Forward Deployed Engineer at TCS

TCS is building one of the largest Forward Deployed Engineer teams anywhere. In July 2026, CEO K Krithivasan said the company wants 1–1.5% of its associates working as forward deployed AI engineers, which The Next Web worked out at roughly 5,900 to 8,900 people based on 593,798 staff at the end of June.

What a TCS FDE does

The idea comes from AI labs: engineers who work inside a client’s business to get AI models into real use, instead of handing over a project and leaving. TCS COO Aarthi Subramanian described the people it wants as multi-skilled but deep in one particular area.

From coverage of the plan, a TCS FDE is expected to:

• Work directly with clients to speed up AI adoption and adapt it to their business.
• Integrate AI into existing systems and assess the client’s software, data and processes. The CSR Journal gives the example of improving a bank’s customer service.
• Help TCS sell AI work. TCS presents the plan as proof that AI creates jobs and that its services model still works. It has not said how FDE work will be priced to clients.

Deccan Herald puts the target at 1% of the workforce, at least 6,000 FDEs, and notes that most emerging FDE demand in India comes from putting AI into ERP, CRM and workflow systems. That is classic IT services ground, which is why the model suits TCS.

What we don’t know yet

• Hiring route. TCS has not said how many FDE roles will be external hires versus existing staff. The Next Web describes the target as converting a share of the existing associate base, which suggests many will be internal moves.
• Experience bands and pay. No India FDE listing from TCS with pay or experience bands was public when we checked. Published ranges for FDEs at IT services and consulting firms in India are about ₹20–50 LPA (Taggd), and those are broad estimates.
• Layoffs. Some headlines put the plan next to TCS’s earlier cut of nearly 20,000 roles. No report we found says the FDE plan replaces those jobs or was caused by them.

Who this suits

How to prepare

1. Pick your depth. TCS wants multi-skilled engineers who are deep in one area. Choose one, for example document AI for banks or LLM integration with SAP or Salesforce, and build real proof in it.
2. Ship a pilot-to-production story. Take an internal or personal AI pilot to something people actually use, and measure it. “Pilot to production” is the problem FDEs exist to solve.
3. Learn the enterprise plumbing. APIs, identity and access, data privacy, logging and change control. These decide whether AI survives inside a bank or insurer.
4. Get client-ready. Practise explaining an AI system’s limits and costs to a business owner in five minutes.
5. Inside TCS, ask early. Tell your manager and talent partner you want the FDE track, and keep your demo ready for internal openings.

Compare with Infosys’s FDE plan, and read our Pulse on Infosys and TCS building FDE teams.