Guides for shipping production AI
What a forward deployed engineer actually does, how to hire one, and the architecture decisions we make inside customer repos.
- Guide / Operations
Production AI incident response runbook
An AI incident is an operating event. The first job is to reduce impact, preserve evidence, and restore a safe service state.
September 1, 2026
- Guide / Operations
AI use case prioritization matrix
Choose the first AI workflow by evidence of value and executional fit, not by the most compelling demo.
August 27, 2026
- Guide / Operations
AI pilot to production readiness checklist
A successful demo is evidence that an idea may work. Production readiness is evidence that the business can operate it safely, measure it, and recover when it fails.
August 25, 2026
- Guide / Compensation
Forward deployed engineer salary
What companies pay for a forward deployed engineer — in-house at Palantir and OpenAI, in the broader market, and via a fixed-fee embed when a $400k headcount is the wrong instrument.
August 24, 2026
- Guide / Hiring
Forward deployed engineer skills
The skills that separate a forward deployed engineer from a strong staff engineer — and a practical checklist for screening them.
August 17, 2026
- Guide / Comparison
Forward deployed engineer vs. solutions engineer
Solutions engineers exist to close software. Forward deployed engineers exist to put that software — or a custom workflow on top of it — into production on the customer's stack.
August 10, 2026
- Guide / Comparison
Forward deployed engineer vs. staff augmentation
Staff augmentation fills a seat. A forward deployed engineer ships a defined production outcome, then hands the system to your team.
August 3, 2026
- Guide / Role
Palantir forward deployed engineer
The Palantir forward deployed engineer is the original version of the role: a product-caliber engineer living inside the customer, measured by whether Gotham (or the follow-on workflow) actually runs.
July 27, 2026
- Guide / Hiring
Forward deployed engineer hiring guide
How CTOs and VPs of Engineering vet, interview, and hire forward deployed engineers — with a job description template, interview questions, and a decision framework.
June 18, 2026
- Guide / Architecture
RAG vs. fine-tuning for enterprise AI
A technical comparison of retrieval-augmented generation and model fine-tuning — cost, data privacy, accuracy, and the decision framework we use when scoping enterprise AI engagements.
June 18, 2026
- Guide / Definition
What is a forward deployed engineer?
The role Palantir invented in 2003 that OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks now rely on to ship production AI inside customer organizations.
June 18, 2026