Senior Forward-Deployed AI & Data Solutions Engineer

Databricks Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 182,000 - 250,208; Full time

Job summary

Databricks is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer in Washington, D.C. to own architecture, lead design decisions, and implement end-to-end systems spanning data engineering, AI, and application development.

This hands-on, customer-facing role requires engineering excellence, adaptability, and strong collaboration with engineering, product, and customer teams to deliver measurable business outcomes and scalable datapipelines. FDEs work with clients to drive adoption and long-term success.

Qualifications

• 6+ years experience in data engineering or software engineering.
• Experience with two or more cloud ecosystems (AWS/Azure/GCP).
• Deep experience with Apache Spark and runtime internals.
• Familiarity with CI/CD for production deployments.
• Working knowledge of MLOps and AI models and APIs.
• Design and deployment of scalable end-to-end data architectures.
• Experience delivering production projects with measurable outcomes.
• Strong documentation and white-boarding skills.
• Experience with enterprise clients and cross-stakeholder coordination.
• Willingness to travel up to 20% and hold Databricks Certification.

Responsibilities

• Lead production-grade data solutions and reference architectures for customers.
• Guide end-to-end big data projects from design to deployment.
• Provide architecture guidance and ensure secure, scalable solutions.
• Collaborate with engineering, project manager, and customer teams.
• Offer feedback to product and support for rapid issue resolution.
• Embed with customer teams to understand challenges and drive impact.
• Contribute accelerators and best practices to scale across accounts.

Skills

Data engineering

Cloud platforms

Apache Spark

CI/CD

MLOps

Architecture design

Project delivery

Documentation

Stakeholder management

Travel

Databricks Certification

Job description

Databricks is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer in Washington, D.C. to own architecture, lead design decisions, and implement end-to-end systems spanning data engineering, AI, and application development.

This hands-on, customer-facing role requires engineering excellence, adaptability, and strong collaboration with engineering, product, and customer teams to deliver measurable business outcomes and scalable datapipelines. FDEs work with clients to drive adoption and long-term success.