All three are customer-facing engineering roles, but they differ in timing and output. Sales engineers win the technical side of a sale with discovery and demos, solutions engineers design how a customer adopts a product, and forward deployed engineers write and ship production code inside the customer. Read each posting's responsibilities, because titles overlap.
What people tell me
I am a software engineer and I keep seeing postings for forward deployed engineers, solutions engineers and sales engineers. They all mention customers, demos and some coding, and some companies seem to use the titles for the same job. I like building things, but I also enjoy talking to users and solving their actual problems more than polishing one feature for months. I cannot tell which of these roles would still let me code, which ones involve sales targets, and which one I could realistically get from where I am now.
A composite of the messages behind this question, with personal details left out.
Key takeaways
- Sales engineers work mostly before a sale, solutions engineers across it, forward deployed engineers mostly after it.
- Coding goes from some, to regular, to daily as you move from sales engineer to FDE.
- Sales engineers often carry part of a sales target; FDE pay usually looks more like product engineering.
- Titles overlap across companies, so judge a posting by its responsibilities, travel and quota.
- Try a small real version of the work before choosing: a discovery conversation, a demo, a build for a real user.
The short version
All three are engineers who work with customers. The difference is when they work in the customer's journey and what they produce.
| Sales engineer | Solutions engineer | Forward deployed engineer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When | Mostly before the contract | Before and after | Mostly after the contract |
| Main output | Discovery, demos, proofs of concept | A solution design and rollout plan | Working software in production |
| Coding | Some | Regular | Daily |
| Measured on | Technical wins, deals | Customer fit and adoption | Software people actually use |
Treat that table as the typical shape, not a rule. One company's solutions engineer is another company's sales engineer, and some firms now call older integration roles "forward deployed" because the title is popular.
Sales engineer
A sales engineer is the technical partner of the salesperson who owns a deal. They run technical discovery, give demos tailored to the customer's problem, lead proofs of concept, answer security questionnaires and handle the objections a salesperson cannot. The goal is the technical win: the customer's engineers agreeing the product will work for them. Many sales engineers carry part of a sales target, so part of the pay depends on deals closing. You code less, but you must be credible with engineers on the other side of the table.
Solutions engineer
A solutions engineer designs how a customer will adopt a product: which parts they use, how it connects to their systems and what the first rollout looks like. The job spans both sides of the sale. Before it, you help the customer see that the product fits; after it, you turn that into a plan the delivery and customer success teams can run. You code regularly, mostly in proofs of concept, integrations and examples.
Forward deployed engineer
A forward deployed engineer (FDE) works inside the customer's organisation and ships real software on their systems and data. Palantir popularised the role and frames it as "one customer, many capabilities": a product engineer builds one capability for many customers, while an FDE builds many for one. AI companies have made the role much more visible. OpenAI's own postings describe FDEs owning discovery, scoping, system design, build and production rollout with customers. Anthropic's own posting for the role, as of September 2026, lists building MCP servers, sub-agents and agent skills for customers, and estimates about a quarter of the time travelling.
How to tell which job a posting really is
Ignore the title and look for five signals:
- Before or after the sale? Words like "deal", "pipeline" and "account executive" mean presales.
- How much coding? "Build and deploy production applications" is FDE work; "demo and configure" is not.
- Quota? Any mention of a sales target or variable pay tied to revenue.
- Travel percentage. Often stated outright.
- Experience asked for. Many FDE openings at AI companies ask for several years of engineering and customer-facing experience.
Which one fits you
- If you want to keep coding most of the day, aim at forward deployed engineering, and expect to need strong engineering first.
- If you like designing systems and explaining them, and want a mix of building and advising, look at solutions engineering.
- If you enjoy conversations, demos and the energy of a deal, and are comfortable with part of your pay depending on sales, look at sales engineering.
Whichever you lean towards, test it cheaply first. Run a discovery conversation with someone about a painful workflow, build a small tool for them and demo it to people who do not code. You will learn more about your fit in a weekend than in a month of reading.
Where to go next on Sefism
- The forward deployed and solutions engineering roadmap takes you through all three roles, from discovery and integrations to AI deployment and getting in, with a path for each role.
- The cheat sheet has the role comparison, a discovery question bank, a demo structure and an integration checklist on one page.
- PreSales Collective is a free community where working solutions and sales engineers talk about the job.
- Great Demo! is the standard book on giving demos that start from the customer's problem.
- For a project that looks like real customer work, try the retrieval assistant for university regulations.
Browse more answers in career questions. If you want a plan for your own situation, create a free Sefism account and book a session with me.
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