Forward Deployed Engineers

    AI engineers, embedded in your team

Our Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) work alongside your people to find the processes worth automating, build AI solutions on your data, and run them in production. You get outcomes, not just code.

Hire an FDE →
What is an FDE?

An engineer who works where the problem is

A Forward Deployed Engineer is a hands-on software and AI engineer who is deployed directly into a customer's business. Instead of building from a spec handed over a wall, an FDE sits with your operations, sales, finance or support teams, understands how work really gets done, and turns that understanding into working automation.

Traditional outsourcing

  • Works from a fixed requirements document
  • Limited contact with the people doing the work
  • Delivers code, then moves on
  • Adoption and ROI are your problem

Forward Deployed Engineer

  • Discovers the real problem alongside your team
  • Builds and iterates with daily user feedback
  • Deploys, monitors and improves in production
  • Measured on business outcomes and adoption
What our FDEs do

From first conversation to production

Our FDEs own the full journey of an automation, combining product thinking, AI expertise and solid engineering.

Discover & map your processes

Shadow your teams, map how work actually flows today and pinpoint the manual, repetitive steps that slow you down.

Build AI agents & automations

Design and build LLM-powered agents, RAG pipelines, ML models and workflow automations around your real use cases.

Integrate with your systems

Connect the solution to your ERP, CRM, databases, document stores and internal tools, so it works where your team works.

Deploy to production

Ship on your infrastructure or cloud with security, access control, monitoring and human-in-the-loop checks built in.

Measure & improve

Track accuracy, time saved and cost impact against agreed baselines, and keep iterating based on user feedback.

Transfer knowledge

Document everything and upskill your engineers, so your team can own, operate and extend the system after handover.

How it works

The FDE workflow

A proven, iterative process that takes you from a manual process to a measurable automation running in production.

  1. 1

    Embed & Discover

    Our FDE joins your team, meets stakeholders and shadows day-to-day operations to understand the problem first-hand.

    Process map
  2. 2

    Identify & Prioritise

    Together we shortlist automation opportunities and rank them by business impact, feasibility and data readiness.

    Automation roadmap
  3. 3

    Prototype on Real Data

    A working prototype is built quickly on your own data and tested with the people who will actually use it.

    Validated prototype
  4. 4

    Deploy & Integrate

    The solution is hardened, integrated with your systems and rolled out to production with guardrails and monitoring.

    Live automation
  5. 5

    Scale & Hand Over

    We measure results, extend to the next use case and hand over with documentation and training for your team.

    Ownership with your team
What you can automate

How we help you automate your processes

Determinant Studios has built AI agents, NLP pipelines and computer vision systems for clients across industries. Our FDEs bring that experience to your business. Typical processes we automate include:

Invoice & document processing

Extract, validate and route data from invoices, purchase orders, contracts and forms, instead of keying it in by hand.

AI agents · OCR · RAG

Customer support triage

Classify, prioritise and draft responses to tickets and emails, escalating only what really needs a human.

NLP · LLMs

Data entry & reconciliation

Sync and reconcile records across spreadsheets, ERPs and CRMs, flagging mismatches automatically.

Workflow automation

Internal knowledge assistants

Give teams instant, cited answers from your SOPs, manuals and documents through a private AI assistant.

RAG · Private LLMs

Visual inspection & quality checks

Automate image-based inspection, detection and measurement with computer vision models trained on your data.

Computer vision

Reporting & operations workflows

Generate recurring reports, summaries and alerts automatically from your operational data.

Analytics · Automation
Engagement models

Hire FDEs the way you need them

Flexible engagements, from a short sprint to a long-term embedded team, scaled up or down as your needs change.

Dedicated FDE

Best for a focused automation goal
  • One senior engineer embedded in your team
  • On-site, remote or hybrid
  • Works in your tools, stand-ups and processes

FDE Pod

Best for multiple workflows or departments
  • FDEs plus a technical lead from Determinant Studios
  • Parallel delivery across several use cases
  • Backed by our AI, design and engineering teams

Sprint Engagement

Best for proving value quickly
  • Time-boxed discovery and prototype sprint
  • Clear success metrics agreed upfront
  • Option to extend into a full deployment
Why Determinant Studios

Engineers who have shipped real AI

Our FDEs are backed by a product engineering company that has been building software since 2014, with a research-first approach to every problem.

Since 2014A decade of building digital products and custom software for clients worldwide.
Production AIAI agents, transformer NLP, computer vision and RNN-based systems already running for clients.
Research-firstWe validate approaches on your data before scaling, so effort goes where the impact is.
Full team behind every FDEAccess to our AI, UX, analytics and engineering specialists whenever the work needs it.
FAQ

Common questions

How is an FDE different from outsourcing a project?

A traditional vendor works from a fixed spec, away from your business. An FDE works inside your team, learns your operations first-hand and adapts the solution as requirements become clearer, so what gets built actually gets used.

Do we need to have our data and AI strategy ready?

No. Discovery is part of the engagement. Our FDE helps you identify which processes are worth automating, what data is available and what a realistic first win looks like.

Where does our data and the solution live?

On your infrastructure or your chosen cloud. We work within your security and compliance requirements, and you own the code and the deployed system.

What happens when the engagement ends?

We hand over with documentation, runbooks and training for your engineers. Ongoing support and further use cases are available if you need them.

Further reading

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