A 24-year-old software engineer from India has opened up about the work he is doing in New York City. Kanav Bhatnagar works as a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) at Rippling, an HR tech company. His role was once described as the “hottest job in AI”.
In an essay for Business Insider, Bhatnagar spoke about his career trajectory and the skills required to be an FDE.
From India to New York
After completing his schooling in Delhi, Kanav Bhatnagar moved to the United States to pursue a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science, along with a minor in Applied Statistics, from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
When he graduated in 2022, he was hired by Amazon. According to his LinkedIn profile, Bhatnagar spent 2 years and 8 months as a software engineer at Amazon, where he worked on the FireTV Live TV software.
Quitting Amazon
In his essay for Business Insider, Bhatnagar explained why he quit Amazon after nearly three years to join a small startup. The Indian techie explained that he wanted to experience a smaller workplace as opposed to Amazon — a tech and e-commerce giant that employs approximately 1.5 million people globally.
{{/usCountry}}In his essay for Business Insider, Bhatnagar explained why he quit Amazon after nearly three years to join a small startup. The Indian techie explained that he wanted to experience a smaller workplace as opposed to Amazon — a tech and e-commerce giant that employs approximately 1.5 million people globally.
{{/usCountry}}“Amazon hired me as a software engineer out of college, and it was a big learning opportunity, teaching me the fundamentals of engineering,” he said. “But it was a behemoth of a company, and I eventually wanted to work in a smaller environment where I could take more personal ownership over product decisions and learn more on the job.”
Working as an FDE
After nearly three years at Amazon, Bhatnagar interviewed at a sales startup called Actively AI, where he landed a role in forward-deployed engineering.
“The FDE role was popularized by Palantir, and it has been described as the ‘hottest role in AI.’ I liked that it combined software engineering with understanding business,” he said.
(Also read: Indian-origin techie quits 'dream job' at Apple to launch AI startup with father: ‘We’re a complementary fit')
Bhatnagar spent around 6 months at Actively before he resigned to join Rippling as a senior FDE in October 2025.
“I've now been an FDE for roughly a year. Put simply, I'm a customer-facing engineer who tailors our product to each client. They describe their challenges and needs, and I build solutions and customizations,” he explained.