, New York, Raleigh-Durham	Its homepage, without the FDE title	Select
Tribe AI	New York, San Francisco	Its homepage and press page	Preferred
Factored	Mountain View, California	Its homepage	Preferred
Grid Dynamics	San Ramon, California, and five other US sites	Its homepage	Select
Turing	A San Francisco mailbox; Palo Alto, per TechCrunch	Its enterprise AI page	Select
Tredence	San Jose, Foster City, Chicago, Bentonville	Its FDE page and a press release	Select
Percepta	New York; Cambridge, Massachusetts	Its homepage and careers page, without the FDE title	Preferred
Tenex	New York City	Its AI engineering page	Preferred
10Pearls	Vienna, Virginia; Chicago	Its FDE page	Not listed
Caylent	None; it says its staff work remotely	A press release dated 28 April 2026	Preferred
Artium	Los Angeles, per Consulting.us	Its homepage	Select
HatchWorks AI	Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas	Its Anthropic page	Not listed

How each entry is written

Each entry gives the facts, then two short lines. Fits names the buyer the firm suits, based on what the firm or a reporter says. Pick someone else if names the case in which another firm would suit you better.

Words such as "by its own account", "the firm says" and "its page says" mark a fact that comes only from the firm. A named outlet, such as TechCrunch or Consulting.us, marks a fact from outside the firm. How the FDE firms in this guide were chosen explains every test and every source.

The firms

1. Reveneau

Reveneau offers forward deployed engineers. It has offices at 435 Utah Street in San Francisco and on Floor 33, 909 Mainland Street, in Vancouver. The rest of this entry is Reveneau's own account of how it works. Reveneau says AI writes 100 percent of its code. By its own account, every change has to pass a large eval suite before it is released. An eval suite is a set of automated tests that checks whether the software does what its specification asks, and Reveneau says it writes its suite from the specification. Reveneau says the suite is graded by Jev, and that Jev makes the suite run ten times faster than its previous grader did. Reveneau says it uses AI in place of hiring more engineers and puts that saving into the prices its clients pay. It says it takes responsibility for the whole project, through production and after release. Production means the live system that real users rely on each day. Anthropic's directory did not list Reveneau when all 321 entries were searched on 20 October 2026 [1].

Fits: a company that wants embedded engineers whose code is written by AI and tested against a specification before every release, by Reveneau's own account. You can contact Reveneau to describe the work.

Pick someone else if: you want engineers who write every line by hand, or your rules require a partner that Anthropic's directory lists.

2. Fluxon

Fluxon is a software firm in San Francisco. Forbes's company page, with figures as of March 2026, gives its headquarters as San Francisco and its staff as 200 employees [7]. Fluxon's listing in Stripe's partner directory names it a Verified Partner and a Premier Services Partner, and gives an address, supplied by Fluxon, at 236 West Portal Ave, 848, San Francisco [8]. Fluxon calls its own AI work forward deployed. The title of its AI development page includes the words "Forward-Deployed Engineering", and a heading on that page reads "Forward-deployed by default." [9] Under a step it calls "Build side by side", Fluxon writes: "Same channels, same standups. It feels like we sit next to you because, in practice, we do." A standup is a short daily team meeting. Fluxon's homepage shows case studies for Google, Zapier, Puzzle, Eppo and Braintrust. This guide found no outside source that names Fluxon as the builder for any of them. Anthropic's directory did not list Fluxon on 20 October 2026 [1].

Fits: a company that wants a team to join its own chat channels and daily meetings and to stay, in the words of Fluxon's enterprise page, "for as long as you need them".

Pick someone else if: you need an outside source to confirm one of the firm's clients before you sign. In that case, ask Fluxon to put you in touch with a client directly.

3. Distyl AI

Distyl AI lists New York, San Francisco and London as its locations. Crunchbase News reported that Distyl raised $175 million in a Series B round at a valuation of $1.8 billion [3]. A Series B is a company's second large round of investment, and the valuation is the price the investors put on the whole company. Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners led that round. Crunchbase News also reported that its founders, Arjun Prakash and Derek Ho, both worked at Palantir. Distyl says it works by "forward-deploying our teams of engineers and researchers who own the outcome", and also by deploying its own products, customized to each business. SiliconANGLE, citing The Information, reported that Distyl has helped T-Mobile USA put several AI projects into use. Anthropic's directory did not list Distyl on 20 October 2026 [1].

