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Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer - Public Sector

Databricks
Hybrid - Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia metro area, periodic on-site workUpdated 3d ago
Total compensation
$182k–$250k
Published total compensation range
Location
Hybrid - Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia metro area, periodic on-site work
Remote eligibility
Employment
Full-time
Senior
Role family
Engineering
AI / ML
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About the job

About the Role

As a Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you will work with federal, state, and local government 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.

Responsibilities

  • 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 understanding, evaluation, and adoption of Databricks.
  • Lead architecture and design decisions, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned with both customer needs and Databricks best practices.
  • Work with the Databricks technical team, Project Manager, Architect, and Customer team to ensure technical components are delivered to meet customer needs.
  • Collaborate with Engineers and Customer Support to provide product and implementation feedback and guide rapid resolution for engagement-specific issues.
  • 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.

Qualifications

Minimum

  • 6+ years experience in data engineering, data platforms & analytics, or software engineering
  • Fluency in 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, documentation, and white-boarding skills
  • Experience working with enterprise clients and managing conflicts across a broad stakeholder range

Preferred

  • 10+ years experience in data engineering, data platforms & analytics, or software engineering
  • Databricks Certification
  • Expertise in MLOps, ML/AI models, and AI APIs

Additional Requirements

Due to federal contract requirements and client site access obligations, U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a U.S. government Public Trust, Secret and/or Top Secret clearance are required. The position is based in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia metropolitan area and includes periodic on-site work and client collaboration. This role is hybrid and requires travel to customer locations 20-25% of the time.

Compensation & Benefits

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

Skills & tags

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