[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_28":-5,"_38":-5,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58},"routes/_store+/_readers+/email_author.$slug/route",{"_9":10,"_11":-5},"book",{"_12":13,"_14":15,"_16":17,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":23},"currentUser","id","Z2lkOi8vbGVhbnB1Yi9TdG9yZTo6Qm9va1Byb2R1Y3QvNzg0ODg","title","The Field Deployed Engineer's Handbook","state","published","contactAuthorMethod","email","aboutText","

The model is the easy part. Making it work inside a real organisation, that is the job.

Forward deployed engineers are the fastest-growing role in AI. Hiring surged 800 per cent in 2025 and continues to accelerate. Yet the people doing this work have no handbook. They learn by trial and error: how to enter a customer environment, find valuable work in the first week, build AI systems that survive contact with enterprise reality, and leave behind teams that can continue without them.

This book fills that gap. It covers the complete lifecycle of AI field engineering: understanding the role, running structured engagements from discovery through delivery to handover, building the harness that makes AI trustworthy inside a customer's environment, and managing a career that sits between engineering and consulting.

Twelve chapters span four parts: The Role, The Method, Production and The Human Side. Each chapter ends with field exercises. A companion GitHub repository provides templates, checklists, architecture decision records, evaluation rubrics and code examples.

Whether you are considering an FDE move, already embedded with a customer, or building an FDE practice, this is the practitioner's handbook for engineers who deploy AI where it actually has to work.

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Kick off your book project, get started with GhostAI, get better at marketing, or spend the day doing all three! Free live workshops on Zoom. Saturday, June 27, 2026.

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