Google FDE (GenAI) — team match before HC? Curious about others' timelines
Going through the newer 2026 FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer, GenAI) loop and would love to compare notes with anyone who's been through something similar — it seems more compressed than the classic SWE process.
Quick timeline: cleared the onsite loop about 5 weeks ago, recruiter said feedback looked positive and submitted it to the hiring manager for final review. That team ended up going with another candidate. Recruiter kept me active and set up a team match call with a different director building out an FDE team — covered both a Senior IC path and a TLM path (leading a small team, still IC ladder). That call went well, but it's been quiet since then aside from short "still deciding" replies. Now waiting on a follow-up call.
A few things I'd genuinely appreciate input on if you've been through this:
* Does the FDE loop run team-match-*before*\-HC for you too, or straight to HC after onsite?
* How long after a hiring-manager/team-match call did you actually get a decision, good or bad?
* Has anyone been offered TLM vs Senior IC specifically on an FDE team — how did that get decided/negotiated?
* How long did your interview feedback validity actually hold up in practice before you'd have needed to redo the loop?
Would especially love to hear from anyone in the Google Cloud GenAI FDE org specifically, since it seems to run a bit differently from the standard SWE pipeline. Thanks in advance.
*(YOE: 10 · Target level: FDE-IV / L6)*