Senior Forward-Deployed Engineer: Data & AI Architect

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

Job summary

Databricks is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to partner with customers, architect scalable data and AI solutions on the Databricks platform, and lead end‑to‑end implementation from design through production deployment.

You will work across data engineering, AI, and application development, delivering production‑grade systems while ensuring security and scalability. Travel ~20% and strong customer empathy are essential.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in data engineering, data platforms, or software engineering.
• Experience with two cloud ecosystems (AWS/Azure/GCP) and at least one.
• Deep experience with distributed computing and Spark internals.
• CI/CD for production deployments.
• MLOps, ML/AI models and AI APIs.
• Strong architecture, design, and customer delivery skills.
• Ability to travel 20%.

Responsibilities

• Lead production‑grade delivery by designing and building reference architectures and data/AI pipelines.
• Guide transformational big data projects from end‑to‑end design to deployment.
• Mentor customers and align architectures with Databricks best practices.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and customer teams to ensure successful engagements.
• Provide feedback to product and support teams to accelerate issue resolution.

Skills

Data engineering

Cloud ecosystems

Spark expertise

CI/CD

MLOps

Architectural design

Project delivery

Documentation

Stakeholder management

Travel readiness

Tools

Apache Spark

Databricks Platform

CI/CD tooling

ML libraries

Job description

Databricks is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to partner with customers, architect scalable data and AI solutions on the Databricks platform, and lead end‑to‑end implementation from design through production deployment.

You will work across data engineering, AI, and application development, delivering production‑grade systems while ensuring security and scalability. Travel ~20% and strong customer empathy are essential.