[ITmedia Business Online] Battle for annual salary of 28 million yen: Ironic reason why demand for "FDE" has skyrocketed as jobs are 18 times more expensive on Wall Street

At major Wall Street banks, job openings seeking ``agent orchestration'' skills, in which multiple AI agents share roles and work together to complete a single task, are rapidly increasing.

According to data provided exclusively to CNBC by human resources data analysis firm Draup, the number of jobs mentioning this skill increased approximately 18 times, from 108 in 2025 to 1,967 in 2026. The focus of AI talent that banks are looking for is shifting from those who create AI models to those who incorporate AI into business operations.

According to Draup's tally of job postings published on the business social networking service LinkedIn, etc., there were 139,819 AI-related job openings at companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and major credit card company Capital One in 2026, an increase of 49% from the previous year.

Prompt engineering (11,368 cases), which involves devising instructions to AI, still has the largest number of cases, but orchestration stands out in terms of growth rate. "It's arguably the hottest skill on Wall Street right now," said Draup CEO Vijay Swaminathan.

Role required of “FDE” with annual salary of 28 million yen

The position that is urgently needed is a position called ``FDE'' (Forward Deployment Engineer).

Instead of staying in the company's AI development department, they will step into the field of trading, compliance, administrative processing, etc. and take on the role of incorporating AI into business operations. Select the necessary agents, decide what to entrust to each agent, what technology to use, and at what stage humans will enter the verification process. In addition to advanced technical skills, a deep understanding of the job in charge is essential.

Automating even seemingly simple tasks is not easy. Swaminathan said simply relying on agents to approve employee leave requests creates a web of unexpected cases and exceptions.

He points out that there are hidden complexities in companies' on-site operations, and that ``automating even simple operations takes a long time.'' Draup's analysis shows that "soft skills" such as problem-solving ability, creativity, and the ability to ask essential questions are receiving renewed attention.