Field Application Engineer

Also known as: FAE, Field Applications Engineer, Application Engineer, Applications Engineer, Customer Application Engineer.

What does a Field Application Engineer do?

A Field Application Engineer (FAE) is an engineer who helps customers build your chip, module or hardware platform into their product and take it to production. They work between engineering and sales and are usually assigned to a region or a set of key accounts:

• help the customer choose the right part and configuration;
• review the customer's schematics, layout and firmware and find mistakes;
• bring up the first boards and debug them with an oscilloscope, a logic analyser or a profiler;
• port drivers, SDKs or ML models to the platform;
• pass what they learn about customers' problems to the product team.

When does a company need a Field Application Engineer?

A company needs a Field Application Engineer when it sells components or platforms to other manufacturers: a semiconductor company, a maker of modules and boards, an AI accelerator startup, an electronics distributor. The trigger is customers taking too long to get your part working in their product, with deals stuck between first samples and a production order. Another reason is entering a new region where customers need on-site engineering support in their own language. The role won't work if the product is software not tied to hardware: then you need a Solutions Engineer.

Field Application Engineer vs Solutions Engineer: what's the difference?

A Field Application Engineer differs from a Solutions Engineer in working with a physical product and the customer's own hardware design, and in staying with the customer for months, from first samples to mass production. A Solutions Engineer more often sells software and finishes when the deal is signed. What sets an FAE apart from a Forward-Deployed Engineer is that they more often help the customer's engineers do the work themselves rather than write the code for them.

Field Application Engineer vs related roles: comparison

Why is it hard to hire a Field Application Engineer?

A Field Application Engineer is hard to hire because you need a strong hardware engineer who also enjoys working with customers and is ready to travel.

• The role requires knowledge of a specific type of hardware: a power electronics specialist won't replace an expert in SoCs and embedded Linux.
• The market is small, everyone knows each other, and strong FAEs usually work with the same customers for years.
• A specific language and presence in a specific region are often required, which narrows the pool sharply.
• Hardware and Embedded Engineers often see moving into an FAE role as a step towards sales and turn it down until the technical depth of the role is explained.

What to decide before hiring a Field Application Engineer?

• What is the product: chips, modules, boards, AI accelerators or an SDK on top of hardware? This decides which engineering background you need: circuit design, embedded software or ML.
• Who are the customers: consumer electronics, automotive, industrial, data centres? Each industry has its own requirements, cycles and standards, and experience in it cuts ramp-up time sharply.
• How deep does the FAE go into customers' projects? Advising on a datasheet and debugging a board together are different profiles.
• Which region, languages and how much travel? If this isn't agreed up front, candidates drop out at the final stages.
• Does the role report to sales or to engineering? This shapes the FAE's goals and how their time splits between presales and support.

Where to find a Field Application Engineer?

Field Application Engineers most often come from semiconductor companies, electronic component distributors, module and electronics makers and AI hardware startups; some grow out of Hardware, Embedded and Firmware Engineer roles because they enjoy customer work. A strong signal in a profile is customer products that reached mass production with the candidate's help. Another signal is experience with the same architecture or class of components as yours. NEWHR finds these candidates by the results of their work, not by applications to job posts.

How to assess a Field Application Engineer in an interview?

A Field Application Engineer is assessed with a walkthrough of a customer project the candidate supported and a practical debugging case. A typical case: a customer's board doesn't work with your part, so what does the candidate ask and check first. On the company side the FAE Manager or Regional Sales Director takes part, along with a Lead Hardware Engineer.

Strong signals:

• in the project walkthrough, explains how they found the cause of the problem, not just how it was fixed;
• explains a technical trade-off so that both the customer's engineer and manager understand it;
• knows how long the customer took from samples to production and what held it up.

Red flags:

• describes the job as forwarding customer questions to the developers;
• can't discuss schematics, firmware or logs at the required depth;
• avoids talking about travel and work on the customer's site.

How long does it take to hire a Field Application Engineer?

We present the first candidates for the Field Application Engineer role within 5–7 days of the brief.

Related roles

• Solutions Engineer — a similar sales-side role, but for software products.
• Forward-Deployed Engineer — writes and ships software at the customer after the deal.
• AI Inference Engineer — optimises how models run; an FAE for AI accelerators often handles similar problems at customers.
• Neural Network Optimization Engineer — speeds up models for specific hardware inside the company, not at the customer.