01
Scope before you build
Find the workflow worth changing, name its owner and baseline, and write down when the work should stop. Include the option that needs no AI at all.
Founding pilot · in preparation
From AI demos to accountable deployment.
A six-week practice programme for the people who take AI from a promising demo to a bounded system that a regulated organisation can evaluate, operate and own. Two peer tracks. One operating project. Assessed individually.
- Format
- 6 weeks
- Learner time
- 36 hours
- Tracks
- 2 peer tracks
- After the programme
- Programme record
Why this programme
The demo is the easy part.
The hard stretch is the one after a convincing prototype: getting a regulated organisation to let the system into its operations. In banking, insurance and securities, the deciding questions are not about the model. Who owns the decision? Which data may the system see? What happens when it fails, and who can switch it off? Who keeps it running after the project team leaves? This programme practises that work.
02
Prove it before you claim it
Test permissions, tool boundaries, failure handling and the outcome the business will accept, before anyone describes it as a capability.
03
Hand it over for real
Leave an accountable owner, an operating pack someone else can use, and evidence the next engagement can learn from.
Two peer roles
Two peer roles. One deployment standard.
Each track starts from a craft people already practise. The programme adds the layer that takes that craft into a regulated estate.
Engineer track
Forward Deployed Engineer
Will it work, safely, in this estate?
Integrations, permissions, evaluation, failure handling, deployment, recovery evidence
Strategist track
Deployment Strategist
Will it be used, owned and worth continuing?
Workflow diagnosis, value case, stakeholder alignment, adoption, governance, ownership transfer
Skill maps
A working craft is the starting point, not the job.
Each track starts from skills people already practise. The right-hand tiles are the deployment layer this programme adds for regulated enterprise work.
Software engineer
The craft you already ship with.Forward Deployed Engineer
That craft, plus the layer that takes a system into a regulated estate.Drag the divider
12 shared engineering skills
25 deployment-layer skills
- Shared baseline skill
- Open deployment-layer gap
- Deployment-layer skill
The same skills, listed for each role.
Forward Deployed Engineer
Software engineer
The craft you already ship with.
Shared engineering skills
- APIs & REST
- Databases
- Data modelling
- Cloud infra
- Containers
- CI/CD
- Testing
- Auth basics
- Caching
- Queues
- Frontend
- Git & review
Deployment-layer skills
- Discovery & scoping
- Use-case qualification
- Model behaviour
- Context engineering
- Prompt architecture
- Retrieval design
- Knowledge graphs
- Memory design
- Agent orchestration
- Multi-agent systems
- Tool & MCP integration
- Evals & grading
- Guardrails
- Red teaming
- Identity & permissions
- Governance & audit
- Data residency
- Agent observability
- Cost & token control
- Human-in-the-loop
- Enterprise integration
- Risk review
- ROI proof
- Handover & enablement
- Account expansion
Forward Deployed Engineer
That craft, plus the layer that takes a system into a regulated estate.
Shared engineering skills
- APIs & REST
- Databases
- Data modelling
- Cloud infra
- Containers
- CI/CD
- Testing
- Auth basics
- Caching
- Queues
- Frontend
- Git & review
Deployment-layer skills
- Discovery & scoping
- Use-case qualification
- Model behaviour
- Context engineering
- Prompt architecture
- Retrieval design
- Knowledge graphs
- Memory design
- Agent orchestration
- Multi-agent systems
- Tool & MCP integration
- Evals & grading
- Guardrails
- Red teaming
- Identity & permissions
- Governance & audit
- Data residency
- Agent observability
- Cost & token control
- Human-in-the-loop
- Enterprise integration
- Risk review
- ROI proof
- Handover & enablement
- Account expansion
Deployment Strategist
Business / solution consultant
The consulting craft you already practise.
