前沿部署工程师是人工智能领域最炙手可热的职位之一，但寻找合适的人才并不容易。亚马逊云科技（AWS）前沿部署工程副总裁阿萨·卡拉瓦德（Asa Kalavade）告诉《商业内幕》：“这些人才堪称独角兽。”与竞争对手一样，亚马逊对前沿部署工程师（FDE）的未来押注巨大。今年六月，AWS宣布投资10亿美元，成立专门的AWS前沿部署工程师组织。
Forward-deployed engineers are one of the hottest jobs in AI. Finding them isn't easy. "These are unicorns," Asa Kalavade, vice president of forward-deployed engineering at Amazon Web Services, told Business Insider. Like its rivals, Amazon has made a big bet on the future of FDEs. In June, AWS announced a $1 billion investment to create a dedicated AWS FDE organization.
这一角色因帕兰提尔（Palantir）而广为人知，前沿部署工程师通常嵌入客户公司，将人工智能整合到其工作流程中，并构建更具定制化的解决方案。近几个月来，Anthropic、OpenAI和微软也宣布了重大举措，以争夺利润丰厚的企业级人工智能市场。据Forrester估计，仅在五月至七月期间，这三家公司和亚马逊就承诺向前沿部署工程师相关项目投入约90亿美元。
Popularized by Palantir, FDEs are often embedded with companies to integrate AI into their workflows and to build more customized solutions. Anthropic, OpenAI, and Microsoft have announced major initiatives in recent months to compete for the lucrative enterprise AI business. Forrester estimates that between May and July alone, the three companies and Amazon pledged roughly $9 billion to FDE-related ventures.
卡拉瓦德表示：“如今，招聘前沿部署工程师是业界的热门趋势。每个人都想成为前沿部署工程师。”
"FDE hiring is sort of the rage in town these days," Kalavade said. "Everybody wants to be an FDE."
卡拉瓦德指出，亚马逊在组建团队时非常挑剔，初期重点招募那些能够迅速上手、即刻投入工作的工程师。她说：“我们的初始种子团队是我所说的‘颠覆者’，即那些身经百战、有过成功实践经验的先锋工程师。”卡拉瓦德表示，这是一个“极具挑战性的角色”，最有可能取得成功的人具备创业思维。她说，亚马逊本质上在寻找三种特质：产品客户思维、深厚的软件专业知识以及智能体（agentic）经验。
Amazon is being selective as it builds the team, Kalavade said, initially focusing on engineers who can hit the ground running. "Our initial seed is what I call the insurgents, the frontier engineers who've been there, done this before," she said. Kalavade said it's "a really hard role," and that those best positioned to succeed have a startup mindset. She said Amazon is essentially looking for three things: a product customer mindset, deep software expertise, and agentic experience.
“不同的人会有不同的优势，但归根结底，我们认为正是这种组合造就了最成功的前沿部署工程师。”
"Different people will have different strengths, but at the end of the day, that's the package that we think makes the most successful FDEs," she said.
卡拉瓦德指出，部分问题在于，高校和大学仍在开发前沿部署工程师的培训项目。她表示，近期申请者的素质有所提升，尤其是在对人工智能的熟悉程度方面。“今年夏天毕业的那一批人是第一批在更原生的人工智能思维环境中成长起来的人，”她说。卡拉瓦德表示，仅靠人工智能模型只能让客户达到“一半”的效果，而前沿部署工程师的作用是将这种基础能力转化为定制化的解决方案。
Part of the issue, Kalavade said, is that colleges and universities are still developing FDE training programs. She said that recent groups of applicants have improved, especially in their familiarity with AI. "The batch that came out this summer was the first one that grew up with more AI native thinking," she said. Kalavade said AI models alone can get customers "halfway," but she said FDEs are needed to turn that into a customized solution. "Anyone can build an agent now, but how do you make sure the agent has the right guardrails?" she said.
“如今任何人都能构建智能体，但如何确保这些智能体符合相应的安全规范呢？”她说道。“如何从成本角度确定最适合使用的底层模型？要升级到下一个版本的模型需要做些什么？又该如何确保恰当的安全策略得以实施？所有这些都是围绕模型开发过程中必须解决的环节。”卡拉瓦德表示，亚马逊希望简化人工智能的集成流程，同时助力企业提升自主能力。“我们希望企业能与我们共同开发一到两个月，甚至六个月，”她说，“但唯有让他们真正掌握并运用这些开发方法，才能实现长期的变革。”
"How do you figure out, 'OK, what's the best underlying model that I can use from a cost-based perspective?' What do I need to do to update to the next model? How do I make sure that the right security policies are applied? So all of those things are areas that are needed around the model." Amazon wants to make AI integration easier, Kalavade said, while also making sure companies can become more self-sufficient. "We want them to look and co-build with us for one or two, or six months," she said, "but then the only way we can create long-lasting change is if they co-build and they adopt these methodologies to do more."