Forward Deployment Engineer

About the Role: Forward Deployment Engineer at Databricks

As a Forward Deployment Engineer (FDE) at Databricks, you will embed directly with our most strategic customers to design and deliver custom fullstack applications and solutions leveraging the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform and other common software stacks. This role involves owning the architecture, leading design decisions, and implementing end-to-end systems across data engineering, AI, and application development.

This is a hands-on, customer-facing opportunity for software engineers, developers, and builders who excel at the intersection of technology and business impact. The ideal candidate blends deep engineering expertise with adaptability, curiosity, and a passion for solving complex problems that achieve measurable business outcomes.

The Impact You Will Have

• Own the Architecture: Lead architecture and design decisions, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, and align with both customer needs and Databricks best practices.
• Application Engineering: Design and develop applications spanning backend, frontend, and integrations, bringing data and AI to life for enterprise users leveraging the Databricks platform.
• Solution Delivery: Deliver production-grade systems from data ingestion and transformation through ML/AI model integration to user-facing applications and enablement.
• Customer Immersion: Embed with customer teams, engaging with stakeholders from technical individual contributors to executives to deeply understand challenges and deliver impactful solutions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Sales, Product, and Field Engineering to ensure a seamless customer journey from pre-sales through post-deployment.
• Reusable Assets & Scale: Contribute accelerators, frameworks, and best practices that scale impact across accounts and influence the Databricks product roadmap.

What We Look For

• Engineering Depth: Strong background in software engineering with experience across backend, frontend, and systems integration. Proficiency in Python, SQL, Java/Scala, JavaScript/TypeScript, and modern frameworks.
• Application Delivery: Demonstrated ability to design, build, and deploy production applications that combine data pipelines, ML/AI models, and user-facing interfaces.
• AI/ML Experience: Familiarity working with AI APIs such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini into applications, and leveraging AI code generation tools to accelerate productivity.
• Customer Impact: Proven track record of delivering technical solutions in enterprise environments that drive measurable outcomes.
• Collaboration & Communication: Ability to engage across a broad stakeholder range, from engineers to C-level executives, translating complex concepts into actionable solutions.
• Learning Mindset: Curiosity, adaptability, and eagerness to explore new technologies, domains, and customer challenges.

About Databricks

Databricks is a leading data and AI company trusted by over 10,000 organizations worldwide, including a significant portion of the Fortune 500. They provide the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics, and AI. Founded by the creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake, and MLflow, Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco with a global presence.

Key skills/competency

• Fullstack Development
• Data Engineering
• AI/ML Integration
• Python, SQL, Java/Scala, JavaScript/TypeScript
• System Architecture
• Customer Engagement
• Solution Design
• Application Deployment
• Cross-functional Collaboration
• Databricks Platform