Senior Forward-Deployed AI & Data Architect (Remote)

Databricks Inc.; California (MO); Remote; USD 182,000 - 250,208; Full time

Job summary

Databricks is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to partner with customers on data and AI solutions using the Databricks platform. You will own the architecture, lead design decisions, and implement end-to-end systems across data engineering, AI, and application development.

This hands-on, customer-facing role requires engineering excellence, curiosity, and the ability to deliver with customer empathy. Expect travel up to 20% and collaboration with engineering, product, and client teams.

Qualifications

• 6+ years experience in data engineering, data platforms & analytics, or software engineering.
• Working knowledge of two or more Cloud ecosystems (AWS, Azure, GCP) with expertise in at least one.
• Deep experience with distributed computing with Apache Spark and Spark runtime internals.
• Familiarity with CI/CD for production deployments.
• Knowledge of MLOps, ML/AI models and AI APIs.
• Design and deployment of production-grade data architectures and applications with data pipelines and ML/AI components.
• Experience with technical project delivery and stakeholder management.
• Strong documentation and white-boarding skills.
• Experience with enterprise clients and cross-stakeholder coordination.
• Willingness to travel 20% and Databricks Certification.

Responsibilities

• Lead production-grade customer projects and build reference architectures and data pipelines.
• Design and deploy end-to-end data, ML/AI solutions aligned with customer needs.
• Guide customers on architecture and design to ensure scalable, secure deployments.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and customer teams to deliver engagement goals.
• Provide feedback to product and support teams to improve Databricks offerings.
• Embed with customer teams to understand challenges and deliver measurable impact.
• Create accelerators and reusable patterns to scale impact across accounts.

Skills

Data engineering/data platforms

Analytics

Software engineering

Spark

MLOps

CI/CD

Architecture design

Documentation

Customer engagement

Travel readiness

Databricks Certification

Tools

MLflow

Apache Spark

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Databricks is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to partner with customers on data and AI solutions using the Databricks platform. You will own the architecture, lead design decisions, and implement end-to-end systems across data engineering, AI, and application development.

This hands-on, customer-facing role requires engineering excellence, curiosity, and the ability to deliver with customer empathy. Expect travel up to 20% and collaboration with engineering, product, and client teams.