---
title: 'AI Engineer - FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer) at Databricks'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/ai-engineer-fde-forward-deployed-engineer-databricks-united-states-vr9d88s2jpe4'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-05'
---

# AI Engineer - FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer) at Databricks

- **Company:** Databricks
- **Location:** United States
- **Compensation:** $153k–$210k
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-05-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05
- **Apply:** https://databricks.com/company/careers/open-positions/job?gh_jid=8546367002

## Job description

AI Engineer - FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer) (ALL LEVELS)

CSQ327R177

Mission

The AI Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE) team is a highly specialized customer-facing AI team at Databricks. We deliver professional services engagements to help our customers build and productionize first-of-its-kind AI applications. We work cross-functionally to shape long-term strategic priorities and initiatives alongside engineering, product, and developer relations, as well as support internal subject matter expert (SME) teams. We view our team as an ensemble: we look for individuals with strong, unique specializations to improve the overall strength of the team. This team is the right fit for you if you love working with customers, teammates, and fueling your curiosity for the latest trends in GenAI, LLMOps, and ML more broadly. Open to remote locations.

This role is intended for experienced engineers with demonstrated industry experience designing, building, and deploying production GenAI and LLM applications at scale. It is not intended for internship, new graduate, or entry-level applicants.

The impact you will have:

- Develop cutting-edge GenAI solutions, incorporating the latest techniques from [Databricks AI research](https://www.databricks.com/blog/category/databricks-ai?categories=databricks-ai%2Cai-research%2Cai-engineering) to solve customer problems
- Own production rollouts of consumer and internally facing GenAI applications
- Serve as a trusted technical advisor to customers across a variety of domains
- Present at conferences such as [Data + AI Summit](https://www.databricks.com/dataaisummit), recognized as a thought leader internally and externally
- Collaborate cross-functionally with the product and engineering teams to influence priorities and shape the product roadmap

What we look for:

- Experience building GenAI applications, including RAG, multi-agent systems, Text2SQL, fine-tuning, etc., with tools such as HuggingFace, LangChain, and DSPy
- Expertise in deploying production-grade GenAI applications, including evaluation and optimizations
- Extensive years of hands-on industry data science experience, leveraging common machine learning and data science tools, i.e. pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch, etc.
- Experience building production-grade machine learning deployments on AWS, Azure, or GCP
- Graduate degree in a quantitative discipline (Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Operations Research, etc.) or equivalent practical experience
- Experience communicating and/or teaching technical concepts to non-technical and technical audiences alike
- Passion for collaboration, life-long learning, and driving business value through AI
- [Preferred] Experience using the Databricks Intelligence Platform and Apache Spark™ to process large-scale distributed datasets
- Willing to travel once every 4-8 weeks to see customers (as needed)

Pay Range Transparency

Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles.  Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page [here](https://www.databricks.com/sites/default/files/2024-08/us-pay-zone-mapping.pdf).

Local Pay Range $152,900—$210,155 USD

## 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](https://www.linkedin.com/company/databricks), [X](https://x.com/databricks), [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@Databricks), and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/databricksinc/?hl=en).

## 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](https://docs.google.com/document/d/154un3e8Xav4BceOSlcYFZRGEuQI54xMxVydRwQn54eQ/edit?usp=sharing).

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.

## About Databricks

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Databricks provides a unified data and AI platform built on an open lakehouse architecture, enabling organizations to manage data, analytics, and AI at scale.
- **Entity Type**: Private (late-stage, last reported valuation ~$43B in 2021, but current valuation not publicly disclosed)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2013
- **Founders**: Original creators of Apache Spark™, Delta Lake, MLflow, and Unity Catalog (co-founders include Ali Ghodsi, Matei Zaharia, Ion Stoica, Patrick Wendell, Reynold Xin, among others)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Data & AI Platform / Enterprise Software
- Target customers: B2B – Enterprise, SMB, and government organizations; over 20,000 customers worldwide, including 70% of the Fortune 500
- Mission: “Simplify and democratize data and AI, helping data and AI teams solve the world’s toughest problems.” [databricks.com](https://www.databricks.com/company/about-us)

## Products & Services
- **Databricks Data Intelligence Platform**: Unified platform for data engineering, data warehousing, data science, machine learning, and AI. It integrates open-source technologies like Apache Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow, and Unity Catalog.
- **Lakebase**: Serverless Postgres database integrated with the lakehouse, built for the AI era.
- **Genie**: AI-powered natural language assistant for data insights and querying.
- **Agent Bricks**: Tools for building AI agents that continuously improve quality and accuracy on an organization’s data.
- **Additional offerings**: Data warehousing, business intelligence, governance, data engineering, and AI/ML services.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company; last reported valuation of $43B in 2021 from a Series I round, but no recent official disclosure)
- **Key Metric**: Over 10,000 employees; 20,000+ customers; 70% of Fortune 500; 1,200+ global partners [databricks.com](https://www.databricks.com/)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not explicitly listed in search results, but known investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Microsoft, and others. Partners include major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) and consulting firms.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount of 10,000+ employees; offices in 30+ locations across 20+ countries; 5x Leader in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ Reports; LinkedIn job postings growing 26.7% year-over-year (783 active positions) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/databricks)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Open lakehouse architecture**: Combines data lake and data warehouse capabilities with open-source standards, avoiding vendor lock-in.
- **Founding team behind Apache Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow**: Deep technical credibility and active open-source community.
- **Unified platform**: Single solution for data engineering, analytics, and AI, reducing complexity for enterprises.
- **Strong data governance**: Unity Catalog provides centralized access control and lineage.
- **AI-native**: Built-in AI capabilities (Genie, Agent Bricks) that leverage an organization’s own data.

## Strategic Focus
- Expanding AI capabilities with natural language interfaces and autonomous agents.
- Deepening integrations with cloud providers and open-source ecosystems.
- Scaling enterprise sales and global footprint (30+ offices, focus on EMEA and APAC).
- Cultivating a developer and data science community through university programs and open-source contributions.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as “innovators, builders and truthseekers” with a focus on solving hard technical problems. Emphasizes inclusion, diversity, and equity, including closing the pay gap and removing unconscious bias from recruitment. [databricks.com](https://www.databricks.com/company/careers)
- **Work Environment**: Hybrid/flexible work model; benefits and perks include health, well-being, and flexible ways of working. Offices in major cities globally.
- **Engineering Culture**: Strong emphasis on open-source, AI, and data infrastructure. Opportunities for interns and new grads to contribute to core platform. Hackathons, board game nights, and social events.
- **Growth**: Fast-growing company (10,000+ employees, 20,000+ customers) with ambitious scaling plans, offering career advancement in engineering, sales, product, and more.

## Sources
1. [Databricks About Us](https://www.databricks.com/company/about-us)
2. [Databricks Careers](https://www.databricks.com/company/careers)
3. [Databricks Homepage](https://www.databricks.com/)
4. [Databricks LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/databricks)

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