Senior Staff Forward Deployed Engineer

Alation, Inc.; Madison (WI); On-site; USD 152,000 - 205,000; Full time

Job summary

Alation, Inc. seeks a Senior Staff Forward Deployed Engineer to lead in-field AI-driven solutions and act as the technical bridge between strategic customers and Product/Engineering.

You will define scalable patterns, drive enterprise-class data governance, and shape the platform roadmap with field insights. You will prototype LLM-based workflows, embed with Fortune 500 stakeholders, and deliver data pipelines that show clear ROI.

Qualifications

• Senior-level software engineering with client-facing leadership.
• Experience shaping delivery methodology beyond individual projects.
• Proven ability to translate business goals into technical roadmaps.

Responsibilities

• Architect and prototype AI agent systems and workflows.
• Engage Fortune 500 stakeholders and translate needs into roadmaps.
• Deliver BI and data pipelines with measurable ROI.
• Couple technical delivery with business outcomes and value.
• Develop scalable patterns for wider engineering teams.
• Contribute to platform roadmap with field insights.
• Build internal tooling and accelerators to raise velocity.
• Share best practices with product and GTM teams.
• Mentor field engineers and customer teams on data governance.

Skills

Executive presence

Fortune 500 experience

Data governance

AI prototyping

Tools

LangChain

AutoGen

CrewAI

Vector databases

Job description

Alation is pioneering the next era of data intelligence — powered by AI agents and trusted data . Organizations around the world rely on Alation to drive self-service analytics, cloud transformation, data governance, and AI innovation. Our technology helps enterprises connect people and data to make faster, smarter, and more confident decisions. With more than $340M in funding – valued at over $1.7 billion and more than 650 customers, including 40% of the Fortune 100. As data becomes the foundation of every business, Alation is leading the way in helping organizations unlock their full potential. By bringing intelligence, automation, and trust to every interaction, we empower customers to scale data-driven innovation with confidence and speed. Joining Alation means being part of a winning team shaping the future of AI-powered data intelligence. We move fast, think big, and deliver results together.

Job Description

As a Senior Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, you will be at the sharpest edge of Alation's mission. This is a get-in-the-trenches-and-build role for a seasoned technical leader who can turn ambiguous enterprise problems into production-grade, AI-driven solutions, often in days rather than quarters. You will serve as a primary technical bridge between Alation's most strategic enterprise customers and our Product and Engineering teams. Recognized internally and externally as a subject matter expert in agentic AI, data governance, and enterprise architecture, you will shape how the world's largest organizations adopt autonomous AI, and actively influence how Alation's platform and delivery methodology evolve to support it. This is a senior individual contributor role within the Forward Deployed Engineering organization, with visibility and influence across field leadership, Product, and GTM.

What You'll Do

• Architect and rapidly prototype AI agent systems, including LLM-based, multi-agent, and agentic workflow designs, that automate complex reasoning tasks and data governance processes within Alation's platform.
• Embed directly with Fortune 500 stakeholders to understand their data ecosystems, governance bottlenecks, and business objectives, then translate those into technical roadmaps grounded in Alation's Knowledge Layer capabilities.
• Build and deploy BI and ML pipelines that convert cataloged data into executive-grade insights, demonstrating measurable ROI tied to Alation deployments.
• Partner with Deployment Strategists to connect technical delivery to measurable business outcomes, ensuring every engagement is tied to customer value, not configuration milestones.
• Define repeatable, scalable solution patterns that the broader FDE and DS teams can leverage, moving Alation from custom builds toward productized, high-margin delivery.
• Act as a force multiplier for Product and Engineering by feeding real-world edge cases, customer patterns, and AI use cases back into the core platform roadmap.
• Design and build internal tooling, including accelerators, automation frameworks, and reusable components, that increase the velocity and consistency of the Forward Deployed Engineering team.
• Conduct competitive analysis in the field, synthesizing observations across customer environments and surfacing actionable intelligence to Product and GTM teams.
• Mentor field engineers and customer-side technical teams on best practices for agentic AI, data governance, and Alation platform architecture.

What You Bring

• 12+ years in software engineering, with significant time in customer-facing technical leadership roles such as FDE, Solutions Architect, or CTO-office equivalents.
• Deep, hands-on experience with LLM orchestration frameworks including LangChain, AutoGen, and CrewAI, as well as vector databases, RAG architectures, and fine-tuning ML models for enterprise use cases.
• Proven track record delivering large-scale BI and data pipeline solutions, equally comfortable with SQL and cloud warehousing as with predictive modeling.
• Architectural fluency across distributed systems, enterprise data governance, metadata management, and compliance-grade data platforms.
• A prototyper's mindset: you write production-quality code at speed, ship, learn, and iterate, valuing working software over over-engineering.
• A track record of shaping delivery methodology, solution patterns, or technical standards beyond your own engagements, with influence that extends across teams and customer organizations.
• Executive presence and high EQ, with the ability to earn trust quickly with Fortune 500 CDOs and technical stakeholders alike.
• Genuine enthusiasm for Alation's mission: you believe trusted data and intelligent governance are foundational to how enterprises win.

75/25 split. The on target earnings (OTE) range is specific to the United States and is $200,000 - $275,000Compensation Pay Range:$152,152.00 - $205,405.00 Salary Information The base salary range is specific to the United States. The salary of the final candidate selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to internal equity, experience, education, work location, specialty and training. If the final candidate has a different level of experience, the base salary target range may be lower or higher than what is published.

Alation, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to that individual’s race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law.

The Company will strive to provide reasonable accommodations to permit qualified applicants who have a need for an accommodation to participate in the hiring process (e.g., accommodations for a job interview) if so requested.

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