August Market Data Release: Forward Deployed Engineering & Expanded Manufacturing Coverage

Each month, Pave Market Data expands its real-time benchmarks. The August release introduces a new job family requested by the tech industry, extends coverage into manufacturing roles, and adds 29 new locations.

Below is an overview of the latest updates and their significance.

Forward Deployed Engineering: From Watchlist to Benchmark

Last fall, our CEO Matt Schulman discussed the emergence of the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), a hybrid engineer-consultant role pioneered by Palantir and adopted by companies such as OpenAI. We have tracked its adoption in our Pave Hot Jobs Index, which shows rapid growth over the past two years, primarily driven by enterprise AI companies embedding engineers with strategic customers.

At that time, Matt committed to adding Forward Deployed Engineering to the job catalog once it achieved significant adoption.

This milestone has now been reached. Forward Deployed Engineering is now an officially benchmarked job family in Pave.

This is significant because FDE compensation has been difficult to determine. The role does not align directly with software engineering or solutions engineering benchmarks. Previously, companies relied on adjacent benchmarks, but Matt's earlier analysis showed that FDE pay falls below SWE Generalist and above Customer Support Engineering and Technical Account Management.

Now, you can benchmark the role directly, with the same real-time data and sample-size transparency as other job families in Pave. If your company is establishing an FDE function or responding to recruiter inquiries, you can rely on current market data rather than estimates based on proxies.

Pave Market Data: How Top Manufacturing Companies Are Benchmarking 

We have reported extensively this year on the manufacturing talent shortage. The industry requires approximately 3.8 million new workers by 2033, yet for every 100 young people entering manufacturing, 102 leave. Demand for skilled technical roles is increasing three times faster than for professional roles, and it now takes longer to fill skilled trades positions than desk-based roles.

In this context, compensation is the primary tool for attracting and retaining talent. During discussions with hundreds of manufacturing HR leaders earlier this year, 93% identified competitive compensation as their most effective retention strategy. With an approximate 30% annual turnover and frontline replacement costs ranging from $10,000 to $40,000 per employee, accurate pay is essential to plant-level economics.

Competitive pay requires reliable benchmarks. The August release adds five job families, expanding Pave's coverage from product organizations to the production line:

• Industrial Design: Designers who shape physical products, blending creative and engineering skills that do not align directly with software design benchmarks.
• Machine Operators: Core production roles that represent a significant portion of manufacturing headcount, where high turnover has the greatest impact.
• Production Test Technicians: Professionals responsible for validating that products from the production line function as intended.
• Quality Inspectors: Essential for organizations where defects result in significant costs.
• Demand Planning: The supply chain function responsible for determining production schedules, an increasingly strategic role as companies manage tariffs, supply chain costs, and margin pressures.

For manufacturers competing with technology companies and data center operators for technical talent, these benchmarks provide accurate compensation data for every role, level, and location, rather than relying on insufficient data.

The Full Rundown: Everything in the August Release

• New job families: Ten were added this month, including Employee Relations, Indirect Sales, Product & Commercial Legal, and Video Production, in addition to FDE and the manufacturing roles listed above.
• New international locations: Base salary benchmarks are now available for ten new locations outside the United States: Birmingham, Cambridge, Cologne, Dubai, Kyiv, Milton Keynes, Porto, Sheffield, Victoria, and Wrocław.
• New US metros: Nineteen new metropolitan areas, including Asheville, Boise City, Buffalo, Chattanooga, Fort Collins, Grand Rapids, Greensboro, Greenville, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Louisville, New Haven, New Orleans, North Port, Portland (ME), Reno, Rochester, Santa Maria, and Virginia Beach. Several, such as Grand Rapids, are located in the Midwest region, where talent is relocating to manufacturing hubs.
• Executive Compensation: C-Level and VP/SVP benchmarks are now available for Boulder, CO, and Oxford.
• Support role locations: Support role benchmarks now extend to Canada, the United Kingdom, and ten major US metros, including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
• New industry filter: A Consulting & Professional Services industry cut is now available — sharpening benchmarks for services businesses and anyone competing with them for talent.

Why Monthly Releases Matter

These updates do not require a data submission project, a matching cycle, or waiting for next year's edition. Pave's benchmarks are sourced from automated, continuous connections to HRIS, ATS, and equity systems. When the market introduces a new role such as Forward Deployed Engineering, or your company opens an office in Porto, the data is available when needed.

Full release notes are available in the Pave Help Center.

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