Senior Data & AI Solutions Architect (Customer-Facing)

Databricks Inc.; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 182,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Databricks is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to partner with customers in Austin to design, build, and productionize data and AI solutions on the Databricks platform.

You will own end-to-end architecture, guide design decisions, and deliver reference architectures, custom apps, data ingestion, and ML/AI model integration across data engineering, AI, and application development disciplines. A hands-on, customer-facing builder with strong communication is essential.

Qualifications

• 6+ years experience in data engineering, data platforms & analytics, or software engineering.
• Experience with two or more cloud ecosystems (AWS, Azure, GCP) and 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.
• Knowledge of MLOps, ML/AI models and AI APIs.
• Design and deployment of performant production end-to-end data architectures and applications.
• Experience delivering technical projects, managing scope and timelines, translating concepts into solutions.
• Strong documentation and white-boarding skills.
• Experience working with enterprise clients and managing conflicts across stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel ~20%.
• Databricks Certification.

Responsibilities

• Lead production-grade customer projects delivering reference architectures, custom apps, data ingestion and ML/AI integration.
• Guide strategic customers through end-to-end design, build, and deployment of data and AI solutions.
• Own the architecture to ensure secure, scalable, and databricks‑aligned outcomes.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and customer teams to deliver engagement components.
• Provide product and implementation feedback to accelerate issue resolution and improvements.
• Embed with customer teams to understand challenges across technical and executive stakeholders.
• Create accelerators, frameworks, and best practices to scale impact across accounts.

Skills

Data engineering

Cloud platforms

Spark

CI/CD

MLOps

Architectural design

Documentation

Client engagement

Travel 20%

Databricks Certification

Job description

Databricks is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to partner with customers in Austin to design, build, and productionize data and AI solutions on the Databricks platform.

You will own end-to-end architecture, guide design decisions, and deliver reference architectures, custom apps, data ingestion, and ML/AI model integration across data engineering, AI, and application development disciplines. A hands-on, customer-facing builder with strong communication is essential.