We help technology companies build and run Forward Deployed Engineering functions.
Forward Deployed Engineering is the model that made Palantir one of the most successful enterprise software companies in history. Most companies trying to adopt it fail because they hire wrong, structure wrong, or don't know what good looks like. We've spent 7 years inside the model and now help companies build their own.
Featured in The Pragmatic Engineer
Our work on Forward Deployed Engineering was featured in The Pragmatic Engineer — the definitive deep-dive on FDE organizations read by 500,000+ engineers.
Founded by Palantir veterans. 7 years running Forward Deployed Engineering. 1,000+ technical interviews. Hands-on keyboard when it matters.
Fractional Technical Leader
We embed with early-stage companies as their first senior technical presence. Depending on what the company needs, that might mean:
- Building an MVP when there's no team yet
- Hiring the founding technical team
- Establishing ways of working and engineering culture
- Being the technical sounding board for a non-technical founder
- Managing organizational friction as the company scales
This is the highest-touch engagement. We take on two to three of these at a time.
Recent engagements:
- A health-tech startup where we embedded as the first senior technical presence — hiring the founding team, establishing ways of working, and acting as the technical sounding board for a non-technical founder.
- An early-stage company where we built the MVP as the sole technical resource, developing the product while the founder focused on commercial traction.
Pricing: Retainers typically start at £15,000/month. Scoped per engagement.
FDE Team Building
We design the hiring system that identifies people who can succeed in FDE-style roles. This includes:
- Defining the traits and competencies that predict success at your company (not generic engineering skills)
- Designing an end-to-end interview process that tests for those specific traits
- Building interview kits: custom questions, technical challenges, scorecards
- Conducting interviews through our bench of Palantir-trained interviewers (Interviewing as a Service)
- Writing hiring theses: per-candidate documents that predict strengths, weaknesses, and ideal first projects
- Interviewer calibration and training
This is meaningfully different from generic engineering hiring. FDE candidates need a specific combination of technical depth, customer empathy, ownership mentality, and comfort with ambiguity that standard engineering interviews miss.
Case studies:
- Comand AI: Designed hiring for mission-driven FDE-style engineers
- Northslope Technologies: Built bespoke framework defining cultural traits vs role competencies
- Prodigal Tech: Building their FDE organization from the ground up
Pricing: Hiring Blueprint from £10,000–£15,000 (one-time). Interviewing as a Service from £5,000/month.
FDE Advisory
Lightweight, high-leverage engagements for companies exploring the FDE model:
- Workshops on FDE operating models, team structure, and hiring strategy
- Advisory sessions for founders and VCs evaluating whether FDE is right for their portfolio
- Speaking and teaching engagements
We maintain open-source FDE Advisory Materials — a complete documentation site with hiring processes, scorecards, templates, and operational guides.
Learn more about our FDE Advisory offering →
Pricing: Scoped per engagement.
Clients
- Comand AI — Designed hiring process for mission-driven FDE-style engineers. Case study →
- Northslope Technologies — Built bespoke hiring framework defining cultural traits vs role competencies. Case study →
- Prodigal Tech — Building FDE organization from the ground up.
- Object Edge — Building Palantir services practice with FDE hiring and strategy.
- Plus confidential Fractional Technical Leader engagements across health-tech and early-stage product companies.
Recent Writing
- The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Assholes — Why conviction and ego are separate traits
- Comand AI: A Hiring Case Study — Designing hiring for mission-driven engineers
- Building a Hiring Process for Northslope — Cultural traits vs role competencies
- Context Matters: Hiring is Not Fungible — The two must-have traits
- The Autonomy Gradient — What AI can and can't do in physics research
Get in Touch
| work@platypustech.xyz | |
| linkedin.com/in/anjor-kanekar |
Not ready to talk yet? Check out our FDE Advisory Materials or browse recent writing.