Forward Deployed Engineers
The engineer who understands your problem is the one who ships it.
Most software fails in the gap between what gets built and what the business actually needs. Forward deployed engineering closes it, senior engineers embedded in your team, owning the outcome in production. We bring the model to UK & Ireland startups, at startup rates.
The problem
Software rarely fails in the code.
It fails between the demo and the production floor, where the software meets the messy reality of your business, and reality wins.
The evidence
of enterprise AI pilots produce no measurable impact on the bottom line.
MIT NANDA, 300 deployments
The model was never the problem. A flashy demo is easy; the last mile is brutal. Your data lives in three legacy systems, your edge cases only surface in production, and the workflow on the ground looks nothing like the slide.
The deployment gap swamps the capability gap. Closing it isn't a model problem. It's an engineering problem, and it's the one we solve.
The model
What “forward deployed” actually means.
A military idea: send your best people to the front line, where the real conditions are, not back at HQ designing for a world that doesn’t exist.
Go where the problem lives
We embed in your team, your repo, your domain. We learn the problem by building against it, not by reading a brief.
One person, end to end
The engineer who understands your problem is the one who ships the fix. No spec thrown over a wall, no intent lost in translation.
We stay until it works
Against your real data and your real edge cases, the ones that only show up in production. We don't hand over output and walk.
Outcome, not output
Measured by whether your problem is solved in production. Not tickets closed, not a deck delivered, not hours billed.
Why we're confident in it
The model was proven at Palantir over two decades, and in 2026 OpenAI and Anthropic each built billion-dollar arms around it. We didn't adopt a trend, we've worked this way since day one. The names are validation; the method is the point.
The alternatives
The options you’ve already weighed.
Each solves a slice of the problem and leaves the gap wide open.
Four to six months to fill a senior role. Your window closes in four to six weeks.
Built to the letter of a spec and wrong in spirit, handed back as code no one on your team can maintain.
Cheap capacity, but intent leaks out across the brief and the time zone. You get output, not a product.
How it works
Three steps to production.
No bloated team, no fourteen-month plan. You see working software, not a status report.
Understand
We learn your domain, your constraints, and what success actually looks like, from the people with the problem, not just the people who commissioned it.
Shape
We design the approach: architecture, scope, and an honest delivery plan. Sometimes the most valuable thing we say is “don’t build this.”
Deliver
We embed and ship production software in your repo, behind your flags, then hand over clean, or stay on as a long-term build partner.
Compare
How it stacks up.
Same goal, production software you own. Only one model is built to close the gap.
- Embedded with your teamYes
- Ships production codeYes
- Senior engineersYes
- Understands your domainYes
- Owns the outcomeYes
- Clean handoffYes
- No long-term lock-inYes
- Embedded with your teamNo
- Ships production codeYes
- Senior engineersMixed
- Understands your domainPartially
- Owns the outcomeNo
- Clean handoffSometimes
- No long-term lock-inContract-dependent
- Embedded with your teamNo
- Ships production codeYes
- Senior engineersMixed
- Understands your domainRarely
- Owns the outcomeNo
- Clean handoffRarely
- No long-term lock-inContract-dependent
Who it’s for
Is this you?
Funded startups without an engineering team
You’ve raised, you need to ship, and you can’t wait six months to hire.
Teams with a deadline that matters
A new product line, a board commitment, a market window closing.
Companies burned by agencies or offshore
You got code, not a product, and no one left who can run it.
AI-native companies that need it shipped
You’ve got the demo. You need builders who get it into production.
FAQ
Common questions.
Let's talk
Tell us what you're building.
One conversation. An honest take. No commitment until it makes sense.
Based in Belfast, working with teams globally