Deployment Training

FDE Excellence
Programme

Training both halves of the Forward Deployed Engineer model.

A five-session programme for enterprise AI companies building FDE organisations: the FDE, who owns the build, and the Deployment Strategist, who owns the problem and its value.

A capable product is worth nothing until it's deployed.

The FDE Model

One Model, Two Halves

The FDE model, in which engineers embed directly inside customer organisations to deploy AI in production, has become the reference model for enterprise AI worldwide. Most attempts to copy it fail for the same reason: the model has a second half that rarely gets copied.

Deployment Strategist

デプロイメント・ストラテジスト(DS)

Owns the problem and its value

Before a line of code is written

  • Chooses which problems are worth solving
  • Proves what the outcome is worth

Forward Deployed Engineer

フォワード・デプロイド・エンジニア(FDE)

Owns the build

Inside the customer organisation

  • Ships working software in production
  • Embedded in the customer organisation

Most copies of the model train only one half.The FDE Excellence Programme trains both, together.

The Programme

Five Working Sessions

Not lectures. Every session works on your team's real engagements, appropriately de-identified, and ends with working artefacts the team keeps.

SESSION 01

Foundations and Product Thinking

What a DS is and isn't, the lines between DS, FDE, sales, and customer success, and thinking in products that persist and compound rather than projects that end.

SESSION 02

Problem-First Discovery and Scoping

Finding the problems worth solving before proposing solutions, including the "Murderboard": the team attempts to break its own plan before the client can.

SESSION 03

Working Inside the Customer Organisation

Champions, shadow org charts, difficult conversations, and steering committees that steer. Adapted for how Japanese enterprises actually make decisions.

SESSION 04

Knowledge as an Asset

Turning what the team learns on every engagement into an asset that compounds: playbooks, case libraries, and the habits that keep them alive.

SESSION 05

Hiring and Interviewing for Deployment Roles

A hiring machine for DS and FDE roles: structured interviews, written verdicts, and the discipline to keep the bar where it belongs.

Format

Five working sessions, on site or remote

Language

English with live interpretation, or bilingual delivery

Audience

FDE, DS, and customer-facing delivery teamsTypically 8 to 15 participants

Method

Your real engagements as the material, de-identified

Provenance

Six years at Palantir, where the FDE model originated, in every seat from IC to Enterprise Lead

Pricing

On enquiry, scoped per team

Formats

Ways to Run the Programme

The full five-session programme is where the material compounds, and it's what we recommend. But teams start from different places, so it also runs in shorter and more focused formats. All pricing on enquiry, scoped per team.

RECOMMENDED

Full Programme

The Five-Session Programme

For teams building a durable DS and FDE capability

  • All five working sessions, typically over 5 to 10 weeks
  • Exercises on your real engagements, de-identified
  • Working artefacts the team keeps from every session
Enquire →

Flexible Formats

Shorter and Focused Options

The same material, fitted to your situation

  • One-day intensive or two-day deep dive
  • A selection of sessions for a specific gap
  • 1:1 mentoring for DS and FDE leads
Enquire →

Custom

Something Else

For everything the boxes above don't fit

  • Different lengths, audiences, or emphases
  • Executive briefings and board sessions
  • Tell us the shape of the problem
Enquire →
PDF
Request the service brochure JP サービス資料 (8pp) and EN overview (5pp), sent by email
EN
Programme deck (English) Google Slides · internal review link
JA
Programme deck (Japanese) Google Slides · internal review link

Inaugural Client

LayerX, Japan's FDE Pioneer

LayerX championed the FDE model in Japan earlier and more visibly than any other company, building a dedicated FDE organisation within its Ai Workforce division and making the case publicly through its blog, podcast, and conference talks. Engaging Foundry Labs was a deliberate next step for a team already at the front of the field: deepening the model's quieter second half, the Deployment Strategist, across the whole team. Approximately ten members completed all five sessions.

Why Foundry Labs

Built From the Field, Not the Classroom

Declan Clowry

Declan Clowry

CTO

Programme lead. Six years at Palantir Technologies, from individual contributor to Enterprise Lead, leading teams of FDEs and Deployment Strategists in the UK, Germany, and Japan.

The programme was developed from six years at Palantir Technologies, the company where the FDE model originated: as a Deployment Strategist and in every seat above it, from individual contributor to Enterprise Lead, leading teams of FDEs and Deployment Strategists in the UK, Germany, and Japan, across healthcare, defence, and manufacturing. This is training in the model from someone who has done the roles, hired for them, and run the teams. Foundry Labs is a Tokyo-based team that designs, deploys, and scales production AI systems, so the training is taught by people who still do the work.

More about Foundry Labs →

Get Started

Bring the Programme to Your Team

Accepting enquiries in Japan and internationally, with further cohorts planned through 2026.

Opens your email client addressed to Foundry Labs. Brochures are sent by reply.