A delivery program does not need a course catalog. It needs to know what it takes to produce an FDE I, a Senior FDE, and a pod lead, how many at a time, and what human review that demands. This page shows the instruction LockedIn Labs uses to form each seat on the ladder, how a cohort moves through the authored runway, and what a bench plan looks like when a pod composition is turned into headcount.
Instruction time is authored read and artifact time. It is not a time to competence. A cohort advances on evidence.
Counts derived from this repository. Every module ends in an artifact a reviewer scores against a published rubric; every lab environment is an executable scenario; every practice room rehearses a field moment with a scripted counterpart.
The forward deployed engineering core is 8 modules and 14 h of authored instruction, sitting inside 8 tracks and 49 capability graph nodes. Levels on the pod ladder are earned on the 10 evidence gates of the Forward-Deployed Engineering Standard, across 9 competency domains.
See the lab environmentsEach card lists the exact modules, lab environments, practice rooms, and evidence gates behind a rung, with the authored runway window. Higher rungs contain the rungs below them; the increment is what the seat adds.
A recorded baseline and an evidence based development plan. Deploys only paired with a lead.
Can diagnose, scope, integrate, evaluate, and stage a bounded mission under controlled pressure.
Has owned a bounded mission in a real client boundary and transferred operation to a named owner under supervision.
Supervised field: at least 180 accepted mission hours, 80 inside a live client boundary, across 2 distinct missions, with a named supervisor and a client designated owner.
The complete evidence chain has passed an independent integrated defense with architecture and integration depth across estates.
Supervised field: at least 180 accepted mission hours, 80 inside a live client boundary, across 2 distinct missions, with a named supervisor and a client designated owner.
The complete evidence chain has passed an independent integrated defense and the engineer anchors a pod onshore.
Supervised field: at least 180 accepted mission hours, 80 inside a live client boundary, across 2 distinct missions, with a named supervisor and a client designated owner.
The path to a pod lead across the 24 week authored runway. Blue bands are instruction, labs, and calibrated performance review. Light bands are where a person holds the gate: a live defense panel or a supervised field mission with a named supervisor and client owner.
Runway windows are the authored Formation Runway's windows. A cohort advances on evidence, not on elapsed time. Review load counts what the standard requires. On this training property, staffed practitioner review and supervised field work are not active.
Four anchored pods (Configuration B), cohorts of eight starting every four weeks, no recorded supply. Program administrators run this against a real composition and the recorded practice ladder inside the authenticated workspace.
| RUNG | DEMAND | SUPPLY | GAP | COHORTS | READY BY | INSTRUCTION EACH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Associate FDE | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 h |
| FDE I | 6 | — | 6 | 1 | week 12 | 12 h |
| FDE II (Senior) | 4 | — | 4 | 1 | week 24 | 14 h |
| FDE Architect | 4 | — | 4 | 1 | week 24 | 14 h |
| FDE Lead | 4 | — | 4 | 1 | week 24 | 14 h |
| PROGRAM | 18 | — | 18 | 4 | week 24 |
Scored by a calibrated reviewer or live provider scorer.
Calibrated human review against a published rubric, with executable checks.
Qualified human panels under adversarial questioning.
A named field supervisor plus the client's designated owner, in a real client boundary.
Illustrative. Demand is arithmetic over a pod composition; supply is recorded training evidence; ready weeks follow the authored runway window. A cohort advances on evidence, not elapsed time, and review load names what the standard requires, not reviewers who exist. On this training property, staffed practitioner review and supervised field work activate when a program is staffed on engagement.
We size the seats, the cohorts, the runway, and the review load against your program, then show you the same instruction your engineers would work through, module by module.