I applied through an external recruiter in March 2026. I was told this was a FDE role as that is what I was looking for. Then I was told that at EliseAI the FDEs are called Solutions Engineers instead. Thought that was strange but lots of different names in the industry so went ahead out of curiosity. The interview process consisted of a recruiter screen, interview w a team member, and take home.
The EliseAI recruiter told me point blank that they post job postings with the title "FDE" to see who they can get to apply which I found dishonest. In the next round I realized to what extent this was misleading--the team member who did solutions engineering had 0 engineering ownership, to the extent that they told me they were not allowed to touch code. He couldn't give me straight answers about their level of engineering collaboration and ownership over product changes because he has basically none.
I have no idea how this role was supposed to be relevant to what I do. Take home had basically no coding--it was writing an email and making a dashboard. The recruiter wasted my time w this role. Their strategy of lying and misrepresenting their roles to candidates is disgusting and poor reflection of their company's values.