Fits: large companies. Crunchbase News describes Distyl's aim as helping Fortune 500 companies, the largest US companies on Fortune magazine's yearly list, become AI-native, meaning built around AI. Its case studies name clients only by Fortune rank and industry, for example "F100 Telecom Operator".

Pick someone else if: you are a small company, or you want the finished system to run without the vendor's own products.

4. Ode with Anthropic

Ode with Anthropic's careers page says it is based in San Francisco, with offices in New York, Raleigh-Durham and Dubai. TechCrunch reported in July 2026 that Anthropic launched Ode in May as a $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others. A joint venture is a company that several partners own together. TechCrunch also reported that the joint venture bought Fractional AI, an AI engineering firm, that Fractional became the base of what is now Ode, and that Ode employs 100 engineers [2]. Ode's pages describe the work without the title forward deployed engineer: its homepage says it works with the client's team "from roadmap through deployment". Anthropic's directory lists Ode at the Select tier [1]. Anthropic is one of Ode's owners, so that listing comes from an owner.

Fits: a company that plans to build on Anthropic's models. TechCrunch reports that Ode works closely with Anthropic's own applied AI team.

Pick someone else if: you want a firm that no AI model maker owns any part of.

5. Tribe AI

Tribe AI lists offices in New York, San Francisco and Lisbon in its site footer. TechCrunch called it a Brooklyn-based startup in July 2024 [4]. TechCrunch reported that Jaclyn Rice Nelson and Noah Gale launched Tribe AI in 2019, that it builds client projects with a network of over 500 contractors, and that after six years without outside investors it raised a $3.25 million seed round led by Bryce Roberts of Indie. Tribe's homepage says: "We embed. We build. We don't stop until it's in production." A homepage post dated 14 July 2026 says a former Stitch Fix and DocuSign engineering leader joined Tribe to grow its forward deployed engineering organization. Anthropic's directory lists it as TribeAI at the Preferred tier [1].

Fits: large companies. Tribe's press page says it places engineers inside Fortune 1000 organizations.

Pick someone else if: you want every engineer on your project to be on the firm's own payroll.

6. Factored

Factored lists 400 Castro Street, Suite 600, Mountain View, California, on its contact page. The title of its homepage is "Factored | Forward-Deployed AI & Data Engineers", and the page says its engineers "embed in your environment, work across your stack, and drive critical engineering through production". A stack is the set of tools and systems a company already uses. By its own account, Factored has more than 500 engineers and stays neutral about which models, clouds and platforms a client uses. Its about page says Israel Niezen founded it in Palo Alto in 2019, with Dr. Andrew Ng as co-founding advisor. Anthropic's directory lists Factored at the Preferred tier [1]. This guide found no independent report on Factored beyond that listing.

Fits: companies that want AI and data engineers to join their own team for as long as the work lasts.

Pick someone else if: you want a fixed project handed over on a set date, or a firm that names its clients in public.

7. Grid Dynamics

Grid Dynamics lists its headquarters at 6101 Bollinger Canyon Road, Suite 465, San Ramon, California. Its contact page also lists US engineering centers in Plano, Texas, Alpharetta, Georgia, Tampa, Florida and Scottsdale, Arizona, and an office in Evanston, Illinois. Its homepage says its AI Native platforms, which it calls GAIN, are delivered by its Forward Deployed Engineers, who work inside the client's team. Grid Dynamics trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Its 2025 results release, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, reports 4,961 employees at 31 December 2025 and revenue of $411.8 million for 2025 [6]. The company states that Beijing Teamsun Technology, a Chinese company, owns 20.0 percent of its shares through a subsidiary, and it calls that figure approximate. Anthropic's directory lists Grid Dynamics at the Select tier [1].

Fits: large companies that want a public vendor with staff in several US states and figures in government filings.

Pick someone else if: your rules limit vendors that have a Chinese shareholder.

8. Turing

Turing says on its company page that it is headquartered in San Francisco. The address in its site footer is 548 Market Street, PMB 18282, and PMB stands for private mailbox. TechCrunch called Turing Palo Alto-based in March 2025 [5]. TechCrunch reported a $111 million Series E round at a $2.2 billion valuation, led by Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, which is an investment fund owned by a government. Turing's enterprise page says: "Turing offers forward-deployed engineers (FDE) and an AI control plane. Our FDEs build the agents you need." An agent is a program that carries out tasks by itself, and the control plane is Turing's own software for running those agents. TechCrunch wrote that Turing's main focus for new business would, "it seems", be coding work for companies that build AI models, along with apps and services built on those models. Anthropic's directory lists Turing at the Select tier [1].

