Forward Deployed Engineer at Kore.ai

Kore.ai, the enterprise AI agent platform company, hires Forward Deployed Engineers in Hyderabad, where all its India openings are listed. In 2026 it posted FDE roles at several levels there, from an entry-level FDE Level 1 asking for 2–4 years to an FDE Developer asking for 2–6 years. In November 2026 its careers page listed an FDE Lead AI Customer Engineer and an FDE Manager in Hyderabad. Unlike most companies, Kore.ai uses “FDE” as a full career track with numbered levels.

What the FDE does at Kore.ai

Kore.ai sells a platform for building AI agents, chatbots and voice assistants, so its FDEs make that platform work inside each customer’s business. The Hyderabad FDE Developer listing, updated in May 2026 and now closed, describes the core work:

• Solve customer problems directly. Work with enterprise customers on technical challenges and solution architecture.
• Integrate. Build connections to CRMs, ERPs, contact centres and communication tools.
• Ship to production. Take code from prototype to production and own debugging of live issues.
• Prove value early. Build proofs of concept and demos, and join technical sessions and integration reviews.
• Feed the product. Create reusable components and report platform gaps back to the product team.

The listing says the role is based in Hyderabad and works with implementation teams in the US and other regions, so expect overlap with US time zones.

The entry-level FDE Level 1 listing, updated in April 2026, is more hands-on configuration under supervision. It reports to an FDE Engagement Lead or Senior FDE. The engineer configures dialog flows, prompt nodes, agent nodes and LLM integrations on the Kore.ai XO Platform. They also help write requirement and solution documents, run test cases and keep handover notes for system integrator partners. The listing sets clear targets: under 5% rework, and Kore.ai platform certification within three months of joining.

The current Hyderabad FDE Lead and FDE Manager roles sit in a unit Kore.ai calls “Fanatic Customer Support”. That suggests the FDE track also covers post-sale customer engineering, not just new deployments. Our support engineer to FDE guide covers that route.

Experience and skills Kore.ai asks for

The FDE Developer listing calls voice AI, IVR modernisation, speech-to-text and text-to-speech, and SIP/WebRTC a “strong plus”. It also values a solutions or field engineering background. The FDE Level 1 listing names Kore.ai XO certification and prompt engineering for GPT, Claude or Gemini as nice-to-haves.

What this tells you: Kore.ai’s India FDE track is open to engineers with as little as two years’ experience, which is rare. The bar is real hands-on LLM work (RAG, agents, evaluation) plus enterprise integration skills. Conversational AI and contact-centre experience will set you apart.

Pay

Kore.ai doesn’t post pay on its India FDE listings; both Hyderabad roles said “Not Disclosed”. No FDE-specific Kore.ai salary data for India is public. The closest references are company-wide engineering figures:

These are self-reported or US figures, not India FDE offers. The AmbitionBox data is more than a year old. Use them as a starting point, and check the FDE Salary Estimator for India FDE pay by employer type and experience before you negotiate.

How to prepare

1. Learn the Kore.ai platform. Kore.ai offers platform certification, and the FDE Level 1 listing expects it within three months of joining. Getting it before you apply shows you can be productive fast.
2. Build a RAG agent with guardrails and evals. Use LangGraph or CrewAI, connect it to a document store, add input and output guardrails, and measure answer quality on a test set. This covers the FDE Developer must-haves.
3. Integrate with a real business system. Connect your agent to a CRM or ticketing tool through REST APIs and webhooks, and expose a tool through an MCP server. Integrations are the core of the job.
4. Add a voice channel. Wire speech-to-text and text-to-speech into your agent, or build a simple IVR flow. Voice AI is a named strong plus and few candidates have it.
5. Practise writing for customers. Write a short solution design and a handover note for your project. Both listings ask for documentation, and our FDE interview questions guide has answers for the customer-facing rounds.

All of Kore.ai’s India FDE roles are in Hyderabad. See FDE jobs in Hyderabad for other employers hiring there.

Kore.ai FDE interview: what is publicly known

1. Application: Kore.ai lists India roles on its careers page, mostly in Hyderabad. FDE roles use titles such as 'FDE Level 1', 'FDE - Developer', 'FDE Lead' and 'FDE Manager', so search for 'FDE' as well as 'Forward Deployed'.
2. Technical rounds: Kore.ai doesn't publish its FDE interview format. Based on the Hyderabad listings, expect questions on REST APIs and webhooks, RAG and prompt design, an agent framework, one cloud, and enterprise integrations such as CRM or contact-centre systems.
3. Offer: India FDE pay isn't posted. Kore.ai's US FDE listing says pay, bonus and benefit details are shared during the formal interview process; ask the recruiter for the band and FDE level early.