00/ 05
Bridge
Weeks −2 to 0 · free
What you do
- Production Python, Git, REST with FastAPI, SQL, Docker
- LLM fundamentals on local models
- Screening test. Below the bar gets a bridge plan, not a seat.
Modules & labs
- Python for Engineers
- SQL, APIs & Git
SUNY Potsdam Professional Certificate
Forward Deployed Engineer Course
Applied AI engineering · real client deployment
24 weeks live. The last six embedded with a real company, deploying AI they keep, graded by their sponsor.
- 1Client problem
- 2Discovery
- 3Build
- 4Evaluate
- 5Deploy
- 6Production
01The industry signal
Why FDE is becoming AI's most-hired engineering role
MIT NANDA · 2025
95%
Most enterprise AI never reaches production
95% of enterprise AI pilots showed no measurable impact. FDEs are hired to close that gap.
Indeed Hiring Lab · Apr 2025–Apr 2026
+729%
FDE hiring is accelerating
+729% growth in FDE job postings in one year.
TCS · 2026
8,900
Services firms are building FDE practices
8,900 forward-deployed AI engineers TCS alone plans to field. India salary band: ₹18–55L at 0–6 years (Glassdoor India · employer postings 2026).
02Who is an FDE?
What is a Forward Deployed Engineer?
A Forward Deployed Engineer is a software engineer who works inside a customer's organisation to scope, build, ship and run AI systems against their real data and workflows, and owns the outcome in production. Palantir created the role. OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, Microsoft, Databricks and TCS now hire for it at scale.
- 01 – Build
Software engineering
Build production-ready systems.
- 02 – Deploy
AI and ML engineering
Make them reliable, measured and usable.
- 03 – Solve
Consulting
Adapt them to a real client's problem.
Build•Deploy•SolveForward Deployed Engineer
03Curriculum overview
How do the 24 weeks run?
The Forward Deployed Engineer Course in six facts
- What it is
- Train, then deploy
- Certificate
- SUNY Potsdam
- Who it is for
- Engineers, 2+ years
- Format
- 250 hours, live
- Fee
- ₹99,000 + GST
- Next cohort
- 12 January 2027
01/ 05
The engagement method
Weeks 1 to 4
What you do
- Palantir-style decomposition of vague problems
- Discovery workshops and operating-model maps
- The eval set written with the client before any build
- PRD, statement of work and pricing a pilot
Modules & labs
- The Forward Deployed Engineer Mindset
- Solution Documentation & Communication
02/ 05
Production LLM systems
Weeks 5 to 10
What you do
- Context engineering and structured outputs
- RAG over scanned PDFs, tables and drawings
- Evaluation suites and regression gates
- AI-assisted engineering with Claude Code and Cursor
- A full week of TypeScript and React
Modules & labs
- Production Software Engineering for FDEs
- Large Language Model Fundamentals
- Embeddings, Vector Search & RAG
- Evaluating LLM Applications
- AI-Assisted Engineering
- Build and test a FastAPI service with a Streamlit front end that wraps a public dataset — deployed locally with Docker.
- Enterprise document Q&A assistant with hybrid RAG, citations, and an evaluation dashboard.
- GraphRAG over a product/customer knowledge graph (Neo4j).
03/ 05
Agents, data and integration
Weeks 11 to 15
What you do
- LangGraph agent loops with human-in-the-loop
- MCP servers over internal systems
- A full week of data engineering: SQL, Spark, dbt
- SSO, ServiceNow, Salesforce and SAP integration
Modules & labs
- Tool Calling & Function Calling
- Agent Architectures & Orchestration
- Enterprise Systems Integration
- Data Engineering for AI Solutions
- Customer-support agent with MCP tools (order lookup, ticket creation, refund policy retrieval), human approval gates, and guardrails.
- Multi-agent research & report-generation workflow with LangGraph.
04/ 05
Deploy, secure, operate
Weeks 16 to 18
What you do
- AWS in depth; private, on-prem and sovereign patterns
- Cost SLAs, observability and CI/CD
- Prompt-injection defence, PII and the DPDP Act
- A graded incident drill
Modules & labs
- Guardrails, Safety & Reliability for Agents
- Cloud Deployment & DevOps for AI
- LLMOps: Observability, Cost & Performance
- Fine-Tuning, Open-Weight Models & Private Deployments
- Containerise and deploy the customer-support agent to AWS with CI/CD, tracing, caching, and a cost dashboard.
- Fine-tune and serve a small open-weight model for a domain classification task; compare against a prompted frontier model on cost and accuracy.