Shared consulting skills
- Stakeholder management
- Business case
- Requirements gathering
- Process mapping
- Workshop facilitation
- Project planning
- Executive communication
- Change management
- Vendor management
- Documentation
Deployment-layer skills
- AI use-case qualification
- Discovery & scoping
- Governance & audit
- Evaluation literacy
- Value & ROI evidence
- Risk & control mapping
- Data classification & privacy
- Human-in-the-loop design
- Success criteria & acceptance
- Operating-model design
- Security & procurement review
- Regulator & compliance liaison
- Adoption & enablement
- Handover to operations
- Account expansion
Deployment Strategist
That craft, plus the layer that makes a system used, owned and worth continuing.
Shared consulting skills
- Stakeholder management
- Business case
- Requirements gathering
- Process mapping
- Workshop facilitation
- Project planning
- Executive communication
- Change management
- Vendor management
- Documentation
Deployment-layer skills
- AI use-case qualification
- Discovery & scoping
- Governance & audit
- Evaluation literacy
- Value & ROI evidence
- Risk & control mapping
- Data classification & privacy
- Human-in-the-loop design
- Success criteria & acceptance
- Operating-model design
- Security & procurement review
- Regulator & compliance liaison
- Adoption & enablement
- Handover to operations
- Account expansion
Six project themes.
Each week is a theme on the same operating project. Engineers and strategists work the same case from their own side. The detailed week-by-week outline is shared with the invitation, not published here.
Week 1
Baseline and architecture
Understand the operating problem and sketch the system.
Week 2
Information and boundaries
Model the domain, authorised sources, and approval boundaries.
Week 3
The first slice
A bounded slice, with acceptance criteria and a value case.
Week 4
When it goes wrong
Failure, access, recovery, and the decision to stop or continue.
Week 5
Handover
Someone else runs the runbook; you fix what broke.
Week 6
The unfamiliar case
An unseen case, completed individually, then a short oral defence.
Themes may be refined before launch. Each cohort's published assessment standard does not change once it starts.
Six weeks, built around one operating project.
Duration
6 weeks
Learner time
36 hours: 12 live teaching, 6 clinic, 4 workshop, 14 independent practice
After
A 30-minute day-30 check on what you've applied at work (outside the 36 hours)
Delivery
Live remote sessions plus workshops, both in person in Ho Chi Minh City and online
Language
Details shared with the invitation
Cohort
Individual professionals plus employer teams
Dates
Details shared with the invitation
Fee
Not published. Shared with applicants with the full terms, before any commitment.
No customer data, production credentials or confidential documents are needed. All practice uses synthetic inputs.
Assessed on your own work, on a case you haven't seen.
Attendance isn't the measure. Week six is an unfamiliar case you work on your own, then defend in a short oral session. Human assessors make every result. Borderline and safety-critical results are independently moderated. If you don't pass the first time, one reassessment on a new variant is available after targeted feedback.
Knowledge checked
What you demonstrated you understand.
Practice assessed
What you did on the controlled case, against a published rubric.
Transfer evidenced
What you applied at work by day 30, recorded separately and never assumed.
You receive a FAOSX Academy programme record. It is not a professional certification or an accreditation, and we won't describe it as one.
The core is platform-neutral. You can complete the programme on an approved platform of your choice, and FAOS is not a prerequisite.
One deployment standard. Two peer tracks.
Engineers and strategists share the same discipline on evidence, safety and accountability to the customer. Each owns different work and is assessed on it individually. Neither track is the junior partner.
| Forward Deployed Engineer | Deployment Strategist | |
|---|---|---|
| The question you answer | Will it work, safely, in this estate? | Will it be used, owned and worth continuing? |
| You own | Integrations, permissions, evaluation, failure handling, deployment, recovery evidence | Workflow diagnosis, value case, stakeholder alignment, adoption, governance, ownership transfer |
| You come in with | Working software engineering; comfort with APIs, data and a terminal | Professional experience of how organisations make and govern decisions |
| You don't need | Prior AI or customer-facing experience | An engineering background |
| You leave able to | Defend a bounded system's design, limits and recovery plan | Defend a scoped case, an adoption plan and a clean handover, without hiding technical limits |
You choose one track for assessment. You'll work alongside the other track, and you're welcome to learn it, but you're graded only on your own.
Is this the right next step?
Use the lists and the self-check to see whether the founding pilot matches the work you already do. Nothing is stored or sent.
