AI Engineer - Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE)

Databricks Inc.; California City (CA); Remote; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Databricks is seeking an experienced AI Engineer for its Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE) team. This role focuses on designing, building, and deploying GenAI/LLM applications for customers at scale, with strong emphasis on production rollouts and cross-functional collaboration.

The candidate will act as a trusted advisor, present at industry conferences, and contribute to roadmap decisions while leveraging Databricks Intelligence Platform and Apache Spark.

Qualifications

• Design, build, and deploy GenAI/LLM applications at scale.
• Lead production rollouts and customer engagements.
• Strong collaboration across product and engineering to influence priorities.
• Willing to travel every 4–8 weeks to see customers.

Responsibilities

• Develop cutting-edge GenAI solutions using Databricks research.
• Own production rollouts of GenAI applications.
• Serve as trusted technical advisor to customers across domains.
• Present at conferences such as Data + AI Summit.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product and engineering to influence priorities and roadmap.
• Experience building GenAI apps (RAG, multi-agent, Text2SQL, fine-tuning).
• Deploy production-grade ML on AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Hands-on data science with pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch.
• Willing to travel 4–8 weeks to visit customers.

Skills

GenAI design

Production deployments

Client-facing

Conference talks

Education

Graduate degree in CS/Engineering/Statistics/OR

Tools

PyTorch

pandas

scikit-learn

Apache Spark

Databricks Platform

AWS

Azure

GCP

Text2SQL

RAG

Job description

AI Engineer – Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE) (ALL LEVELS) CSQ327R177

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 productionize 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. 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. Open to remote locations.

This role is intended for experienced engineers with demonstrated industry experience designing, building, and deploying production GenAI and LLM applications at scale. It is not intended for internship, new graduate, or entry-level applicants.

• 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, recognized as a thought leader internally and externally
• Collaborate cross-functionally with the product and engineering teams to influence priorities and shape the product roadmap
• Experience building GenAI applications, including RAG, multi-agent systems, Text2SQL, fine-tuning, etc., Expertise in deploying production-grade GenAI applications, including evaluation and optimizations
• 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.) Passion for collaboration, life‑long 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)

Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. Local Pay Range

About Databricks

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, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, 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.

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.