AI Engineer - FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer)

Databricks; United States; On-site; USD 86,380 - 129,570; Full time

Job summary

Databricks is seeking a GenAI-focused engineer to join the AI Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE) team in Tokyo, Japan. You will develop GenAI applications, drive production rollouts, and act as a trusted technical advisor to customers across diverse domains, collaborating with engineering, product, and field teams.

The role emphasizes hands-on data science, large-scale deployments on cloud platforms, and travel to customer sites approximately every 4–8 weeks.

Qualifications

• Experience building GenAI applications, including RAG, multi-agent systems, Text2SQL, fine-tuning, etc., with tools such as HuggingFace, LangChain, and DSPy
• Expertise in deploying production-grade GenAI applications, including evaluation and optimisations
• Extensive years of hands-on industry data science experience, leveraging common machine learning and data science tools (e.g., pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch)
• Experience building production-grade machine learning deployments on AWS, Azure, or GCP

Responsibilities

• Develop cutting-edge GenAI solutions, incorporating the latest techniques from Databricks AI research to solve customer problems
• Own production rollouts of consumer and internally facing GenAI applications
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to customers across a variety of domains
• Present at conferences such as Data + AI Summit and influence product roadmap

Skills

GenAI

RAG

LangChain

DSPy

PyTorch

Cloud experience

Data science tools

Education

Graduate degree in quantitative discipline

Tools

HuggingFace

Apache Spark

Databricks Intelligence Platform

Job description

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Mission

The AI Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE) team is a highly specialized customer‑facing AI team at Databricks. We deliver professional services engagements to help our customers build and productionise first‑of‑its‑kind AI applications. We work cross‑functionally to shape long‑term strategic priorities and initiatives alongside engineering, product, and developer relations, as well as support internal subject‑matter expert (SME) teams. We view our team as an ensemble: we look for individuals with strong, unique specialisations to improve the overall strength of the team. This team is the right fit for you if you love working with customers, teammates, and fueling your curiosity for the latest trends in GenAI, LLMOps, and ML more broadly.

The impact you will have:

• Develop cutting‑edge GenAI solutions, incorporating the latest techniques from Databricks AI research to solve customer problems
• Own production rollouts of consumer and internally facing GenAI applications
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to customers across a variety of domains
• Present at conferences such as Data + AI Summit, recognised as a thought leader internally and externally
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with the product and engineering teams to influence priorities and shape the product roadmap

What we look for:

• Experience building GenAI applications, including RAG, multi‑agent systems, Text2SQL, fine‑tuning, etc., with tools such as HuggingFace, LangChain, and DSPy
• Expertise in deploying production‑grade GenAI applications, including evaluation and optimisations
• Extensive years of hands‑on industry data science experience, leveraging common machine learning and data science tools, i.e. pandas, scikit‑learn, PyTorch, etc.
• Experience building production‑grade machine learning deployments on AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Graduate degree in a quantitative discipline (Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Operations Research, etc.) or equivalent practical experience
• Experience communicating and/or teaching technical concepts to non‑technical and technical audiences alike
• Passion for collaboration, lifelong learning, and driving business value through AI
• [Preferred] Experience using the Databricks Intelligence Platform and Apache Spark to process large‑scale distributed datasets
• Willing to travel once every 4–8 weeks to see customers (as needed)
• Language proficiency: native‑level fluency in Japanese and professional working proficiency in English (both written and verbal).

Benefits

At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, colour, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio‑economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.

Compliance

If access to export‑controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.