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. Key signals from the listing: AWS, Azure, GCP, Government / DoD context.
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 Remote - Netherlands, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Signals in the listing
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.
- State clearance status clearly up front (active, expired, or eligible) and mention any prior NIPR/SIPR, IL5, or government cloud accreditation work — recruiters filter on this early.
- This role is tied to Remote - Netherlands — 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
AI Engineer - FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer)
Location: Netherlands - Remote
Req ID: CSQ327R197
Recruiter: Dina Hussain
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. We welcome remote applicants located near our offices. Preferred locations (in priority order): London (UK), Madrid (Spain), Paris (France), and Amsterdam (NL). Reporting to: Senior Manager - AI FDE, EMEA
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, 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)
About Databricks
Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
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.