Fits: large companies that want agents built by embedded engineers and then run on the vendor's own platform.

Pick someone else if: you want a firm that works only on client software. Turing's company page says it also works with AI labs to produce data and tests for their models.

9. Tredence

Tredence lists US offices at 1900 Camden Ave, Suite 66, San Jose; 950 Tower Lane, Suite 940, Foster City; 130 E Randolph St, Suite 1950, Chicago; and 1120 S Walton Blvd, Suite 124, Bentonville, Arkansas. The dateline of its press release, the line that names the place it was issued, reads Bengaluru and San Jose. In that release, dated 27 July, Tredence announced its forward deployed engineering practice and said it will build a dedicated group of 200 FDEs over the next 12 to 18 months. Its FDE page gives 12 months for the same goal. Tredence says its FDEs are "domain specialists first and engineers second", meaning their first skill is knowledge of one industry, such as retail or supply chain. Business Standard reported in December 2022 that Tredence raised $175 million from Advent International, which took a minority stake, meaning less than half of the shares [10]. Tredence gives two staff figures on its own pages: more than 4,200 employees in the press release and more than 5,000 on its FDE page. Anthropic's directory lists Tredence at the Select tier [1].

Fits: large retail, consumer goods, supply chain and healthcare companies that want engineers who already know their industry, which is how Tredence describes its FDEs.

Pick someone else if: you want an FDE practice with years of history. Tredence announced its practice in July, and the group of 200 engineers is a hiring target.

10. Percepta

Percepta lists, in its site data, a New York headquarters at 148 Lafayette St, 10th Floor, and an office at 20 University Rd, 4th Floor, Cambridge, Massachusetts. HLTH reported on 3 October 2025 that the venture capital firm General Catalyst formed Percepta to place researchers, engineers and product managers directly inside companies, including healthcare organizations. HLTH quoted a company statement that Percepta is "fully owned by General Catalyst" [11]. Percepta's homepage says it works directly inside a client's operations. Its job titles use "Applied AI Engineer" and "Embedded Product Manager" in place of the FDE title. The Governor of Maryland announced on 13 November 2025 a partnership with Anthropic and Percepta, in which Percepta will place engineering and technical staff to speed up the state's AI work [20]. InvestmentNews reported on 11 June 2026 that Janus Henderson Investors is working with Percepta on AI tools for its investment and client-service teams [12]. Anthropic's directory lists Percepta at the Preferred tier [1].

Fits: health systems, health insurers, financial firms and state governments with large AI programmes. Those are the sectors on its homepage and in its confirmed work.

Pick someone else if: you want a vendor with no tie to one investor. InvestmentNews reports that General Catalyst, Percepta's owner, also co-led the agreed $7.4 billion deal to buy Janus Henderson [12].

11. Tenex

Tenex lists every open role on its careers page as on site in New York City, and its pages give no street address. Its AI engineering page says a client's team "includes a Technical Product Manager & Forward Deployed Engineers". The text Tenex wrote for Anthropic's directory calls it "an embedded Chief AI Officer / FDE team". Its site also offers AI strategy reviews that last 30, 60 or 90 days, and training to help staff adopt new ways of working. Tenex says it charges clients "based on what we produce, measured by story-points that we define". A story point is a unit for sizing a task by the effort it needs. Its careers page lists pay of $224K to $394K for a Forward Deployed Engineer in New York. Anthropic's directory lists Tenex at the Preferred tier [1]. One search on 20 October 2026 found no independent news report about Tenex.

Fits: companies that want strategy, staff training and engineering from one firm.

Pick someone else if: you want news coverage of the firm, or named clients, before you sign. This guide found neither.

12. 10Pearls

10Pearls lists its headquarters as Washington DC, at 8614 Westwood Center Dr, Suite 540, Vienna, Virginia, and a Chicago office at 20 N Wacker Dr, Suite 1200. Its about page says brothers Imran and Zeeshan Aftab founded it in 2004. Its FDE page offers three ways to work: one senior FDE inside the client's environment, several engineers who work as one unit, or a team that stays in place. The Northern Virginia Technology Council's 2026 AI50 release, dated 15 April 2026, lists 10Pearls among 50 honorees that an independent panel chose from more than 160 applications [15]. Anthropic's directory did not list 10Pearls on 20 October 2026 [1].

