Are a lot of people moving from PM to forward deployed engineer?

I’m seeing a lot of talk and a lot of movement around forward deployed engineers, and I know I live in a bubble lol. BUT within my bubble, I’m curious whether a lot of people are making this move from PM to FDE.

I know it’s a new name for solutions engineer or even product builder. Still, I think naming things is good. See Brand manager/PO/PM… etc.

What I like is that it’s a “duck”, as we say in Brazil — a jack of all trades. This person handles customers, discovery and solution. I’ve always liked that, but I keep wondering about the folks who made the move into leadership: GPM/Head/Director.

Not that I think it’s less important, quite the opposite. It will keep being hugely important; after all, we deal with people. I don’t know, I just feel they lose a bit of the fun.

Just thinking out loud here and trying to understand how my bubble is seeing this movement. :)

Originally written in Portuguese and published on LinkedIn on July 21, 2026. I translated it into English with the help of AI (Claude): it let me bring my LinkedIn posts to people who don’t read Portuguese without rewriting each one from scratch. I reviewed the translation to keep my original meaning and tone.