Sr. Manager, AI Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE)
Application analysis
Sr. Manager, AI Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE) 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 Sr. Manager, AI Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE)
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Sr. Manager, AI Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE) 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
Sr. Manager, AI Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE)
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Mission
The AI Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE) team is a highly specialized customer-facing AI team at Databricks. We deliver professional services engagements that help customers build and productionize first-of-its-kind GenAI applications, and we work cross-functionally with AI Product, Research, and Engineering to shape long-term strategic priorities. We are looking for a world-class leader to lead and grow our AI FDE team. In this role, you will lead customers on their AI transformation with Databricks, push the boundaries of our product, recruit and develop top data scientists/machine learning engineers, and manage a portfolio of key accounts. Candidates should expect to travel at least once a month. While candidates in the listed location(s) are encouraged for this role, candidates in other locations will be considered.
The impact you will have:
Lead and scale a high-performing AI forward deployed engineering team, including hiring, mentoring, and building a team structure to support long-term growth and execution at scale Shape cross-functional collaboration by influencing Product, R&D, and GTM, ensuring voice-of-customer insights and delivery learnings help inform the product roadmap and GTM strategy Develop and expand executive relationships with key customers and partners (including VP+, CIO/CDO-level stakeholders), acting as a trusted advisor during complex technical engagements and AI transformations Partner with Field Engineering and Sales leadership to set strategy for strategic accounts and coordinate delivery ac