Anthropic trains AI engineers like medical residents

Anthropic wants to train engineers the way hospitals train doctors: they learn from people already doing the job, work on real cases and pass an assessment before they work alone. According to Anthropic, it is putting $100 million behind the idea, called Claude Frontier Academy, and aims to train 10,000 Frontier Deployed Engineers by the end of 2027.

At a glance

• Accenture, Bain, Capgemini, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deloitte, McKinsey, Morgan Stanley and Novo Nordisk have engineers in the first cohorts, which are already running in San Francisco, New York and London.
• Nominated engineers go through a multi-day in-person program and a graded practical. Then they lead a real Claude project at their own company for 12 weeks, followed by a second assessment and the final badge.
• Anthropic has not said how the $100 million will be spent, and the first Frontier Deployed Engineer badges are not expected until early 2027, so there are no graduates to judge yet.

The job itself is older than the Academy. According to Fde, a site about the role, forward-deployed engineering started at Palantir in the early 2000s. Its intelligence-agency customers could not clearly say what they needed or openly share data, so Palantir put engineers inside their environments. The same source says Palantir had more forward-deployed engineers than traditional software engineers until around 2016, and that many AI companies now use the model for similar reasons.

Eight named firms are in the first cohorts, running in San Francisco, New York and London

Engineers from Accenture, Bain, Capgemini, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deloitte, McKinsey, Morgan Stanley and Novo Nordisk are in the first cohorts, and Anthropic's list ends with "and others". You can't apply on your own. Your employer nominates you, and organizations can ask their Anthropic account team or Partner Account Manager whether they are eligible.

The candidate profile is narrow. Anthropic wants hands-on software engineers with strong fundamentals, a record of building with LLMs, experience helping others adopt AI and a habit of taking on their business's most important problems. Each nominee arrives with a named Claude project to lead back home. They don't need prior experience building AI agents.

Steve Corfield, Anthropic's Global Head of Business Development and Partnerships, describes the problem as one of talent. In his words, a small team of high-agency people with the right skills and access to Claude can transform an entire company. He says the hard part is building that depth of talent, and that no AI company has invested in it inside its customers and partners at this depth.

Two assessments and two badges stand between a nominee and the FDE title

The residency follows the medical model, and the comparison comes from Anthropic itself. Doctors learn from practising physicians, train on real cases and are assessed before they practise alone. Residents here learn from practitioners, practise on realistic cases and are assessed on their work before they earn the credential.

Stage one is a multi-day in-person program with Anthropic engineers and licensed instructors. Participants work through a simulated enterprise deployment, from picking the right use case through security review to handover. It ends with a graded practical on a new scenario, and those who pass earn the Claude Resident Engineer badge.

Stage two is the 12-week residency. The engineer leads a real Claude use case at their own organization, with support from Anthropic engineers, and learns from the cohort along the way. A second assessment comes at the end. Those who pass get the Claude Frontier Deployed Engineer badge, and the first are expected in early 2027. Anthropic says the goal is agentic systems that change how a business runs.

One participating bank reports up to 3x more code changes in the past year

The partner statements Anthropic published focus on practice more than on credentials. Accenture says the residency tests judgment against a simulated enterprise deployment, not technical skills in isolation. According to CRN, Accenture's Ram Ramalingam said it mirrors Anthropic's own definition of the FDE role. Capgemini says clients care less about certification counts than about knowing firsthand how to solve real problems.

One participating bank says its engineers use AI tools every day and that its teams have produced up to 3x more code changes in the past year. Novo Nordisk lists several ways it already works with Anthropic: Claude Science in its R&D workflows, Anthropic's models in its software development, lab-in-the-loop research in drug discovery, and Anthropic engineers working alongside its scientists.

The Academy builds on 175,000 Claude certifications across 46,000 firms

Claude Frontier Academy builds on the Claude Partner Network, where professionals across 46,000 firms have earned more than 175,000 Claude certifications. Nearly 4,000 people have completed Basecamp, an immersive program that teaches the same curriculum Anthropic's Applied AI teams get when they join. Anthropic calls the 10,000-engineer target the first step of many.

According to ZestLab, the Partner Network launched on March 12, 2026 with its own, earlier $100M commitment. ZestLab names Accenture, Deloitte, Cognizant and Infosys as its anchor partners and says the network includes the Claude Certified Architect certification. Deloitte's alliance page already advertises Forward Deployed Engineers who work side by side with clients to move AI from pilot to production.

Shambhavi, Anthropic's head of go-to-market strategy and operations for partnerships, told CRN that the program is meant for solution providers of various sizes, including boutiques, not only global systems integrators. CRN also reports that Anthropic expects the Academy to expand beyond engineering to roles such as executives and knowledge workers.

The announcement doesn't explain the money. Anthropic doesn't say how the $100 million is split between instructors, its own engineers' time and anything else, or whether participants pay. In our view, the second assessment is the strongest part of the design: a badge earned by leading a real project inside your own company says more than another certificate on top of the 175,000 already issued.

When the first FDE badges arrive. The first Claude Frontier Deployed Engineer badges are expected in early 2027. That is when the 12-week format will meet its first final assessment. From there the program has to grow to 10,000 engineers by the end of 2027. CRN says the residency is in early access, and no cohort sizes or intake schedule have been published.