Engineer
This is for you if you write code comfortably, have integrated an API with authentication and error handling, use version control with others, and want to own what happens after go-live.
Not yet, if you're looking for an introduction to programming.
Readiness self-check
Eight quick questions. No account, nothing stored, and no answers leave this page.
0 of 8 answered
You write production code comfortably.
You've integrated an API with authentication and error handling.
You use version control with others.
You've called a model API directly, not only through a chat window.
You've debugged a failure in someone else's integration.
You've owned a system after it went live.
You want to own what happens after go-live.
You're not looking for an introduction to programming.
Led by people who have been accountable for technology in regulated institutions.
Programme lead
Frank Luong
Co-founder, FAOSX.AI · AI Researcher · Former CIO & Group CTO
Frank Luong (Lương Tuấn Thành) is the co-founder of FAOSX.AI and an AI researcher with more than 20 years leading technology across banking, securities, fintech, insurtech and e-commerce. He has served as CIO of OCB, CIO of Techcom Securities (where he built TCInvest, one of Vietnam's pioneering data-driven wealth platforms), Group CTO of CMC Corporation, and Senior Director of Financial Services at Tiki (building its Tiki360 fintech and insurtech business). He was named to CIO 100 Asia 2025 and CIO 100 ASEAN 2024, and in 2021 became the first Vietnamese Gold Winner of CTO of the Year at the IT World Awards. He is pursuing DBA research at Golden Gate University on Agentic AI and the future enterprise technology stack, and serves as Advisory Board Member and AI Chapter Chair of CIO Vietnam.
Awards
- CIO 100 Asia 2025
- CIO 100 ASEAN 2024
- CTO of the Year 2021 Gold (GLOBEE / IT World Awards, first Vietnamese winner)
Faculty are announced once confirmed. We don't list advisers or partners we haven't contracted.
Introduction
Meet the programme
Explore the programme, its two tracks and examples across industry.
Building deployment capability across a team?
Employers can enrol a team on the same standard as individual professionals. Your team works on the same project, and you agree the scope and what you'll accept from the work before the programme begins. You receive reporting scoped to your team, and each person's assessment stays individual.
- A team sized with you, on one cohort. Details shared with the invitation.
- A named sponsor who agrees the scope and accepts the deliverables
- No customer data or production access required; synthetic cases by default
- Can sit alongside FAOSX Advisory and Implementation work, or stand on its own
Tell us about the team, the work they own, and what you want them to be able to defend afterwards.
Get in touchQuestions before you register
Is FAOS required?
No. The core is platform-neutral, and FAOS is not a prerequisite.
When does it start, and what does it cost?
Not published yet. Both come with the invitation to apply, before you commit to anything.
Will I be certified?
No. You receive a programme record of what was checked, assessed and applied. It is not a professional certification or an accreditation.
How much time does it really take?
36 hours over six weeks, about six hours a week, plus a 30-minute check-in around day 30. Workshop travel, if any, is extra.
Which language is it taught in?
Details shared with the invitation.
Can my employer pay or send a team?
Yes. See For employer teams, or get in touch. Employer terms are shared with the invitation.
Do I need to bring a real project from work?
No. The programme uses a synthetic operating case. Please don't share customer or confidential material at any stage.
Is there a job or placement at the end?
No. The programme doesn't promise employment.
What happens to my information?
We use it to contact you about the programme and assess fit, and for wider FAOSX updates only if you opt in.
Founding-pilot interest
How to join the founding cohort.
Registering interest is the first step. It is not an application. When the programme details have passed review, we invite registered people to apply.
Register interest (now)
A short form. Not an application, a reservation or a payment.
Invitation to apply
When the programme details have passed review, we invite registered people to apply, with dates, fee and terms.
Entry diagnostic
A short track-specific exercise so we can check fit and suggest preparation.
Offer and enrolment
You receive an offer with the full terms. Your seat is confirmed on enrolment. The cohort runs only if it reaches its minimum size; if it doesn't, you're told promptly and handled under the published terms.
Submitting interest is not an application, acceptance, seat reservation or payment. Do not send customer documents or confidential material.