Senior

As a Sr. 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.

• Lead impactful customer technical projects by delivering production-grade systems, designing and building reference architectures, custom applications, data ingestion, and ML/AI model integration.
• Guide strategic customers as they implement transformational big data projects, including end-to-end design, build, and deployment of industry-leading big data and AI applications.
• Guide customers on architecture and design; bootstrap or implement customer projects to ensure successful adoption of Databricks.
• Lead architecture and design decisions, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned with customer needs and Databricks best practices.
• Embed with customer teams, engaging with stakeholders from technical ICs to executives to understand challenges and deliver impact.
• 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 that combine data pipelines, ML/AI models, and user-facing interfaces.
• Experience with technical project delivery, managing scope, timelines, and measurable outcomes.
• Documentation and white-boarding skills.
• Experience working with enterprise clients and managing conflicts across a broad stakeholder range.
• Travel to customers 20% of the time.

Due to federal contract requirements and client site access obligations, U.S. government Top Secret clearance is required to access classified information. The position is based in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia metropolitan area and includes periodic on-site work and client collaboration. Candidates with an active Secret or higher clearance are strongly encouraged to apply.

The pay range for this role is $182,000—$250,208 USD. The total compensation package may include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. Databricks offers comprehensive benefits and perks; for specific details, refer to the benefits page.