FDE · Forward Deployed Engineering
We don't ship software and walk away.
Forward deployed engineers (FDEs) work inside your real operating environment, alongside your business team, to understand the problem, build the ontology, connect systems and take the first high-value use case into production.
Four phases, from discovery to continuous evolution
1–2 weeks
Discover
Interview business and IT, map systems and data, shortlist AI use cases and form a value hypothesis.
- Prioritised use cases
- System & data map
- Value hypothesis
4–8 weeks
Pilot
FDEs on site build the first ontology, connect key data and run one high-value use case in production.
- First business ontology
- Live data pipelines
- Measurable early results
3–6 months
Scale
Roll out Harness and governance policies, extend to cross-department use cases and set up enterprise-wide adoption.
- Cross-department ontology
- Permission & approval policies
- Team training & handover
Ongoing
Evolve
Capture skills and experience, keep improving as models advance, and let AI capability compound.
- Skill library
- Continuous iteration cadence
- Model upgrade adaptation
How FDEs work
On site
Understand real systems, real processes and real constraints, not demo data.
Co-modelling
Build the ontology with your business team, so the semantic assets stay in-house.
Production first
The goal is a use case in production, not a PoC report.
Capability transfer
During Scale we grow your own team's ontology and agent operations skills.
Turn your business into a world AI can understand.
Bring one concrete business problem. We'll tell you honestly whether it makes a good first use case.