Bengaluru leads India's FDE talent with 34% share nationwide
Bengaluru is leading the way in forward-deployed engineering (FDE) talent, making up 34% of India's total pool, according to a new FDE Academy report.
Hyderabad and Delhi NCR are catching up too, together with Bengaluru accounting for 61% of the country's FDE workforce.
FDE pros are mostly working at big tech companies, but there's also a solid presence in product firms, IT services, consulting companies, and AI startups.
Hyderabad emerges as FDE talent hub
Hyderabad is quickly becoming an emerging FDE hub, supported by expanding enterprise technology investments, a growing base of AI-led roles and a strengthening talent ecosystem.
Interestingly, about 70% of people working in this field have eight years or less experience, so there's plenty of room for growth.
As Raghav Gupta, Founder and CEO at FDE Academy, puts it, "AI deployment requires a combination of engineering depth, business understanding and the ability to take ownership of outcomes in a customer's environment," and "the concentration of talent in a few cities makes it important for employers to think not just about where they hire, but also how they develop this capability over time."