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Career Bridge / Build track

Forward Deployed Engineer

The engineer who makes AI work in a customer's messy, real environment. Five stages, each with free resources and a project that proves it.

9-12 months at 45 min/day
$120-210k typical
$0 to complete
Your syllabus. First 45 minutes starts today.
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Tick a stage dot below when you finish its Prove-it project. Join free to save progress and get each stage's checklist on Telegram, WhatsApp or email.
Stage 1 · Make AI your daily tool
Weeks 1-4

Before you build AI systems, become a power user. Automate one piece of your current job and learn where models fail.

Free resources
AI Native Blueprint (ch. 1-4), the Day-1 homework, our prompt-patterns guide
Prove it
A before/after write-up: one task at work, 2 hours to 20 minutes. Post it on LinkedIn.
Stage 2 · Python + APIs, properly
Weeks 5-12

Not a CS degree - the working subset: scripts, HTTP, JSON, calling model APIs, reading errors without panic.

Free resources
Free Python-for-AI track, DeepSeek free tier for practice, NotebookLM as study partner
Prove it
The automation audit kit, rebuilt from scratch in your own code.
Stage 3 · Build your first real system
Months 4-6

RAG, embeddings, and the unglamorous parts: chunking, caching, cost control. Where most people quit - the 45-minute rule gets you through.

Free resources
'Your first RAG app' kit + RAG-at-scale guide, free-tier stacks compared in Reviews
Prove it
A RAG app over a real document set, deployed, with a write-up of what broke.
Stage 4 · Learn the deployed part
Months 6-9

What makes FDE different from backend dev: working inside someone else's constraints. Security reviews, legacy integration, demos that survive a client.

Free resources
Governance & Command (data-boundary chapters), client-demo checklist, FDE interview bank
Prove it
Integrate your Stage 3 app with a system you don't control - a CRM trial, a legacy DB, anything hostile.
Stage 5 · Get hired
Months 9-12

Portfolio assembly, the three write-ups that matter, and targeting: GCCs, services firms going AI-first, AI startups' deployment teams.

Free resources
Weekly job-signal issues, resume teardown archive, mock-interview community
Prove it
Three shipped projects, three write-ups, one offer. That's the exit criteria.
Save this progress before you lose it.
Join free: stage checklists and the weekly lesson, on Telegram, WhatsApp or email.
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