Research & Methodology
FDE Instinct provides career intelligence for Forward Deployed Engineers based on public, verifiable data. This page explains our sources, methods, classification rules, and limitations — so you can evaluate the reliability of our conclusions.
Data Sources
FDE Instinct uses the following source types, listed in order of reliability:
Official company career pages
Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby job board APIs
Official product & engineering documentation
Company engineering blogs, API docs
Government & public regulatory data
BLS, H-1B disclosure data
Industry research
Levels.fyi, Glassdoor (with limitations noted)
First-party analysis
FDE Instinct assessment data, job classification
FDE Radar Methodology
FDE Radar collects job listings daily from company career pages via official APIs. Here is how the pipeline works:
- 1
Collection
Fetch raw job listings from 22+ sources (Greenhouse boards, Lever companies, Ashby companies) using official APIs.
- 2
Classification
Apply rule-based scoring to determine FDE relevance: Exact FDE, FDE-Adjacent, Potentially Related, or Excluded.
- 3
Skill Extraction
Identify technical and customer-facing skills mentioned in job descriptions using keyword matching.
- 4
Deduplication
Same job across multiple sources is deduplicated by external ID. Retain earliest discovery date.
- 5
Verification
Jobs are re-verified daily. Missing jobs are marked as closed after 3 consecutive misses.
Classification Rules
Jobs are classified into four tiers based on title matching, description analysis, and role characteristics:
| Tier | Criteria | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Exact FDE | Title contains "Forward Deployed Engineer" or close variant | FDE, FDSE, Forward Deployed AI Engineer |
| FDE-Adjacent | Title is different but role has strong FDE characteristics | Deployment Strategist, Field Engineer |
| Potentially Related | Title overlaps but role scope differs significantly | Solutions Architect, Customer Engineer |
| Excluded | No FDE characteristics detected | Backend Engineer, Frontend Developer |
Salary Data Methodology
Salary data on FDE Instinct comes from two sources:
- →Disclosed ranges in job postings: When a job listing includes a salary range, we extract and display it. We report "Median disclosed base salary" — not an estimated average.
- →Third-party estimates: Data from Levels.fyi, Glassdoor, and similar platforms is marked as "estimated" with source attribution.
We distinguish between base salary, bonus, equity, and total compensation. All salary figures include currency, region, and sample size.
Limitations
- • Job listings are self-reported by companies and may not reflect actual role scope
- • Salary ranges in postings may be wider or narrower than actual offers
- • Classification is rule-based and may misclassify edge cases
- • Not all companies use Greenhouse, Lever, or Ashby — coverage is incomplete
- • Closed jobs are detected with a delay (up to 3 days)
- • International data coverage is limited (primarily US, UK, EU)
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does FDE Instinct get its data?
Job listings come from official company career page APIs (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby). Salary data comes from disclosed ranges in postings and third-party platforms like Levels.fyi.
How often is the data updated?
FDE Radar runs daily data collection. Jobs are re-verified every 24 hours. Skills and compensation data is aggregated after each run.
How accurate is the job classification?
Classification uses rule-based scoring on job titles and descriptions. It achieves high accuracy for explicit FDE roles but may have edge cases with non-standard titles.
Can I reproduce the salary figures?
Yes. We display sample sizes, data ranges, sources, and methodology. All figures are based on publicly available data.
FDE Instinct is an independent career platform. We are not affiliated with any company listed in our data. All data collection follows public API terms of service.
Last reviewed: July 2026 · Methodology version: 1.0