Forward Deployed AI Engineer (Senior/Principal Level)

Cloudera; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 198,000 - 248,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous PTO Policy

Flexible WFH Policy

Wellness programs

Phone and Internet Reimbursement

Job summary

Cloudera is seeking a seasoned Frontline Forward Deployed AI Engineer to embed with customers and design scalable enterprise AI/ML solutions on the Cloudera platform. You will prototype AI apps, define architectures with client teams, and translate business needs into actionable technical strategies.

As a senior leader in the Forward Deployed Engineering group, you will shape deployment patterns, mentor peers, and drive impactful outcomes while maintaining strong governance and security

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience building and deploying production-grade systems, including 2-4 years in ML/GenAI
• Strong hands-on software engineering, data engineering, and applied AI/ML skills
• Experience with foundation models, context engineering, RAG, and agentic workflows
• LLMOps/MLOps practices including evaluation, observability, serving, monitoring, lifecycle management
• Ability to engage with customers at technical and executive levels to translate needs into strategy
• Willingness to travel up to 20% for on-site engagements

Responsibilities

• Build & Prototype AI Apps on Cloudera to demonstrate enterprise use cases
• Collaborate with customer teams to move AI prototypes toward production
• Advise on AI roadmaps, architecture, deployment and use cases
• Codify patterns into repeatable reference architectures and starter kits
• Mentor teams and contribute to reusable tooling and product improvements

Skills

AI/ML development

Software engineering

Data engineering

Cloud computing

Education

BSc/MSc/PhD in related field

Tools

NVIDIA GPUs

Cloudera platform

Apache Spark

Job description

Job Description

At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we're the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry. Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world’s largest enterprises.

Business Area

Corp. Strategy

Seniority Level

Director

Job Description

At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we're the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry. Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world’s largest enterprises.

Cloudera’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) function sits within the Applied AI organization, and is a specialized AI/ML engineering team focused on accelerating AI adoption within our most strategic enterprise customers. We embed directly with customers to rapidly pilot AI use cases, solve real-world business challenges, and help operationalize advanced AI capabilities within enterprise environments.

Cloudera FDEs operate at the intersection of customer engineering, AI innovation, and enterprise deployment - driving high-impact AI outcomes for customers and codifying solution patterns for repeatable delivery at scale.

About The Role

Cloudera is looking for a seasoned full-stack ML engineer who can embed with customers to design technical use cases, and ship scalable enterprise AI/ML solutions on Cloudera. As a Forward Deployed AI Engineer you will:

• Build & Prototype AI Apps - Develop full-stack AI/ML applications on Cloudera to demonstrate how AI and agentic systems solve real enterprise use cases
• Partner with Strategic Customers - Work directly with customer teams to drive AI and agentic use cases from early prototype toward production readiness
• Shape Enterprise AI Architecture - Advise customer leaders on AI roadmaps, solution design, deployment, and AI use cases
• Codify Solution Patterns - Standardize successful patterns into repeatable reference architectures, productized solutions, starter kits, and internal playbooks
• Multiply impact - Be a thought leader, mentor Cloudera teams, and contribute to resources that grow our AI capability. Channel field and customer signal back to Product teams to improve our AI platform and products

We are excited if you have:

• 7+ years of experience building and deploying production-grade systems, including 2-4 years experience building ML systems or GenAI/agentic applications
• Strong hands-on software engineering, data engineering, and applied AI/ML skills, with experience building full-stack ML applications or agentic systems using modern AI frameworks and tooling
• Experience with foundation models, context engineering, fine-tuning, semantic search, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and agentic workflows
• Deep understanding of LLMOps/MLOps practices including evaluation, observability, serving, monitoring, and lifecycle management
• Experience designing and implementing scalable AI solution architectures aligned to enterprise standards (security, governance, compliance, etc.)
• The ability to engage directly with customers, both technical and executive audiences - to translate needs into actionable technical strategy
• High agency with the ability to operate autonomously and thrive in ambiguous, fast-moving customer environments
• A collaborative mindset and passion for enabling others through mentorship, internal enablement, or reusable tooling
• Bsc/Msc/PhD in related field or equivalent experience
• This is a customer-facing role combining remote and in-person engagement. Occasional travel may be required for on-site customer engagement, industry events, and team meetings - up to 20% depending on business needs

You may also have:

• Experience with cloud technologies (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Experience using the Cloudera platform
• Experience with open source big data technologies like Spark, Iceberg, NiFi, etc
• Experience with AI infrastructure and runtime technologies including NVIDIA GPUs, inference optimization, model serving, or distributed AI workloads

The anticipated annual base salary range for this position is:

New York & California: $198,000-$247,500

Individual compensation within the published range is determined by the candidate's skills, experience, qualifications, and primary work location. In addition to base pay, sales roles are eligible for Cloudera's commission plan, while non-sales roles are eligible for the corporate incentive plan. All employees receive a comprehensive benefits package.

This role is not eligible for immigration support or relocation.

What you can expect from us:

• Generous PTO Policy
• Support work life balance with Unplugged Days
• Flexible WFH Policy
• Mental & Physical Wellness programs
• Phone and Internet Reimbursement program
• Access to Continued Career Development
• Comprehensive Benefits and Competitive Packages
• Paid Volunteer Time
• Employee Resource Groups

EEO/VEVRAA