Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer - Public Sector
Databricks- 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
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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