Fits: companies in regulated industries, such as healthcare, that want one senior FDE or a small embedded team. Its FDE page says the work is built for regulated environments and shows a healthcare case study.

Pick someone else if: every engineer on your project must be in the United States. Its about page lists offices in Costa Rica, Colombia, the UK, Pakistan and Peru, and its FDE page says it uses those offices to match a client's working hours.

13. Caylent

Caylent gives no office address on the pages opened, and its careers page says its staff have worked fully remotely since 2015. A press release dated 28 April 2026, with an Irvine, California dateline, launched its Anthropic practice. The release describes "A Forward-Deployed Engineer (FDE) model supporting Anthropic customers building Claude-powered products", with teams that work directly inside client code and design decisions. The same release says engagements are priced on outcomes, or for a fixed fee, where results can be measured. AWS's post on its 2025 Partners of the Year names Caylent the consulting winner for generative AI, meaning AI that writes text, images or code, and also for security and for migration, meaning moving systems to the cloud [14]. Anthropic's directory lists Caylent at the Preferred tier [1].

Fits: companies on AWS that want Claude built into their products or their engineering work.

Pick someone else if: you do not use AWS, or you want an engineer at your office. Caylent says it is a remote-first company, meaning its staff work remotely by default.

14. Artium

Artium gives no office address on its own pages. Consulting.us reported on 6 August 2026 that AlixPartners, a management consulting firm based in New York, bought Artium, which it described as a Los Angeles-based firm that builds AI agents for clients and that started in 2019 [13]. Consulting.us reported that Artium will work as a separate team inside AlixPartners, keep its founders, staff and methods, and take the name Artium by AlixPartners. It also counted more than 80 Artium employees on LinkedIn. Artium's homepage offers "Forward Deployed Engineers building enterprise grade agents", and its about page says it brings "certified forward deployed engineers". Anthropic's directory lists it as Artium AI at the Select tier [1].

Fits: companies that want custom AI agents built and their own engineers trained in the same way of working.

Pick someone else if: you want a firm with no parent company. Since August 2026 Artium has been part of AlixPartners, a management consulting firm.

15. HatchWorks AI

HatchWorks AI lists Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas in its footer, plus San Jose in Costa Rica, Medellin in Colombia and Lima in Peru, with city names only. Its Anthropic page says it places "Anthropic-certified Forward Deployed Engineers inside your team", and defines an FDE as "a senior AI builder who works inside your business instead of from the outside". The same page says HatchWorks AI is a direct partner under the Claude Partner Network. Anthropic's directory did not list HatchWorks when it was searched on 20 October 2026, while peers such as Tenex are listed [1]. So the directory did not confirm the claim.

Fits: companies in the Southeast, the Midwest or Texas that want Claude-based systems built and their staff trained, with engineers in the US and Latin America.

Pick someone else if: you need a partner whose Anthropic status the directory itself confirms. Otherwise, ask HatchWorks for written proof of its status.

FDE firms by US city

Forward deployed engineers work at the client, so a firm's office matters less than where its engineers can go. An office still tells you where you can meet the firm's leaders and where some of its staff live. The table counts a firm for a city when its own pages, or an independent source, name an office in that metro area.

Metro area	Firms that name an office there
San Francisco Bay Area	Reveneau, Fluxon, Distyl AI, Ode with Anthropic, Tribe AI, Factored (Mountain View), Grid Dynamics (San Ramon), Tredence (San Jose, Foster City); Turing gives a mailbox
New York	Distyl AI, Ode with Anthropic, Tribe AI, Percepta, Tenex
Chicago	Tredence, 10Pearls, HatchWorks AI; Grid Dynamics in Evanston
Boston	Percepta (Cambridge)
Washington DC	10Pearls (Vienna, Virginia)
Atlanta	HatchWorks AI; Grid Dynamics (Alpharetta)
Dallas	HatchWorks AI; Grid Dynamics (Plano)
Los Angeles	Artium, per Consulting.us
Raleigh-Durham	Ode with Anthropic
Austin and Seattle	None of the fifteen

Grid Dynamics also lists engineering centers in Tampa and Scottsdale, and Tredence lists an office in Bentonville, Arkansas. Caylent says it works remotely and is counted for no city. FDE firms in the Bay Area gives every Bay Area address and who states it.

