Box CEO Aaron Levie urges focus on forward deployed engineers
Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box, posted that college career counselors should prioritize educating students about forward deployed engineer positions. These roles combine deep technical skills with systems thinking, problem solving, business acumen, and fluency in coding AI agents. Harrison Chase confirmed the post followed an earlier message on the topic. Mark Cuban added that such engineers should be deployed into elementary schools to help integrate AI agents.
If I were a college career counselor or in career services, I’d quickly be figuring out how to get students to understand these forward deployed engineer jobs exist and how to get them.
The requirements are a mix of deep technical skills, often CS majors or minors. You must be great at understanding problem solving, how to have systems thinking, and have a strong business acumen. The kicker, of course, is to make sure you’re very deep in AI agents; you need to have fluency in coding agents, MCP, CLIs, Skills, and so on.
Hundreds (thousands?) of technology companies will be hiring for these roles, same with any consulting and IT services company, and the vast major of mid-size and large enterprises will be hiring for this talent internally as well.
One great example of opportunity for highly technical talent out there.
@levie So this was the next tweet!
If I were a college career counselor or in career services, I’d quickly be figuring out how to get students to understand these forward deployed engineer jobs exist and how to get them. The requirements are a mix of deep technical skills, often CS majors or minors. You must be great at understanding problem solving, how to have systems thinking, and have a strong business acumen. The kicker, of course, is to make sure you’re very deep in AI agents; you need to have fluency in coding agents, MCP, CLIs, Skills, and so on. Hundreds (thousands?) of technology companies will be hiring for these roles, same with any consulting and IT services company, and the vast major of mid-size and large enterprises will be hiring for this talent internally as well. One great example of opportunity for highly technical talent out there.
This is a VERY good take and observation from @levie
It feels to me that FDE roles could be replacing what were consultant / solutions architect & similar roles 2010-2022 (where many many new grads and early career devs were hired)
If I were a college career counselor or in career services, I’d quickly be figuring out how to get students to understand these forward deployed engineer jobs exist and how to get them. The requirements are a mix of deep technical skills, often CS majors or minors. You must be great at understanding problem solving, how to have systems thinking, and have a strong business acumen. The kicker, of course, is to make sure you’re very deep in AI agents; you need to have fluency in coding agents, MCP, CLIs, Skills, and so on. Hundreds (thousands?) of technology companies will be hiring for these roles, same with any consulting and IT services company, and the vast major of mid-size and large enterprises will be hiring for this talent internally as well. One great example of opportunity for highly technical talent out there.