Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) at Databricks, you will work with customers to build and productionize solutions to their data & AI challenges using the Databricks platform. You will own the architecture, lead design decisions, and implement end-to-end systems spanning data engineering, AI, and application development. This is a hands-on, customer-facing role for builders who thrive at the intersection of technology and business impact. FDEs are billable and complete projects according to specification with exceptional customer empathy.

• Production Solution Delivery: Lead impactful customer technical projects by delivering production-grade systems, designing and building reference architectures, custom applications, data ingestion, and ML/AI model integration.
• Transformational Impact: Guide strategic customers implementing transformational big data projects, including end-to-end design, build, and deployment of big data and AI applications; work with engagement managers to scope technical delivery.
• Empower Customers: Guide customers on architecture and design; bootstrap or implement customer projects to support successful understanding, evaluation, and adoption of Databricks.
• Own the Architecture: Lead architecture and design decisions, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned with customer needs and Databricks best practices.
• Customer Immersion: Embed with customer teams, engaging stakeholders from technical ICs to executives to deeply understand challenges and deliver impact.
• Reusable Assets & Scale: Contribute accelerators, frameworks, and best practices that scale impact across accounts and influence the Databricks product roadmap.

• 6+ years experience in data engineering, data platforms & analytics, or software engineering
• Comfortable writing code in Python, Scala, JavaScript/TypeScript, and modern frameworks
• Working knowledge of two or more common cloud ecosystems (AWS, Azure, GCP) with expertise in at least one
• Deep experience with distributed computing with Apache Spark and knowledge of Spark runtime internals
• Familiarity with CI/CD for production deployments
• Working knowledge of MLOps, ML/AI models, and AI APIs
• Design and deployment of performant production end-to-end data architectures and applications combining data pipelines, ML/AI models, and user-facing interfaces
• Experience with technical project delivery, enterprise clients, and managing conflicts across a broad stakeholder range
• Travel to customers 20% of the time

Pay range: $182,000—$250,208 USD. Total compensation may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and benefits.

Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics, and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe.