Senior Forward Deployed Engineer – Data, AI & Apps

Databricks Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 182,000 - 250,208; Full time

Job summary

Databricks Inc. in San Francisco seeks a Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer to lead end-to-end data, AI, and application solutions for customers.

You will own architecture, design decisions, and deliver production-grade systems across data engineering, ML/AI, and software layers. This hands-on, customer-facing role requires strong engineering skills, business impact focus, and willingness to travel up to 20%. You will collaborate with engineering, product, and field teams, build accelerators, and

Qualifications

• 6+ years experience in data engineering, data platforms & analytics, or software engineering.
• Cloud ecosystems (AWS, Azure, GCP) with 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.
• Working knowledge of MLOps, ML/AI models and AI APIs.
• Design and deployment of performant production end-to-end data architectures and applications that combine data pipelines, ML/AI models, and user-facing interfaces.
• Experience with technical project delivery - managing scope, timelines and measurable outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Production Solution Delivery: Lead impactful customer technical projects by delivering production-grade systems, designing and building reference architectures, custom applications and data ingestion and ML/AI model integration.
• Transformational Impact: Guide strategic customers as they implement transformational big data projects including end-to-end design, build and deployment of industry-leading big data and AI applications.
• Empower Customers: Guide customers on architecture and design; bootstrap or implement customer projects which leads to a successful understanding, evaluation and adoption of Databricks.
• Own the Architecture: Lead architecture and design decisions, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned with customer needs and Databricks best practices.
• Work with the Databricks technical team, Project Manager, Architect and Customer team to ensure the technical components of the engagement are delivered to meet customer's needs.
• Work with Engineering and Databricks Customer Support to provide product and implementation feedback and to guide rapid resolution for engagement specific product and support issues.
• Customer Immersion: Embed with customer teams, engaging with stakeholders from technical ICs to executives to deeply understand challenges and deliver impact.
• Reusable Assets & Scale: Contribute accelerators, frameworks, and best practices that scale impact across accounts and influence the Databricks product roadmap.

Skills

Data engineering

Cloud platforms

Apache Spark

CI/CD

MLOps

Architectural design

Customer delivery

Travel 20%

Job description

Databricks Inc. in San Francisco seeks a Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer to lead end-to-end data, AI, and application solutions for customers.

You will own architecture, design decisions, and deliver production-grade systems across data engineering, ML/AI, and software layers. This hands-on, customer-facing role requires strong engineering skills, business impact focus, and willingness to travel up to 20%. You will collaborate with engineering, product, and field teams, build accelerators, and