Senior Forward Deployed Engineer - Databricks

Deloitte France; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 156,000 - 307,000; Full time

Job summary

Deloitte is seeking a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer to drive GenAI-enabled solutions with client teams. You will prototype, deliver production-grade AI capabilities, and mentor junior engineers, balancing architecture, cost, and risk across engagements.

This role emphasizes rapid delivery, stakeholder engagement, and scalable platform adoption, with frequent collaboration across engineering and business functions. A strong background in Databricks and cloud-native practices is expected.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS, data science, or engineering.
• 5+ years in software, data, or analytics engineering.
• 1+ years GenAI/LLM solutions in production.
• 1+ years Databricks experience with DBRX/MLflow/Vector Search.
• 1+ years leading project workstreams and translating problems into AI solutions.
• 1+ years writing maintainable, well‑documented code.
• Ability to travel 50% based on client needs.
• Limited immigration sponsorship may be available.

Responsibilities

• Embed with clients to identify business needs and translate GenAI use cases into solutions.
• Lead sessions with leaders, product owners, architects, and engineers to align priorities and delivery.
• Prototype and deliver working AI solutions using industry expertise and emerging capabilities.
• Coaching client teams and end users on platform capabilities and AI enablement; manage expectations and engagement success.
• Drive end-to-end sales and delivery support with demos/POCs and proposals; document solutions for handoff.
• Mentor other FDEs through design and code reviews and contribute reusable components.

Skills

Software engineering

Data engineering

GenAI/LLM solutions

Project leadership

Willingness to travel

Client communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science or Engineering

Tools

Databricks

MLflow

Vector Search

Spark

Airflow/dbt

Job description

At Deloitte, Senior Forward Deployed Engineers (SFDE) don't just build AI solutions, they help clients turn AI ambition into enterprise-scale impact, pairing leading class engineering with pod-based delivery and vertical expertise. If you thrive at the intersection of product, engineering, problem-solving, and client impact, this role puts you at the forefront of AI transformations.

Recruiting for this role ends on September 30, 2026

Work you'll do

As a Senior Databricks FDE, you will work side by side with senior functional and technical client team members to rapidly prototype and deliver high-impact GenAI-enabled solutions. This requires a highly motivated practitioner who moves with speed and precision, building working software, engaging confidently with senior stakeholders and engineers to bring measurable business impact from day one. Additional responsibilities include:

Client Engagement

• Embed with clients to identify business needs and translate high-value GenAI use cases into solutions.
• Partner with leaders, product owners, architects, and engineers to align priorities and delivery.
• Lead working sessions to shape solutions and drive client outcomes.
• Prototype and deliver working AI solutions using industry expertise and emerging capabilities.
• Contribute independently within an FDE pod while mentoring newer team members.
• Coach client teams and end users on platform capabilities and AI enablement, while building trusted relationships, managing expectations, and supporting long-term engagement success.
• Drive end-to-end sales and delivery support by developing demos/POCs, contributing to proposals and orals, articulating business value, and documenting solutions for smooth client handoff and knowledge transfer.
• Strengthen team and organizational impact by mentoring other FDEs through design/code reviews and feedback, while contributing reusable components to intellectual capital.

Solution Engineering

• Build AI-enabled solutions, agentic platforms, and workflows across enterprise AI platforms.
• Develop scalable AI engineering patterns, tool-use approaches, and human-in-the-loop controls.
• Apply architecture decisions that balance quality, safety, latency, cost, and model risk.
• Deliver production-quality code using strong practices in testing, CI/CD, logging, versioning, and documentation.
• Design extensible functionality, support sprint sizing, and align solutions with senior team members.
• Contribute reusable assets including code, prompt libraries, runbooks, and reference implementations.

The team

AI & Engineering leverages cutting-edge engineering capabilities to build, deploy, and operate integrated/verticalized sector solutions in software, data, AI, network, and hybrid cloud infrastructure. These solutions are powered by engineering for business advantage, transforming mission-critical operations. We enable clients to stay ahead with the latest advancements by transforming engineering teams and modernizing technology & data platforms. Our delivery models are tailored to meet each client's unique requirements.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Data Science or Engineering.
• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, data science, or analytics engineering.
• 1+ years of hands‑on experience building and deploying GenAI/LLM-powered solutions in client or production environments
• 1+ years of experience with Databricks including hands on experience with one of the following key platform technologies; DBRX, MLflow, Vector Search, Databricks AI Gateway
• 1+ years of experience leading project workstreams/engagements and translating business problems into AI solutions
• 1+ years of experience building reliable, maintainable, and well‑documented code o
• Ability to travel 50%, on average, based on the work you do and the clients and industries/sectors you serve
• Limited immigration sponsorship may be available

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with cloud environments (AWS, Azure, and/or Google Cloud) and common platform services (storage, compute, IAM, networking)
• Demonstrated ability to work directly alongside client technical teams and program stakeholders in fast‑paced, ambiguous delivery environments
• Data engineering experience with Spark, Airflow/dbt, streaming, data modeling or ML/data science background feature engineering, experimentation or model evaluation
• Experience with MLOps/LLMOps practices: evaluation frameworks, model monitoring, and prompt management
• Experience integrating LLM solutions with enterprise systems via APIs, microservices, or event‑driven architectures
• Experience operating within hybrid onshore/offshore teams
• Familiarity with security, privacy, and compliance considerations

The wage range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. At Deloitte, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is $ 155,600 to $306,800.

You may also be eligible to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing the program, whereby an award, if any, depends on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or protected veteran status, or any other legally protected basis, in accordance with applicable law.