Fireside Chat with Praneeth Chandu, FDE at OpenAI
About the Event
The AI job market has shifted faster than most career advice has caught up.
Beyond ML Engineer and Data Scientist, a new layer of roles is emerging: Forward Deployment Engineer, AI Product Engineer, Applied AI Engineer, AI Solutions Engineer, AI Product Manager. These are some of the hottest roles in tech right now, and very few engineers understand what they actually involve or how to break into them.
To help engineers in India navigate this shift, Masters' Union is hosting an exclusive in-person fireside chat with Praneeth Chandu, Forward Deployed Engineer at OpenAI.
Praneeth's own path is non-linear: product analyst at Uber, quant at Radix, founder of an early-stage startup, software engineer at Traba, and now FDE at OpenAI. In this candid conversation, he will share what actually got him through, what he believes engineers should be doing today, and what most candidates get wrong.
In this conversation, we will explore:
Where the real demand is, and which new AI roles are growing fastest
Praneeth's playbook: how he went from SWE to FDE at OpenAI
The learning path that actually works for engineers today
What most engineers get wrong when trying to break into AI
Friday, 26 June 2026 | 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM | Gurugram
Who Should Attend
Software engineers, AI builders, final-year students, and early-career professionals who want to make the switch into AI roles. Particularly relevant if you are 0 to 6 years into your career and trying to figure out what to build, learn, and prioritise next.
About the Speaker
Praneeth Chandu is a Forward Deployed Engineer at OpenAI, where he works with organisations deploying real-world AI solutions using frontier models. He has previously worked as a software engineer at Traba (Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst), a quantitative analyst at Radix Trading, and a product analyst at Uber. He holds an MS from the University of Chicago.
Registration Note
This is a curated in-person gathering. Seats are limited. Our team will review all registrations and confirm shortlisted participants by email.