AI Engineer - FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer)
Application analysis
AI Engineer - FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer) at Databricks is a forward deployed data & ai platform role for engineers who want customer-facing technical work with real deployment ownership.
Reading this role
This Forward Deployed Engineer role centers on embedded customer delivery — discovery, prototyping, integration, and production rollout.
About Databricks
Databricks sells a unified data platform to enterprises. Forward deployed engineers help customers migrate workloads and prove value on live data. The role is anchored in Tokyo, Japan, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Stand out for AI Engineer - FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer)
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying AI Engineer - FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer) to a specific customer or deployment you owned — Databricks hires for shipped outcomes, not tool lists.
- Prepare a 5-minute “week one on site” plan: who you would meet, what you would inspect in their stack, and what artifact you would deliver by day five.
- Show you can go from discovery notes → working integration → production checklist without needing a large internal team.
- This role is tied to Tokyo, Japan — mention willingness to work on-site with customers and any existing ties to that market (clients, partners, or domain knowledge).
Stand out at Databricks
- Demonstrate Spark/SQL fluency with a concrete example — Databricks will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Demonstrate enterprise stakeholder management with a concrete example — Databricks will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Strong candidates show they can whiteboard a lakehouse migration and then actually implement the first milestone.
- Read recent engineering blog posts, product launches, and customer stories on databricks.com — reference one explicitly in your outreach to show genuine interest.
Tailored from this listing’s title, company, and description. Always verify requirements on the company careers page before applying.
Role description
Req: CSQ427R171
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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.
The impact you will have:
Develop cutting-edge GenAI solutions, incorporating the latest techniques from Databricks AI research 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, 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