05/ 05
Forward deployment
Weeks 19 to 24
What you do
- Your pod of 4–5 is embedded with a real client
- Discovery, walking skeleton, eval gate
- Harden, go live, hand off
- Graded by the client sponsor
Modules & labs
- Domain Solution Patterns
- FDE Interview Preparation
- Career Track & Placement Support
0424-week roadmap
Eighteen weeks of method. Six weeks with a client.
Free bridgeLive methodClient deployment
- Free · self-pacedBridge
- Weeks 1–4The engagement method
- Weeks 5–10Production LLM systems
- Weeks 11–15Agents, data and integration
- Weeks 16–18Deploy, secure, operate
- Weeks 19–24Forward deployment
- Week 0Screening test
- Week 4Pilot scoped
- Week 10Artifact 1
- Week 15Artifact 2
- Week 18Artifact 3 · incident drill
- Week 21Eval gate
- Week 24Demo Day · certificate
- Every week, alongside
- Client Craft Lab role-plays
- Interview Gym · 6 mocks
- Vertical elective · BFSI, health, support, public sector
- Anthropic Claude Developer exam prep
05Technologies
Tools and technologies covered in the FDE course
54tools in 10 families, wired the way a client system is built
Languages & frameworks7
PPythonFFastAPIPPydanticSStreamlit+3
LLM APIs & models6
OOpenAIACAnthropic ClaudeGGGoogle GeminiLLlama+2
Agent & orchestration6
LLangGraphLLangChainOAOpenAI Agents SDKAAAnthropic Agent SDK+2
Retrieval & data7
PPineconeQQdrantWWeaviatePpgvector+3
Evaluation & observability6
RRAGASDDeepEvalLLangSmithLLangfuse+2
Cloud & DevOps6
DDockerAAWSAOAzure OpenAIVAVertex AI+2
Fine-tuning & serving4
HFHugging FaceLQLoRA/QLoRAVvLLMOOllama
Integration6
O2OAuth 2.0SOSAML/OIDCKSKafka/SQSSHSalesforce & HubSpot APIs+2
AI-assisted development3
CCClaude CodeCCursorGCGitHub Copilot
Data engineering3
APAirflow/PrefectDdbtSWSQL warehouses
06Client deployment · weeks 19–24
Not a demo. A company keeps what you build.
We source the client and sign the engagement letter. Your pod of 4–5 engineers and an FDE mentor runs the engagement, graded by the client sponsor.
- 6
- weeks embedded
- 4–5
- engineers per pod
- 100%
- of pods go live
Engagement letterSigned before week 19
- Client
- AiSPRY clients, SME partners and NGOs
- Graded by
- Client sponsor, FDE mentor and faculty
- You leave with
- A deployed system and a named client reference
- Week 19Discovery
Map the operating model. Agree metrics. Write the eval set with the client's experts.
- Week 20Walking skeleton
An end-to-end thin slice in the client's environment.
- Week 21Eval gate
The sponsor sees the numbers. Go, or fix.
- Week 22Harden
Guardrails, access control, cost model, observability.
- Week 23Production
Live for real users inside the client.
- Week 24Hand-off
UAT evidence, runbook, adoption plan, Demo Day.
07The FDE way
The foundation of every deployment
Which real engagements will you study?
Each week opens with a real AiSPRY engagement, taught by the engineer who ran it. Then you build it yourself.
- Rela HospitalPharma bot on RAGWeek 6
- CognigenAgentic hospital administrationWeek 11
- Dhammika PereraInsurance and quotation-SLA agentsWeek 13
- GMR EnergyDay-ahead demand and price forecastingWeek 17
- Uttarakhand GovernmentStatewide GenAIWeek 16
- Siemens and ReitzDocument and vision AI on the shop floorWeeks 6 and 14
Live, not recorded
250 hours: 144 live, 60 in labs, and a six-week engagement.
LiveLabsClient
Client craft, practised weekly
- Client Craft Lab role-plays
- Interview Gym · 6 mocks
- Vertical elective · BFSI, health, support, public sector
- Anthropic Claude Developer exam prep
0
API bills to pay
Every exercise runs on free local models. A shared frontier-API credit covers comparisons and the client engagement.
08Expert-led training
Practitioners building real AI systems
Learn from engineers deploying production AI at scale. Each mentor brings real-world expertise and a track record of shipping.
Bharani Kumar Depuru
CEO and Founder, 360DigiTMG, AiSPRY
21 years in AI services and technology consulting. 130+ consulting engagements and 5,000+ professionals trained. Visiting faculty at ISB, INSEAD and London Business School. Chairperson, AI for ITS India.
ISB · IIT alumnusIAPP AIGPCIPP/E
LinkedIn
Raja Hamsa Chivukula
Solution Director, HCL Technologies
23 years in IT. Leads a 20-member GenAI team building a multi-agent framework for Google's financial planning group on Google ADK, MCP and A2A. Validated 150+ GenAI use cases across 48 Google projects, five live in production.
