Executive Post Graduate Programme in Forward Deployed AI Engineering

Enterprises have engineers who build AI models; they now need engineers who make those models work inside real client systems. In just 6 months, this newly crafted program prepares experienced engineers to own the full AI deployment journey, from the business problem to production.

Program Highlights:

1. Tech Credibility: Earn an Executive Post Graduate Certificate
2. End-to-End AI Deployment: Build production-grade RAG, agentic and MCP-based systems, then secure, deploy and operate them in enterprise and regulated-industry environments.
3. Live Capstone: Run a real client brief, or a high-fidelity equivalent, end to end and defend it before an expert panel.
4. Blended Learning & Campus Immersion: Learn through live and recorded sessions and hands-on labs, with 5 project deliverables across ~120 learning hours.

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Program Curriculum Details:

The program curriculum has been designed to give an in-depth understanding of how AI solutions are built, deployed and owned inside real enterprise environments. The curriculum builds the AI and production core first, then moves into client discovery, enterprise deployment and delivery, equipping participants to take an AI solution from a client’s business problem through to measurable business impact. The key areas of focus will be:

Course I: Production Engineering Foundations:

Build readable, production-grade Python with error handling, retries and graceful degradation, instrumented, tested and containerised to survive real customer environments.

Course II: The AI Build Core - RAG, Agents, Evaluation:

Build the intelligence enterprises actually deploy, including LLM routing, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic orchestration and MCP-based tool calling, evaluated against fixed cost and latency budgets.

Course III: Client Discovery & Solution Architecture:

Run structured client discovery, map stakeholders, and turn an ambiguous enterprise ask into a constraint-first solution architecture, scoped brief and Statement of Work.

Course IV: Enterprise Deployment, Security & Regulated-Industry Operations:

Deploy into cloud and on-premise environments, secure AI systems against threats like prompt injection, and build India’s regulatory requirements, including the DPDP Act and sectoral overlays, into the deployment.

Course V: Solution Demonstration, Adoption & Client Delivery:

Engineer credible demos, communicate with non-technical executives, handle objections on cost, risk and IT approval, and hand over working runbooks the client team can run.

Capstone: The Forward Deployed Engagement:

Run a real client brief, or a high-fidelity equivalent, end to end, from discovery to deployment, and defend it on Demo Day before an expert panel during the campus immersion at IIIT-B.

Below are a few industry-relevant projects:

Enterprise AI Requirement Engineering: Interview stakeholders with competing agendas at a mid-sized enterprise that asks only for “AI to improve operations,” and turn their needs into a brief a build team can start from.

AI Readiness & Data Maturity Assessment: Score an organisation’s readiness for AI across seven dimensions using a deliberately messy evidence pack, and give leadership a remediation roadmap they can fund.

Production LLM Service Development: Choose between prompting, retrieval, fine-tuning or a classical model against real latency, cost and data-residency limits, then build and honestly evaluate the service behind a clean API.

LLMOps, Observability & AI Security Hardening: Take an inherited service with no CI/CD, monitoring or prompt-injection defence and make it production-ready for a regulated client, proven with dashboards.

Solution Scoping, Costing & Executive Demo: Scope and cost a Statement of Work in rupees, engineer a demo that survives adversarial questions, and hand over a solution the client team can run independently.

Please note: “Projects are indicative and may be updated each cohort”

1. What is the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Forward Deployed AI Engineering?

It is a 6-month executive programme from IIIT-Bangalore that trains engineers to handle client discovery, GenAI and agentic AI development, and enterprise deployment as one connected skill set.

2. What does FDE stand for?

FDE stands for Forward Deployed Engineer, a role popularised by Palantir that involves embedding with clients to build and deploy AI or software solutions directly into their environment.

3. Is this Forward Deployed Engineer course online or in person?

It runs primarily online across 6 months, with one, 1-day campus immersion at IIIT-Bangalore.

4. What are the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Forward Deployed AI Engineering fees?

The total programme fee is ₹1,45,000, inclusive of taxes.

5. What is the eligibility for Executive Post Graduate Programme in Forward Deployed AI Engineering?

A bachelor's or master's degree, or equivalent, in any discipline from a UGC-recognised university, with at least 50% aggregate marks or an equivalent CGPA & programming language understanding.

6. How to apply for Executive Post Graduate Programme in Forward Deployed AI Engineering?

The applicants will have to complete their Application Form with the correct details. If the applicant meets the minimum eligibility criteria, their application will be reviewed by the IIIT-Bangalore and upGrad's Admission committee and they will be shortlisted for the program.

7. Who should take this Forward Deployed AI Engineer course?

Software engineers, AI/ML engineers, and solutions architects who want to move from building or designing systems to owning full AI deployments for clients.