A Class Act: AI Builders & Founders podcast

S3E1: What Does A Forward Deployed Engineer Actually Do? With Tom McLaughlin, Forward Deployed Engineer at The OpenAI Deployment Company

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Every AI company seems to want a forward deployed engineer. Yet very few can explain what they’re actually hiring for.

Tom McLaughlin was doing the job before it became one of the hottest titles in AI. He went from software engineering at JP Morgan to Tomoro, the applied AI firm OpenAI acquired in May 2026, and he’s now a forward deployed engineer at The OpenAI Deployment Company, working inside enterprise clients across the UK, Europe and the US.

In this conversation, he chats to host Michael about where the FDE role came from, what a customer is really paying for when they hire one, and why so much of the value has moved from writing code to judgment, context and ownership. 

If you’re building an AI team, hiring into one, or still working out whether you need forward deployed engineers at all, start here.

What you’ll hear:

  • The restaurant story Palantir used to explain the whole idea and the one line the entire model rests on
  • Why Tom thinks most companies hiring internal FDEs are answering a different question from the one they think they’re asking
  • What the customer is actually paying for and whether one person should be carrying all three
  • When forward deployed engineer and forward deployed strategist should be two separate jobs
  • Can one exceptional FDE with a swarm of agents replace a team of five?
  • Why making code cheap doesn’t remove the bottleneck
  • The line between FDE and plain consultancy
  • What is left for the human once agents do the implementation
  • Tom’s picture of 2030
  • What to look for when hiring an FDE
  • The one hiring mistake to avoid

Guest Information

Tom McLaughlin is a founding forward deployed engineer at The OpenAI Deployment Company, based in Scotland and working with enterprise clients across the UK, Europe and the US. He started out as a software engineer at JP Morgan before joining Tomoro, the applied AI consulting and engineering firm OpenAI acquired in May 2026 as the founding piece of its Deployment Company.

Connect with Tom McLaughlin on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aibuilder/

Please note: The views expressed by the guest in this episode are their own and do not reflect those of their current or former employers.

About Your Host

Michael Young is the Founder & CEO of MBN Solutions and host of A Class Act. With nearly two decades of experience helping organisations build high-performing data, analytics and AI teams, he brings frontline insight into what makes exceptional talent and leadership.

Connect with MBN Solutions

If you’re hiring forward deployed engineers, building an AI delivery team, or rethinking what your technical hiring process is actually screening for, MBN partners with organisations to build data and AI teams that deliver.

MBN Solutions on LinkedIn — industry updates, projects, and the latest in data, AI and analytics talent. Visit the company page here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mbn-recruitment-solutions

For questions, guest recommendations, or to connect:

Email: [email protected]

Visit MBN Solutions at www.mbnsolutions.com


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