Multi-agent systemsMCP · A2AMLOps
Samson Swaroop Paturi
Machine learning and data-lake architect
17 years in machine learning, AI and big data systems with Capgemini, Florida Power and Light, ComTec and IBM.
CSPOSix Sigma Green BeltITIL
09Industry Connects
Conversations with the people who deploy AI
80 conversations so far with practitioners at 71 companies across 53 industries, on what it actually takes to ship AI. Pick anyone on the network.
Ganesh Belde
Co-Founder, Chief Product & AI Officer
Peakline Technologies
Watch the conversationDipti Belurgikar
Senior Portfolio and Business Analyst
Halliburton
Watch the conversationBana Srinath Reddy
Data Analytics Specialist
Accenture
Watch the conversationAshish Dcruze
Senior Associate Consultant
Infosys
Watch the conversationPrakarsha Saxena
Manager
Mirae Asset Capital Markets
Watch the conversationAnkush Sood
Collections Manager
Maya Bank, Philippines
Watch the conversationChiraag Kumar
Senior Analyst, Project Manager
Accenture
Watch the conversationSarabjit Rangi
Senior Manager, Analytics
Bajaj Markets
Watch the conversationPratyusha Lakshmi Viswanadha
Manager
Novartis
Watch the conversationKunal Atul Katira
BI Developer
Oceaneering International
Watch the conversationShashikanth M
Sr. Delivery Manager
Clarivate Analytics
Watch the conversationSagnik Mukherjee
Manager, Inventory Analytics and SC Optimization
Lowe’s India
Watch the conversationIndustries
- IT/Software
- Oil and Gas
- Healthcare
- IT Consulting
- Financial services
Topics discussed
- Fraud and AML
- Risk
- GenAI
- Agentic workflows
- Agentic AI
10Success stories
Where our alumni work now
41 360DigiTMG alumni now working as data scientists, analysts and AI/ML engineers at Deloitte, PwC, Flipkart, Cognizant, Tiger Analytics and more.
11Outcomes
What you leave with
Proof, not a transcript: a system running at a client, three graded artifacts, and eight capabilities you can demonstrate.
- 250hours
- live, with labs
- 3artifacts
- production-grade, graded
- 1live system
- deployed at a real client
- 8capabilities
- you can prove at interview
Where it leads
- You todayEngineer, 2+ years
- Week 24Live system · SUNY Potsdam certificate
- Roles this prepares you for
Forward Deployed EngineerApplied AI EngineerAI Solutions EngineerCustomer EngineerDeployed EngineerAgent Engineer
01 · Discovery
Run a structured discovery with a business stakeholder and convert it into a scoped, prioritised AI solution plan.
02 · LLM systems
Build production-grade LLM applications using RAG, structured outputs, and tool calling.
03 · Agents
Design and ship agentic AI systems (single-agent and multi-agent) with guardrails, memory, and human-in-the-loop controls.
04 · Integration
Integrate AI solutions with enterprise systems — REST/GraphQL APIs, databases, ERPs/CRMs, SSO, and event streams.
05 · Deployment
Containerise, deploy, secure, and monitor AI services on cloud infrastructure with CI/CD.
06 · Evaluation
Build evaluation and observability pipelines that prove business value and detect drift, regressions, and cost blow-ups.
07 · Client craft
Present demos, write solution documents, handle objections, and drive adoption inside a client organisation.
08 · Interviews
Clear FDE interviews at AI-first companies and enterprise consulting firms.
12Certificate
A credential you earn, not one you attend.
What certificate do you get, and how is it earned?
State University of New York at PotsdamIssued with 360DigiTMG
Credential
Professional Certificate in Forward Deployed AI Engineering
Verification
QR code on every certificate and a public register at 360digitmg.com/verify
- Requirement 01
≥ 70%Client deployment on the published rubric
- Requirement 02
≥ 60% eachThree production artifacts
- Requirement 03
≥ 60%Proctored exam, 60 questions
- Requirement 04
PassClient Craft Lab role-plays
Pass all four and it is yours at week 24.Not a degree or visa pathway, and no job or salary guarantee.
Rubric and exam blueprint (PDF)13Careers
What roles and salaries does this lead to?
0–2 years₹18–28 LPA
3–6 years₹28–55 LPA
Senior, global labs₹55–90+ LPA
Glassdoor India and employer postings, 2026. Market data, not our placement results; our cohort results replace it by September 2027.
Who is this FDE course for?
- Software, full-stack and backend engineers, 2+ years
- Data scientists and ML engineers
- Solutions and customer engineers
Under 2 years? Bridge + Apprenticeship. No programming yet? Data Science and AI.
