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New-grad FDE jobs

Most FDE programs want 3–7 years of experience plus production LLM work — but four real onramps exist for students and new grads, and two of them run internship pipelines. Palantir is the deepest: intern → “Year at Palantir” → new-grad FDSE at $135k–$145k base. Google’s FDE I level is genuinely early-career, Salesforce hires new grads into Agentforce pods via Futureforce, and IBM runs the industry’s only FDE co-op.

4 of 18 ranked programs match · Last verified July 9, 2026 · See the full FDE List →

Palantir invented the FDE model. FDSEs embed at customer sites building on Foundry, Gotham, and AIP for defense, intelligence, hospitals, manufacturers, and banks — with the paired Deployment Strategist track handling the operational side of the same deployments.

Base salary
$135k–$200k
Locations
NYC · DC · 14+ cities
Work setup
Office-first · up to 25% travel, more when deployed
Experience
Intern → senior — the only true new-grad FDE pipeline
Worth knowing: The FDE-to-founder pipeline is real: Palantir alumni have founded 111+ companies that raised $11.6B+, including Anduril. Until ~2016, Palantir deployed more FDEs than it had core software engineers.
95 open FDE-family roles (61 in the US), including new-grad and intern tracks

Interview loop, score breakdown & sources — read the full Palantir FDE guide →

Google Cloud FDEs are “embedded builders” who code, debug, and ship bespoke agentic solutions inside customer environments, with direct access to DeepMind engineering. A separate DeepMind FDE track embeds with strategic partners on evals and frontier deployments.

Base salary
$102k–$301k
Locations
NYC · ATL · global
Work setup
Hybrid hubs · substantial time in customer environments
Experience
Leveled I–V — genuine early-career entry through 8+ years
Worth knowing: The volume king of FDE hiring — Google Cloud’s CEO personally recruits FDEs on stage, and it’s the only company with public per-level FDE pay bands.
Dozens of FDE reqs live across levels I–V, plus DeepMind FDE

Interview loop, score breakdown & sources — read the full Google FDE guide →

Salesforce FDE pods embed full-time with a single enterprise customer for roughly three-month engagements, personally writing the code that designs, builds, and ships custom Agentforce agents into production. The program spans entry level through principal.

Base salary
$143k–$384k
Locations
SF · NYC · 12+ hubs
Work setup
Hub hybrid, some US-remote · 25–50% travel
Experience
All levels — new grads (via Futureforce) through principal
Worth knowing: Salesforce brands FDE “today’s hottest role” in its own marketing — Benioff made FDEs the answer to the AI adoption gap at Dreamforce 2025.
20+ live FDE reqs across four continents

Interview loop, score breakdown & sources — read the full Salesforce FDE guide →

IBM FDEs work directly with clients and product teams to deploy strategic IBM Z transaction-processing software and watsonx AI tooling from proof-of-value to production — mainframe modernization meets forward deployment, centered in Research Triangle Park.

Base salary
$100k–$151k
Locations
RTP · San Diego
Work setup
Hybrid · client-facing deployment work
Experience
Entry level — Bachelor’s; Linux, Java, or COBOL help
Worth knowing: The only FDE intern/co-op track in the industry (Fall 2026, RTP) besides Palantir’s pipeline — a true student onramp into forward-deployed work.
~5 FDE reqs, including entry-level, intern, and Fall 2026 co-op

Interview loop, score breakdown & sources — read the full IBM FDE guide →

Common questions

Yes, at four programs: Palantir (new-grad FDSE, $135k–$145k posted base, plus intern tracks), Google Cloud (FDE I, $102k–$145k posted band), Salesforce (new grads via Futureforce into Agentforce FDE pods), and IBM (entry-level FDE in Research Triangle Park).
Three real pipelines: Palantir’s FDSE internship and “Year at Palantir” program, Ramp’s forward-deployed software engineering internship, and IBM’s FDE co-op (Fall 2026, RTP). All three convert to full-time forward-deployed roles.
Full-stack fundamentals (Python and TypeScript dominate postings), production LLM basics — agents, RAG, evals — and customer-facing communication. Practice decomposition-style interviews: Palantir’s “decomp” round, where you break down a vague real-world system, is the archetypal new-grad FDE test.

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