Forward Deployed Engineer compensation
Forward Deployed Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The Forward Deployed Engineer salary range at AI startups runs from $75,000 to $375,000, with a median of $180,656 — based on 164 disclosed salaries from postings on Fast AI Jobs. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$75,000Minimum
$180,656Median
$375,000Maximum
Sample size: based on 164 disclosed salaries.
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Median Forward Deployed Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Series D | $190,000 | 18 |
| Seed | $183,750 | 10 |
| Series G+ | $180,656 | 29 |
| Series B | $180,000 | 40 |
| Series A | $180,000 | 23 |
| Series C | $175,000 | 26 |
| Series F | $137,500 | 7 |
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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 164 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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