Companies hiring Forward Deployed Engineers
- Palantir
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- AWS
- Microsoft
- Databricks
- TCS
- Google Cloud
- Deloitte
- Sarvam AI
- Razorpay
- McKinsey QuantumBlack
14Fees & dates
What does it cost and when does it start?
The SUNY Potsdam certificate is included in every plan.
Most chosen · 2+ years
Professional
₹1,25,000₹99,000+ GST
Early bird until 30 Nov 2026 · EMI from ₹5,000/month · 30% deferred until placed
- 24 weeks · 250 hours live
- Six-week client deployment
- SUNY Potsdam certificate
0 to 2 years
Bridge + Apprenticeship
₹1,25,000+ GST
EMI available
- The same 24 weeks
- Paid AiSPRY apprenticeship, 3–6 months
- Services-band placement first
Teams of 15–25
Enterprise cohort
₹75–90Kper seat
10-week intensive · 25% in person
- 80 to 100 hours
- Capstone on your own use case
- For firms standing up an FDE practice
20 Dec 2026applications close12 Jan 2027cohort 1 starts · 30 seats6 Apr 2027cohort 2 · weekend
15FAQ
Questions people ask before enrolling
The role, the programme, the client deployment and admissions, answered.
Can't find your answer?Talk to a counsellor · +91 9989994319
01What is a Forward Deployed Engineer?
A Forward Deployed Engineer is an engineer who works directly with customers to build, integrate, and deploy AI and software solutions inside the customer's environment, owning the outcome from discovery to production adoption.
02What is the difference between a Forward Deployed Engineer and a Software Engineer?
A software engineer usually builds one product for many users from inside their own company. An FDE builds tailored solutions for a specific customer, often working within that customer's systems, data, and deadlines, and is responsible for the solution being adopted — which requires consulting and communication skills on top of engineering.
03Is the client deployment really real?
Yes. Clients are sourced from AiSPRY's client base, SME partners and NGOs, and sign an engagement letter before your pod starts. We name each cohort's hosts on this page once letters are signed. If a client drops out, your pod deploys on a live internal system. No pod finishes without a deployment.
04What exactly does SUNY Potsdam issue?
A Professional Certificate in Forward Deployed AI Engineering, issued when you pass the exam, the deployment rubric, the artifacts and Client Craft. It is a professional certificate, not a degree or diploma, and appears in a public verification register with a QR code on the document.
05Whose projects are the case studies?
AiSPRY's own engagements: Rela Hospital, Cognigen, Dhammika Perera, GMR Energy, the Uttarakhand Government, Reitz, Siemens and others published at aispry.ai. The engineers who delivered them teach those weeks.
06I have under two years of experience. Can I join?
Through the Bridge and Apprenticeship track: the same 24 weeks plus a paid apprenticeship. Your first FDE-shaped role will most likely be in the IT-services band at ₹10 to 18 LPA, because that is where employers hire at that level.
07How many hours a week does it take?
About six live hours across three evenings or a Saturday block, plus three to four lab hours. Weeks 19 to 24 rise to ten to twelve hours because you are on a client engagement.
08Do I need to pay for AI APIs?
No. Every exercise runs on free local models. Each cohort shares a frontier-API credit for quality comparisons and the client engagement.
09What is the salary of a Forward Deployed Engineer in India?
Reported 2026 market ranges are ₹18 to 28 LPA at 0 to 2 years, ₹28 to 55 LPA at 3 to 6 years, and ₹55 to 90 LPA for senior roles at global labs and platforms, per Glassdoor India and employer postings. These are market figures, not 360DigiTMG placement results.
10When does the next cohort start?
Cohort 1 starts 12 January 2027, weekday evenings plus Saturday, 30 seats. Cohort 2 starts 6 April 2027 as a weekend intensive. Applications close 20 December 2026 or when seats fill.
11Is there a refund policy?
Full refund minus the registration fee if you withdraw before week 2. Details are in the enrolment agreement.
12Which tools will I learn?
FastAPI, LangGraph, MCP, vector databases (Pinecone/Qdrant/pgvector), Neo4j, Docker, AWS, GitHub Actions, LangSmith/Langfuse, RAGAS, vLLM, and leading LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini).
13Does 360DigiTMG provide placement assistance for FDE roles?
Yes — portfolio review, mock interviews with practitioners, résumé and LinkedIn optimisation, and placement assistance.
Sources for the market figures on this page
Reviewed 16 September 2026 by Bharani Kumar Depuru, Program Director and CEO, 360DigiTMG. IAPP AIGP and CIPP/E certified.
Thirty seats. One real deployment each.
Get the full 24-week curriculum as a PDF. A counsellor calls within one working day.
+91 9989994319Get the curriculum