Senior AI Engineer / Forward Deployed Engineer

About the role

## About the Role

Databricks is seeking a **Senior AI Engineer / Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)** to join its highly specialized, customer-facing **AI Forward Deployed Engineering team**. The team delivers professional services engagements that help customers build and productionize first-of-their-kind AI applications. You will work closely with customers, engineering, product, developer relations, and internal subject matter experts to solve complex AI problems and help shape long-term product priorities.

This role is suited to an experienced AI, machine learning, and data science professional who enjoys customer-facing work and stays current with **Generative AI (GenAI), Large Language Models (LLMs), LLMOps, and machine learning**. You will develop cutting-edge GenAI solutions, lead production rollouts, advise customers, and contribute to Databricks' technical thought leadership. The position can be remote but is based in the **Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia metropolitan area** and includes periodic on-site customer collaboration.

## Key Responsibilities

• Develop cutting-edge **Generative AI (GenAI)** solutions using the latest techniques from Databricks AI research to solve customer problems.
• Build and productionize first-of-their-kind AI applications through customer engagements.
• Own production rollouts of consumer-facing 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** and contribute to thought leadership internally and externally.
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering teams to influence priorities and shape the product roadmap.
• Work cross-functionally with engineering, product, developer relations, and internal subject matter expert teams.
• Travel to customer locations approximately once every 4–8 weeks, as needed.

## Required Qualifications

• **U.S. citizenship.**
• Eligibility for a **U.S. government Secret clearance** due to federal contract requirements and client site access obligations.
• Experience building **Generative AI applications**, including areas such as:
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• Multi-agent systems
• Text-to-SQL (Text2SQL)
• Fine-tuning
• Experience with GenAI development tools such as **Hugging Face, LangChain, and DSPy**.
• Expertise deploying **production-grade GenAI applications**, including evaluation and optimization.
• Extensive hands-on industry **data science experience** using common machine learning and data science tools such as **pandas, scikit-learn, and PyTorch**.
• Experience building production-grade **machine learning deployments** on **AWS, Azure, or GCP**.
• Graduate degree in a quantitative discipline such as **Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, or Operations Research**, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience communicating and/or teaching technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Willingness to travel approximately once every 4–8 weeks to see customers, as needed.
• Passion for collaboration, lifelong learning, and driving business value through AI.

## Preferred Qualifications

• Experience using the **Databricks Intelligence Platform**.
• Experience using **Apache Spark** to process large-scale distributed datasets.
• An active **Secret or higher U.S. government clearance** is strongly encouraged.

## Skills & Competencies

• Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs)
• AI application development
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• Multi-agent systems
• Text-to-SQL
• Fine-tuning
• LLMOps
• Production AI deployment
• AI evaluation and optimization
• Machine learning
• Data science
• pandas
• scikit-learn
• PyTorch
• Hugging Face
• LangChain
• DSPy
• AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Customer-facing technical consulting
• Technical advising
• Technical communication and teaching
• Cross-functional collaboration
• AI strategy and product influence
• Business value through AI

## Education & Experience

**Education:**

• Graduate degree in a quantitative discipline such as **Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, or Operations Research**, or equivalent practical experience.

**Experience:**

• Extensive hands-on industry experience in data science.
• Experience developing GenAI applications.
• Experience deploying production-grade GenAI applications.
• Experience with production-grade machine learning deployments on AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Experience communicating or teaching technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.

## Work Arrangement & Schedule

• **Location:** Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia metropolitan area
• **Work arrangement:** Remote, with periodic on-site work and customer collaboration.
• **Employment type:** Not specified in the source job description.
• **Weekly hours:** Not specified in the source job description.
• **Travel:** Approximately once every 4–8 weeks to see customers, as needed.
• **Federal access requirements:** U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a U.S. government Secret clearance are required due to federal contract and client site access requirements.
• **Clearance:** Candidates with an active Secret or higher clearance are strongly encouraged to apply.

## Compensation & Benefits

• **Compensation:** USD; specific salary amount is not provided in the source job description.
• **Benefits:** Not specified in the source job description.

## Compliance / Additional Information

Due to federal contract requirements and client site access obligations, **U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a U.S. government Secret clearance are required to access classified information**.

The source listing identifies the position as remote in **Norwalk, Connecticut**, while the job description states that the position is based in the **Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia metropolitan area** and includes periodic on-site work. The clearly stated job-description location and work requirements are used as the primary source for this JD.

**Employer:** Databricks