Forward deployed and solutions engineering cheat sheet (Solutions engineer)

1. 1The roles comparedWhat forward deployed, solutions and sales engineers each do, when in the customer journey they work, and how to tell which job a posting really describes.8 concepts

   1. 1Forward deployed engineerA software engineer who works inside a customer's organisation to build and ship working software on the customer's own systems and data, then feeds what they…
   2. 2Solutions engineerAn engineer who designs how a customer will adopt a product: which parts they use, how it connects to their systems and what a first rollout looks like.
   3. 3Sales engineerThe technical partner of an account executive during a sale.
   4. 4Role comparison at a glanceA side-by-side view of when each role works, what it produces and how it is measured.
   5. 5One customer, many capabilitiesPalantir's framing of the difference: a product engineer builds one capability for many customers, while a forward deployed engineer builds many capabilities…
   6. 6Pre-sale and post-salePre-sale is everything before the contract is signed: discovery, demos, proofs of concept.
   7. 7Adjacent customer-facing rolesRoles next to these three: implementation engineers set products up, professional services deliver paid projects, technical account managers look after big…
   8. 8A typical weekA rough picture of how the week splits for each role.

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2. 2Core engineering you still needThe engineering base customer-facing roles lean on every day: a scripting language, SQL, HTTP, Git, cloud basics and the skill of debugging systems you did not build.7 concepts

   1. 1A glue languageOne language you can write quickly and well for scripts, small services and data jobs.
   2. 2SQL on someone else's dataReading an unfamiliar schema, profiling tables and answering questions with joins and aggregates, often in the customer's own warehouse.
   3. 3HTTP and REST basicsHow programs talk over the web: a request with a method, URL, headers and body, and a response with a status code and body.
   4. 4Git in a customer's repositoryBranching, small commits and pull requests in a repository with someone else's rules, reviewers and pipeline.
   5. 5Cloud basicsEnough of one cloud to deploy a small service, store secrets, read logs and understand identity and access management (IAM) and private networks (VPCs).
   6. 6Debugging systems you did not buildA method for finding faults in unfamiliar code and infrastructure: reproduce, narrow down, form one hypothesis, test it, repeat.
   7. 7Reading logs and tracesFinding the lines, request IDs and timings that explain what a system did, across application logs, cloud logs and traces.

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3. Discovery and the customer's problemFinding the real problem behind the request: the questions to ask, who matters in the decision, what success means and what is out of scope.8 conceptsOpens with credits
4. Integrations, APIs and data plumbingConnecting a product to a customer's systems safely: authentication, webhooks, limits and retries, data mapping, single sign-on and a checklist to run before anything ships.9 conceptsOpens with credits
5. Fast prototypes and demosBuilding something a customer can see this week, and showing it well: proofs of concept, pilots, rapid prototypes and a demo structure that starts with the answer.7 conceptsOpens with credits
6. Writing and presenting to non-engineersGetting technical ideas across to executives, users and mixed rooms: answer first, clear solution designs, updates, whiteboards and handling objections.7 conceptsOpens with credits
7. AI deployment at a customerPutting language models to work on a customer's data and workflows: retrieval, agents and tools, MCP, evaluations, guardrails, human review and cost.8 conceptsOpens with credits
8. Travel, on-site work and pressureWorking inside someone else's organisation: access and etiquette, incidents with the customer watching, escalations, scope creep, saying no and keeping a sustainable pace.7 conceptsOpens with credits
9. Getting into the roleHow people move into these roles: reading postings, showing customer-style work, internal moves, what hiring loops test and how pay is usually structured.6 conceptsOpens with credits
10. Growth pathsWhere these roles lead: deeper specialist tracks, product engineering, product management, leading a team, or founding a company from what you learnt in the field.6 conceptsOpens with credits
11. 11Glossary, A to ZEvery concept in the sheet and the smaller terms it uses, in one list.115 terms

Customer-facing engineering roles.