Standard · 2026
FDE Level Standard: five levels, two tracks
Level is decided by scope of responsibility, not technical depth. Five marks map one-to-one onto five levels: Guided → Independent → Adaptive → Systemic → Industry.
What is an FDE
FDE stands for Forward Deployed Engineer
Not sales, not on-site outsourcing, not remote support: an FDE brings engineering into the customer's own environment, turns a fuzzy business problem into a system that actually runs, and leaves reusable assets behind when the project ends. Three tests: been on site, shipped something usable, left something others can take over.
- Versus outsourcing: outsourcing sells hours; an FDE ships a running system and handover.
- Versus a solutions architect: the architect proposes, the FDE owns the launch outcome.
- Versus an ML engineer: the ML engineer chases metrics, the FDE chases a closed business loop.
Fuller background (origin, capability map, boundaries, market data) on the main site: www.0706.tech/en/fde
Five levels, one ruler
Each level answers a single question: what is this person responsible for? Responsibility changes when scope changes — not when the toolchain grows.
Tasks
Baseline: from “can use the tools” to “can hand over one clean piece of work”.
Scenarios
From delivering a task to owning an outcome — you start signing your name to a process.
Project groups
From doing one well to deciding which ones to do — the first time you hold the trade-off.
Organisational systems
From delivering yourself to making the organisation able to deliver — output shifts from projects to mechanisms.
Industry methods
From working inside one organisation to outsiders adopting it — judgement moves outside.
Two tracks — technical delivery and business delivery — share this ladder: same scope of responsibility, different capability weighting. See the six items per level →
Three facts
Not a national qualification
“Forward Deployed Engineer” does not exist in China’s national occupation classification. This is a corporate standard and a public method: no certificates, no examinations.
Five levels, two tracks
Marks and levels correspond one-to-one. Every domain moves exactly one mark per level; two adjacent levels sharing a mark means the standard has failed.
Open and co-maintained
The text is published under CC BY 4.0 and the data as machine-readable JSON, so third-party systems can integrate directly. The scoring engine and question weights stay closed.
How to use it
I am a practitioner
Start with the self-check to get a suggested level and your gaps, then collect the evidence for those gaps. Self-assessment locates you; levelling requires materials and a reviewer.
LevelsI hire forward-deployed engineers
Generate a job description by level and track, then ask for the six evidence packs in interview instead of asking whether someone “knows” something.
Build a job description