Forward Deployed Engineers Overtake CSMs, SaaStr Panel Finds

Forward-deployed engineering headcount is up more than 1,000% and still climbing, while customer-success hiring grew 700% through Q2 2022 then flatlined, according to a SaaStr customer-success panel.

That's a four-year stall against a category still compounding, and it's not a fluke. When a product's output changes by the prompt and the day, someone has to debug it inside the customer's workflow, not manage a renewal.

Harvey staffs its legal AI deployments with legal engineers who have 8-10 years of practice experience, working alongside forward-deployed engineers instead of traditional CSMs.

AssemblyAI renamed its customer success team outright, calling the group Forward Deployed Engineers.

Snowflake's top hiring priority is the GTM engineer, a role built by converting marketing ops staff and analysts into technical deployment hands.

OpenAI sells its Presence product through its own FDEs and a short list of GSIs, not a traditional support org.

Four companies, four categories, landed on the same fix independently.

One gap: the panel doesn't say whether this holds outside AI-native software. It also doesn't say whether CSM growth resumes once these tools get easier to configure without an engineer in the room.

A related report on Harvey found the company still runs parts of the old playbook, EBRs and on-site change management, alongside its new legal engineers. That suggests the swap isn't total everywhere.