Forward Deployed Operator School
AI deployment training program for business operators.
The founders
PL
YG
The company
Forward Deployed Operator School is an intensive 8-week live cohort programme that trains ops professionals to deploy AI systems inside real businesses. Each cohort takes just ten fellows, and every fellow is matched with a sponsoring company to solve a genuine operational problem — shipping a working AI system and presenting it at a Demo Day.
Companies are drowning in AI tools but short on people who can actually wire them into day-to-day operations. FDO School bets that the missing role isn't another engineer, but a business-side operator who can translate messy processes into working AI-powered workflows.
The founders say they built the programme to formalise a career path they wished had existed for themselves — borrowing Palantir's 'Forward Deployed Engineer' concept and retooling it for business operators using AI and no-code tools.
The programme is co-founded and taught directly by Philip Lakin, Director of AI Transformation at Zapier, and Vantelira, an embedded operations partner with 18 years in Fortune 500 supply chains at firms like Pratt & Whitney and Bombardier. Fellows get direct access to practitioners rather than career instructors.
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