Choosing between them

Start with three questions. Does the firm sell its own platform along with its engineers? Who owns the firm? And how will the work end? FDE firms that also sell a platform covers the first. FDE firms owned by larger companies covers the second. Handover and exit from a forward deployed engagement covers the third.

The size of your company matters too. Distyl AI, Tribe AI and Tredence name Fortune 100, 500 or 1000 companies as their buyers, on their own pages or in news reports. 10Pearls offers a single senior FDE. Tenex adds strategy and staff training to the engineering. Bloomberry found that 58 percent of FDE job postings were at companies with 11 to 200 employees, which it describes as growing startups [16]. Those companies hire FDEs as their own staff, so the figure shows who employs the role.

What none of them publish

None of the fifteen firms publishes a price on the pages read on 20 October 2026, so every quote will be custom. Two firms publish how they charge. Tenex says it charges by story points, its unit for the size of the work it delivers. Caylent says its Anthropic engagements are priced on outcomes or for a fixed fee where results can be measured. The closest public figure for the people is pay data. Levels.fyi, from figures that users submit, gives a range of $201K to $590K a year for forward deployed engineers at Palantir in the United States. What forward deployed engineering costs from a US firm explains what those figures show.

Before you sign

Amazon says its own FDE model is designed so that customers can run their systems by themselves when a deployment ends [18]. Ask every firm on this list how it would do the same for you, and get the answer in the contract. The questions to ask an FDE firm before you sign page is a checklist you can print and take to each meeting.

To talk through a project with the first firm on this list, contact Reveneau, or read about its forward deployed engineers. For the wider choice of any AI builder in the Bay Area, see the guide to AI development companies in Silicon Valley.

Explore the guide

The list

Forward deployed engineering firms in the San Francisco Bay Area

Eight firms in this guide name an office in the San Francisco Bay Area: Reveneau, Fluxon, Distyl AI, Ode with Anthropic, Tribe AI, Factored, Grid Dynamics and Tredence. Five of them give a street address, Fluxon's through its listing in Stripe's partner directory. A ninth firm, Turing, gives a San Francisco address that is a private mailbox, so it is shown on its own. This page lists each address, says who states it, and sets out what each firm says about where its engineers work, which matters more for forward deployed work than the office does.

How the firms differ

Hiring an FDE firm or your own forward deployed engineers

A company that wants engineers working inside its own teams can hire them as employees or contract a firm that supplies them. This page sets out what public data says about each path: pay figures from Levels.fyi and from one firm's job listings, the rise in FDE job postings that Bloomberry measured, and an MIT report on outside partners. It then compares the two paths on cost, speed, control and what happens to the knowledge at the end, and lists what the firms in this guide say about staying and leaving.

FDE firms that also sell their own platform

Some forward deployed engineering firms sell two things: engineers who work inside your team, and their own software that your new system then runs on. In this guide, Distyl AI, Grid Dynamics, Turing and Tredence describe their own platforms on their own pages. Other firms have ties to an AI model maker or a cloud provider, and two say they are neutral about which tools a client uses. This page shows what each firm states, who states it, what a platform changes in the contract, and which questions to ask before you sign.

FDE firms owned by larger companies and investors

Several forward deployed engineering firms in this guide belong to, or are part-owned by, a larger company or investor. Anthropic and its partners own Ode, General Catalyst owns Percepta, AlixPartners bought Artium, and Advent International took a minority stake in Tredence in 2022. Grid Dynamics is a public company with a Chinese minority shareholder. This page explains each tie in plain words, names who reported it, and lists the questions a buyer should ask, because an owner can affect what a firm recommends and who it works for.

Cost and method

What forward deployed engineering costs from a US firm

None of the fifteen forward deployed engineering firms in this guide published a price on 20 October 2026. Two published how they charge: Tenex by story points of delivered work, and Caylent on outcomes or for a fixed fee where results can be measured. This page gathers the public figures that do exist, mostly pay data for engineers, explains the common ways firms charge in plain words, and lists what a quote should show so that you can compare firms on the same terms.

