Lead AI Forward Deployed Engineer – Databricks

Posted 2 days ago

on data staffingSacramento (CA)

Data Scientists Computer Systems Design Services

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About the role

Lead AI Forward Deployed Engineer – DatabricksON Data Staffing is partnering with a leading Data & AI consultancy to recruit an experienced Lead AI Forward Deployed Engineer – Databricks to join their growing consulting practice. This is a senior, highly client-facing engineering role focused on designing, building, and deploying AI-native solutions on Databricks. You'll work directly with enterprise clients to understand complex business problems, assess their data and AI architecture, define the right technical approach, and build production-grade AI solutions that create measurable business impact. This role combines AI Engineering, Data Engineering, Solution Architecture, and hands-on development, so we're looking for someone who can move comfortably from client discovery and architecture through to building and deploying the solution.

What You'll Be Doing: Work directly with business and technical stakeholders to identify high-value AI and Data use cases Design, build, and deploy production-grade AI solutions on Databricks Lead client discovery sessions covering business workflows, data availability, AI opportunities, platform maturity, integrations, and success criteria Architect AI-native data platforms supporting agentic workflows, RAG, semantic analytics, model deployment, retrieval systems, and operational AI applications Build solutions using Mosaic AI, Databricks Agents, Model Serving, Vector Search, MLflow, Unity Catalog, Databricks Apps, Genie, and Lakebase Develop AI agents, RAG applications, semantic layers, data products, and decision-support applications Partner with AI Engineering, Data Engineering, Analytics, Security, and Governance teams to deliver secure and scalable AI solutions Build prototypes, AI demos, technical reference architectures, and reusable accelerators Take AI solutions from proof of concept through to production Support technical pre-sales and help shape AI and Databricks-led client opportunities Contribute to technical thought leadership and the continued development of the wider AI & Databricks practice

What We're Looking For: We're looking for an experienced AI Engineer / Forward Deployed Engineer who combines strong Databricks expertise with a builder's mindset and excellent client-facing skills. You'll ideally have: Strong experience across AI Engineering, ML Engineering, Data Engineering, Solution Architecture, or Software Engineering Hands-on experience building and deploying AI/ML solutions on Databricks Strong Python and SQL skills Experience with Mosaic AI, MLflow, model deployment, Databricks Workflows, and Unity Catalog Experience with modern enterprise AI patterns including RAG, AI Agents, model serving, vector search, semantic layers, and evaluation frameworks Experience translating ambiguous business problems into technical AI solutions Strong communication skills with the ability to engage executives, architects, engineers, and business stakeholders The ability to move comfortably between strategy, architecture, and hands-on AI engineering Experience taking AI solutions from prototype through to productionAI & Databricks Experience Experience across the following would be highly desirable: Generative AI and RAGAI Agents and agentic workflows Mosaic AIDatabricks Agents Model Serving Vector SearchMLflow Databricks Apps Genie Lakebase Feature pipelines and feature stores Semantic layers and analyticsAI evaluation, monitoring, and governance Production ML and AI deployment patterns Ideal Background Previous experience within Consulting, Professional Services, Forward Deployed Engineering, AI Engineering, Solution Architecture, or technical client delivery Strong hands-on Databricks and AI/ML delivery experience Databricks certifications are highly desirable Experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform Experience designing and deploying production GenAI, ML, or agentic AI systems Comfortable creating architecture diagrams, technical roadmaps, prototypes, demos, and reusable AI accelerators Strong understanding of building secure, governed, scalable, production-ready AI systems Passion for helping enterprise organisations use Databricks as the foundation for enterprise AI at scale

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