Career moves · 231,145 postings · 163 markets · 2026-07-16
Where can your career go next?
Search the role you're in. We count what employers ask for across 231,145 active postings, then show you the markets one step away: how big each one is, and exactly which skills you'd need to add.
What this is and isn't
Markets sit close together when employers on both sides ask for the same skills, measured across 350 normalized skills. This is not a record of people moving between them. That would need career histories we don't have. A close market also isn't automatically a good move. Skills counted are the ones postings list explicitly, so every figure is a floor.
You are here
Forward Deployed Engineer
308 open jobs·137 employers
10 markets are one step away
These are the 10 careers with the highest skill overlap with Forward Deployed Engineer. Bigger circles mean more openings; careers closer to the center require fewer new skills.
Among nearby careers, Software Engineer has the most openings (7,054), while AI Engineer requires the fewest new skills.
Skill transition
How much each market's required skills differ from your
current role.
- Very close3
- Close7
Larger circles = more open jobs, from 143 to 7,054 here.
TapSelect a market to put it at the center.
AI Engineer
from Forward Deployed Engineer
Excellent match
Very close
Among the 3 closest moves from Forward Deployed Engineer.
462
openings in AI Engineer
6
skills you already have
6
skills to learn
5
skills to strengthen
You already have
Forward Deployed EngineerAI Engineershare of postingsllm
48%71%
rag
28%47%
prompt engineering
8%31%
observability
26%29%
openai
9%24%
model deployment
30%18%
You'll need to learn
- reliabilityasked for in 39% of AI Engineer postings
- pytorchasked for in 19% of AI Engineer postings
- dockerasked for in 25% of AI Engineer postings
- tensorflowasked for in 14% of AI Engineer postings
- apiasked for in 23% of AI Engineer postings
- experimentationasked for in 15% of AI Engineer postings
Strengthen what you have
- llm48% → 71%
- rag28% → 47%
- observability26% → 29%
- prompt engineering8% → 31%
- openai9% → 24%
How much work is out there
Forward Deployed Engineer308AI Engineer462This market has 1.5x more postings than yours.
What to do next
1 · Learn
reliability
Asked for in 39% of AI Engineer postings, and 5 other new skills.
2 · Strengthen
llm
48% of Forward Deployed Engineer postings ask for it, against 71% of AI Engineer.
3 · Look at the work
462 AI Engineer postings
Observed active in this snapshot.
308 Forward Deployed Engineer postings · 462 AI Engineer postings · 350 normalized skills · snapshot 2026-07-16
Methodology
What is this based on?
231,145 live job postings from 28,870 employers across 163 markets, captured 2026-07-16. Skills come from each posting's stated requirements.
How is distance calculated?
Each market becomes a profile of the skills its postings request, and markets are compared by how much those profiles overlap (an IDF-weighted cosine similarity, so skills that appear in almost every role count for less). The closest markets sit nearest the center, grouped into five bands from Very close to Different field.
What do the skill lists mean?
Shared skills are the ones both roles commonly ask for. Skills to learn are the ones the target market asks for that your current role doesn't, ranked by how much more often they come up.
What isn't included?
Years of experience, seniority, salary, portfolio or certification requirements, or how competitive a role is to land. Skill overlap is one axis of a move, not the whole picture.
Read how graphic and product design split into two markets →