A three-person pod. On your site. Week one.
Ridgeline's FDE pods embed where the work actually happens - map the mission, connect the systems, put prototypes in operators' hands, and harden what survives contact with operations.
// Pod status
Live- Week 0
- Recon
- Pod size
- 3
- First cutover
- < 14 d
- Ownership
- To prod
- Backed by
- Element 29
- Contract
- GSA MAS
// The Pod
Three roles. One outcome.
Small enough to move fast. Senior enough to own the outcome. A closed triangle of engineering, modeling, and operator context.
01 · LEAD
Forward Deployed Engineer
- Owns the mission workflow
- Ships working capability week one
02 · MODEL
Ontology Architect
- Maps assets, actors, events
- Reconciles fragmented systems
03 · FIELD
Operator Liaison
- Shadows real operators
- Closes the feedback loop
// Cadence
Working capability in weeks, not quarters.
Hover any milestone for the deliverable. On mobile, all deliverables show inline.
- Week 0
Recon
Site walk. Systems inventory. Operator interviews.
Site walk. Systems inventory. Operator interviews.
- Week 1
Stand-up
Pod embedded on-site. Ontology draft in the room.
Pod embedded on-site. Ontology draft in the room.
- Week 2
Prototype
First mission app in operators' hands.
First mission app in operators' hands.
- Week 3
Cut-over
Real workflows, real data. Loop closed.
Real workflows, real data. Loop closed.
- Week 4+
Handoff
Production hardening. Owned outcome.
Production hardening. Owned outcome.
// The Loop
Eight moves. One closed loop.
Discovery to expansion, run by one pod. No hand-off to a delivery team, no slide-ware in between. The loop closes on the shift it opened on — and starts again wider.
Meet the mission where it lives.
Mission discovery · Day 1–3
Pod lands on the ground floor. Site walks, operator interviews, systems inventory. We map what actually happens — not what the org chart says happens.
// Backed by Element 29
A lean pod, with an ecosystem behind it.
Every pod pulls on the Element 29 bench - hardware and sensing, industrial engineering, edge compute, and federal contracting - the moment the mission calls for it.
E29X TECHNOLOGIES
Hardware · Sensing · Edge Compute
Autonomy, sensing, sensor fusion, NVIDIA-class edge inference.
ELEMENT 29
Industrial · OT/ICS Engineering
Three decades of controls, integration, safety-critical delivery.
GSA MAS · 47QRAA26D0058
Federal Contracting Path
Governed, auditable delivery into DoW, DHS, DOE, civil-works.
// The FDE Pod
On-site. Week one.
- Forward Deployed Engineer
- Ontology Architect
- Operator Liaison
Working software in weeks · Owned to production hardening
Element 29 LLC · GSA MAS Schedule Holder · 47QRAA26D0058
What teams ask before deploying a pod.
What is forward deployed engineering?
Forward deployed engineering puts a small team of engineers inside the operation instead of behind a requirements document. A Ridgeline AI pod works on your site, with your operators, against a real decision - mapping the mission, connecting the systems, and putting working software in operators' hands rather than producing a specification for someone else to build.
How large is an FDE pod, and who is in it?
Three people is the default: engineers who can model the domain, connect the systems, and build the operator surface. The pod draws on the Element 29 bench - hardware and sensing, industrial and controls engineering, edge compute, and federal contracting - the moment the mission requires it.
How quickly does a pod produce something usable?
Recon starts in week zero and the first cutover target is inside fourteen days. The measure of success is a working decision an operator uses, not a demo, and the pod stays through production hardening.
Do your engineers work on site, including secure or remote facilities?
Yes. The model exists because plants, sites, vehicles, and missions do not generalize. Pods work where the work happens, including disconnected, industrial, and controlled environments where cloud-only delivery never arrives.
What happens when the engagement ends?
You own the outcome and the model. Handover is to your team, with the operational model, lineage, and surfaces documented so the system can be extended without us.
Is FDE available on a federal contract vehicle?
Yes. Delivery is available under GSA MAS contract 47QRAA26D0058, held by Element 29 LLC.
// Ready
Deploy a pod. Own the outcome.
Bring us the mission workflow or the physical environment. We'll bring engineers to your site by week one.