Across 221 live US postings for forward deployed engineers with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $182,000–$250,208 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.
Measured September 2026 · n=221 US postings with salary
Forward deployed engineer salary: $182,000–$250,208 a year, measured from live postings.
Every number below comes from 564 tracked live postings whose title matches "forward deployed engineer". No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.
- The median forward deployed engineer posting offers $182,000–$250,208 a year (n=221).
- 38.1% of the 564 live postings matching "forward deployed engineer" are remote.
- Level 4 forward deployed engineers (building AI systems) list $185,000–$300,000, vs $180,900–$250,000 at Level 1.
Median salary by seniority (USD / year)
Seniority as tagged on the posting. Both salary bounds required.
| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
|---|---|---|
| Intern | 0 | not enough data |
| Junior | 3 | $130,000–$176,700 |
| Mid-level | 23 | $160,000–$240,000 |
| Senior | 144 | $182,000–$250,208 |
| Lead | 18 | $192,600–$297,425 |
Remote vs on-site (USD / year)
| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
|---|---|---|
| Remote | 94 | $182,000–$256,500 |
| On-site / hybrid | 127 | $182,000–$250,208 |
Companies hiring forward deployed engineers
Method
US-dollar postings whose title contains "forward deployed engineer", with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 221 such postings clear the 50-posting floor Level requires before publishing a dedicated salary page — below that, the median moves too much between ingestion cycles to be a citable number.
Sample: postings at tech companies tracked by Level. Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.
Refreshed automatically; this edition is measured September 2026. Small-n slices move a lot — read the n column first.
Forward deployed engineer salary questions, answered from the data
How many forward deployed engineers jobs are remote?
38.1% of the 221 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.
Does the AI level of the job change the pay?
In this sample, 108 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 105 are Level 1 (AI is not the work). See the AI level breakdown below for the median in each band. Measured September 2026.