How the FDE firms in this guide were chosen

Every firm in this guide passed three tests on 20 October 2026. Its own pages offer engineers who work inside a client's team. Its own pages or an independent source name a US office, or it is a US company that works remotely. And it sells the engineers as its main offer, so the in-house FDE teams of software makers such as Palantir and AWS are left out. This page lists each check, how the sources are labelled, the candidates left out with the reason, and the facts that could not be confirmed.

Questions to ask an FDE firm before you sign

This checklist is for the first meeting with any forward deployed engineering firm. It has nine parts: the firm and its owners, the engineers, their time with your people, access to your systems, testing, platforms and models, price, handover, and partner claims. Each question comes with what a clear answer contains and a fact from this guide that shows why the question matters. Print it, send it to every firm before the meeting, and compare the written answers side by side.

Common questions

Which firms in the US offer forward deployed engineers to other companies?

This guide lists fifteen: Reveneau, Fluxon, Distyl AI, Ode with Anthropic, Tribe AI, Factored, Grid Dynamics, Turing, Tredence, Percepta, Tenex, 10Pearls, Caylent, Artium and HatchWorks AI. Each one says on its own pages that it places engineers inside a client's team. Every fact was checked on 20 October 2026, and each entry says who the firm fits and when to choose another.

Which of these FDE firms does Anthropic list as a partner?

On 20 October 2026, Anthropic's directory listed ten of the fifteen. Ode, Grid Dynamics, Turing, Tredence and Artium held the Select tier. Tribe AI, Factored, Percepta, Tenex and Caylent held the Preferred tier. Reveneau, Fluxon, Distyl AI, 10Pearls and HatchWorks AI were not listed. Anthropic co-owns Ode, so its listing comes from an owner.

Which forward deployed engineering firms have an office in New York?

Five firms in this guide name a New York office: Distyl AI, Ode with Anthropic, Tribe AI, Percepta and Tenex. Percepta is the only one that publishes a street address, 148 Lafayette St. Tenex lists every open role as on site in New York City. The others name the city on their about, careers or homepage pages, read on 20 October 2026.

Are there FDE firms with offices in Austin or Seattle?

None of the fifteen firms in this guide named an office in Austin or Seattle on the pages read on 20 October 2026. That does not stop a firm from sending engineers there, because forward deployed engineers work at the client. Ask each firm whether its engineers can work at your site, how often, and who pays for the travel.

Does any firm on this list publish a price for forward deployed engineers?

No firm on the list published a price on 20 October 2026. Tenex says it charges by story points, a unit for the size of the work delivered. Caylent says its Anthropic work is priced on outcomes or for a fixed fee where results can be measured. Every other firm gives a price only in a custom quote.

Which FDE firms belong to a larger company or investor?

Ode with Anthropic is a joint venture of Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others, per TechCrunch. General Catalyst fully owns Percepta, per its statement quoted by HLTH. AlixPartners bought Artium, per Consulting.us. Advent International took a minority stake in Tredence in 2022, per Business Standard. Grid Dynamics is a public company with a Chinese minority shareholder.

Is any firm on this list an AWS forward deployed engineering partner?

This guide cannot say. AWS announced on 30 June 2026 that a limited set of partner firms will build FDE teams whose engineers pass a technical test that AWS sets, but its post names none of them, and no public list was found. Caylent is named in AWS's 2025 Partners of the Year post, which is a separate award. Ask any firm that claims the status for written proof.

Why are Palantir, OpenAI and AWS left out of this list?

They sell their own software, and their FDE teams work for the customers of that software. Marty Cagan of SVPG wrote in 2025 that he considers Palantir a product company. This guide lists firms whose main offer is engineers placed inside a client's team, whatever software the client uses. Amazon's own FDE work is described on this page as background.

Does Fluxon describe its work as forward deployed?

Yes, on its own AI development page. The page title includes the words Forward-Deployed Engineering, and a heading on the page reads Forward-deployed by default. Fluxon writes that its team uses the client's channels and daily meetings. Forbes lists Fluxon's headquarters as San Francisco and its staff as 200 employees, as of March 2026.

How does Reveneau work as a forward deployed engineering firm?

By Reveneau's own account, AI writes 100 percent of its code, and every change has to pass a large eval suite, a set of automated tests written from the specification, before release. Reveneau says the suite is graded by Jev, which makes it run ten times faster than its previous grader. It offers forward deployed engineers from offices in San Francisco and Vancouver.