Forward Deployed Engineering, Medplum-Style
You have probably noticed that "Forward Deployed Engineer" is having a moment. Over the last couple of years the role has spread from a Palantir-specific curiosity to the role every enterprise software company suddenly wants to hire for. OpenAI, Anthropic, Ramp, and dozens of others have stood up FDE teams, and the VC blog and tech newsletters alike have declared it the hottest new role in tech.
We are excited about it too. However, healthtech has been doing this for more than 40 years.
At Medplum, forward deployed engineering is not a trend we picked up. Healthtech companies have always built software in a "forward-deployed" manner, embedding engineers directly in the clinic to learn directly from interactions between healthcare providers and patients. This post is about what an FDE is, why healthcare got here early, how we think about the role at Medplum, and the values our team lives by. And, if any of this resonates, we would love to hear from you.