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DatabricksForward Deployed Engineer
AI in this role
Design and deploy custom data and AI solutions, applications, and architectures for strategic enterprise customers.
About the Team
The Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team is a highly specialized, customer-facing software engineering team at Databricks. We work with Databricks most strategic customers to design, build, and productionize first-of-their-kind data and AI solutions. This team is the right fit for you if you love working side-by-side with customers, collaborating with teammates, and pushing your curiosity across the latest trends in data, applications, and AI innovation.
Role Description
As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you will embed directly with our most strategic customers to design and deliver custom fullstack applications and solutions on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform and other common software stacks. You will own the architecture, lead design decisions, and implement end-to-end systems spanning data engineering, AI, and application development.
This is a hands-on, customer-facing role for software engineers, developers, and builders who thrive at the intersection of technology and business impact. The ideal candidate combines engineering expertise with adaptability, curiosity, and a passion for solving complex problems that drive measurable outcomes.
The impact you will have:
- Own the Architecture: Lead architecture and design decisions, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned 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 ICs to executives to deeply understand challenges and deliver impact.
- 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.
- Ability and interest to travel up to 50% as needed to client sites.
About Databricks
Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram.
Benefits
At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here.
Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.
Compliance
If access to export-controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.
How we rate this
Forward Deployed Engineer at Databricks rates 65 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where system architecture was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where fullstack development was part of your work. What did you do?
- Walk me through how you've used OpenAI in your day-to-day work.
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Software Engineering, System Architecture, Machine learning, Fullstack Development, and OpenAI. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.
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