Director, Field Engineering (CPG & Retail)
Application analysis
Director, Field Engineering (CPG & Retail) 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: Senior scope.
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 United States, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Signals in the listing
Stand out for Director, Field Engineering (CPG & Retail)
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Director, Field Engineering (CPG & Retail) 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 United States — 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 Id: Feq427r375
Mission:
As the Director of Field Engineering, you will be responsible for partnering with our enterprise Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and Retail customers to democratize Data and AI within their organizations, leveraging Databricks solutions and expertise to address their most critical business challenges. Reporting to the Tech GM of Field Engineering for Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), the Director, Field Engineering will lead a team of pre-sales Managers and Solutions Architects focused on acquiring new customers and expanding strategic relationships across the Retail and CPG industry. You will work closely with Sales, Product, Engineering, Customer Success, and executive stakeholders to drive strategy and execution against our ambitious growth goals. You will foster a culture of psychological safety while developing and scaling a high-performing team with expertise in enterprise software, data engineering, analytics, AI/ML, and cloud technologies. Your experience partnering with Sales will help drive complex enterprise opportunities while coaching managers and field engineering teams to deliver exceptional customer outcomes. You will guide your team through strategic engagements, communicate complex technical solutions in terms of business value, support enterprise sales cycles, and build trusted relationships with senior business and technology leaders across the Retail and CPG industry.
The impact you will have: