FDE-100
Getting Paid in the AI Era as a Forward Deployed Engineer — Free Course
What a Forward Deployed Engineer is, and how one gets paid. Five free live sessions in English — the role, the ecosystem you work inside, and the three ways FDEs earn. Wednesdays, 8:00–9:30 PM PKT.
Mode
Live Online Classes
Class Length
90 mins
Duration
5 weeks
Per Week
1 classes
Zia Tutor AI
Zia Tutor AI is a personal learning agent built as a digital twin of Zia Khan. It teaches the Agent Factory curriculum, remembers where you stopped, continues across sessions and weeks, teaches in the sequence appropriate for you, and checks whether you understood the previous concept before moving on.
Its mission is to help you gain the expertise to build AI Workers and Digital FTEs, and to become a Forward Deployed Engineer.
Learn MoreDetails
The Forward Deployed Engineer is the role the market cannot find: one person who carries an entire delivery pipeline into a client organisation, and is paid accordingly. This free five-week series covers what the role is, the ecosystem you work inside, and how FDEs actually earn — salaried, freelance and retainer, or owning a vertical.
You leave knowing which door is yours, and how to price a first offer on outcomes rather than hours. Free, taught in English, no programming background required.
What You'll Learn
Module 1Where You Fit — The FDE Role
The four roles the Agent Factory trains, and the Forward Deployed Engineer who carries all four end-to-end inside a client. Why this is the role companies cannot hire for.
Module 2The Ecosystem You Work Inside
One System of Record at the centre, with products built on it. How a book becomes a governed source of truth your agents can query and cite.
Module 3Your Tooling — System of Record and Zia Tutor AI
Connect both to your own AI client. Then the rule that makes an AI worker useful: a System of Record decides what is true, a System of Context decides what arrives.
Module 4The Vertical You Could Own
Name professional work, not an industry. Screen it, test it, pick a beachhead — with expert availability as the test that ends the evaluation on its own.
Module 5Getting Paid
You will not be paid for hours. Three income doors — salaried, freelance and retainer, vertical ownership — and the contract of success that prices each: what it costs the client today, what success looks like, and how you both know you hit it. Draft your first offer.
Course Outcomes
Explain what a Forward Deployed Engineer does, and how the role carries four internal roles into one client
Place yourself on the five-layer Agent Factory model and know which layer you earn from first
Connect the System of Record and Zia Tutor AI to your own AI client
Choose a vertical you could own, scored against a five-step selection
Pick your income door — salaried, retainer, or vertical ownership — and price a first offer on outcomes, not hours
Prerequisites
There are no pre-requisites for this course.
