Forward Deployed Engineer compensation
Forward Deployed Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The median Forward Deployed Engineer salary at AI startups is $182,000, based on 262 disclosed job postings ($39,590–$362,500 range). Updated October 2026. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$39,590Minimum
$182,000Median
$362,500Maximum
Sample size: based on 262 disclosed salaries.
01
Median Forward Deployed Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Bootstrapped | $249,500 | 6 |
| Series E | $202,500 | 8 |
| Series C | $201,000 | 27 |
| Seed | $195,000 | 11 |
| Series B | $185,000 | 41 |
| Series D | $182,500 | 28 |
| Series G+ | $182,000 | 86 |
| Series F | $180,000 | 11 |
| Series A | $177,500 | 32 |
| Private Equity | $120,375 | 5 |
02
How we calculate this
Roughly a quarter of AI-startup postings disclose pay. We extract the USD range from those that do, normalize each to a midpoint, and aggregate across distinct postings (deduplicated by posting ID). The minimum, median, and maximum above are based on 262 disclosed salaries. We publish aggregate ranges only, never a single company's salary, so the numbers stay representative rather than anecdotal.
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