Strategic Overview
Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering at Databricks is a dev opportunity centered on the specialist responsibilities and outcomes described in the employer's listing.
The published role emphasizes work such as Oversee regional performance targets, including billable utilisation, team growth, and hiring, while championing delivery excellence and customer success across the FDE portfolio. Partner with Account Executives, Engagement Managers, and Field Engineering…
The role is listed for Munich, Germany with the working arrangement published with the role, giving candidates the practical context needed to assess fit before applying.
Key information at a glance
About This Role
CSQ128R182
Databricks is redefining what organisations can achieve with data and AI. As the unified platform powering the world's most ambitious data-driven enterprises, we sit at the intersection of cloud migrations, AI transformation, and real-time intelligence and our customers challenge us every day to go further.
As Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering , you will lead a high-performing team of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) at the forefront of this transformation. Partnering with Databricks' most strategic enterprise customers, you will shape how leading organisations migrate to the lakehouse, build next-generation AI and GenAI systems, and unlock sustained business value from their data investments.
Key Responsibilities & Objectives
- Oversee regional performance targets, including billable utilisation, team growth, and hiring, while championing delivery excellence and customer success across the FDE portfolio.
- Partner with Account Executives, Engagement Managers, and Field Engineering leaders to position, scope, and deliver transformational Professional Services (PS) programs spanning data migrations, AI/ML platforms, and advanced analytics.
- Establish best practices for project oversight, risk management, and quality standards that scale with a growing FDE practice, ensuring projects are delivered on time and to specification.
- Synthesise field insights from your team’s engagements to provide direct feedback to Engineering and Product management, helping to guide the Databricks roadmap while driving the creation of reusable customer accelerators and frameworks.
Required Qualifications & Candidate Blueprint
- Key requirements 4+ years leading high-performing technical delivery teams, with a proven track record building excellence-driven cultures
- Familiarity with Databricks, Apache Spark™, MLflow, Delta Lake, or the modern data and AI ecosystem
- Consulting / professional services background with a hands-on technical foundation
Salary & Benefits
The available source data does not publish a numerical salary range for this opening. We do not estimate or substitute third-party figures.
Full Job Description
The following is the complete job description supplied by the source. We sanitize unsafe markup and remove external links, but do not shorten or rewrite the employer's source content.
CSQ128R182
Databricks is redefining what organisations can achieve with data and AI. As the unified platform powering the world's most ambitious data-driven enterprises, we sit at the intersection of cloud migrations, AI transformation, and real-time intelligence and our customers challenge us every day to go further.
As Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering, you will lead a high-performing team of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) at the forefront of this transformation. Partnering with Databricks' most strategic enterprise customers, you will shape how leading organisations migrate to the lakehouse, build next-generation AI and GenAI systems, and unlock sustained business value from their data investments.
As a people leader, you will build and scale a team that represents Databricks' highest standard of technical excellence and customer impact. Your team will partner with enterprises across industries to architect and deliver mission-critical solutions, from large-scale data migrations and legacy modernisation programs to cutting-edge generative AI, MLOps, and AI agent deployments. You will set the bar for delivery quality, grow world-class talent, and drive the strategic governance framework that ensures every engagement is executed with precision and measurable impact.
The impact you will have:
- Oversee regional performance targets, including billable utilisation, team growth, and hiring, while championing delivery excellence and customer success across the FDE portfolio.
- Partner with Account Executives, Engagement Managers, and Field Engineering leaders to position, scope, and deliver transformational Professional Services (PS) programs spanning data migrations, AI/ML platforms, and advanced analytics.
- Establish best practices for project oversight, risk management, and quality standards that scale with a growing FDE practice, ensuring projects are delivered on time and to specification.
- Synthesise field insights from your team’s engagements to provide direct feedback to Engineering and Product management, helping to guide the Databricks roadmap while driving the creation of reusable customer accelerators and frameworks.
- Serve as the critical escalation point for high-stakes customer situations, leveraging deep technical credibility and leadership judgment to protect strategic relationships and drive rapid resolution.
- Mentor Forward Deployed Engineers through structured career pathways, technical coaching, and a culture of innovation, mastery, and continuous growth.
What we look for:
Key requirements
- 4+ years leading high-performing technical delivery teams, with a proven track record building excellence-driven cultures
- 5+ years as a technical solutions architect or data/AI engineer, providing coaching credibility
- Familiarity with Databricks, Apache Spark™, MLflow, Delta Lake, or the modern data and AI ecosystem
- Consulting / professional services background with a hands-on technical foundation
- Proven technical depth to personally build with AI, coach teams with best practices, drive organisation-wide adoption
- Demonstrated success leading large-scale data platform migrations and AI/ML programs in enterprise environments
- Strong understanding of technical project delivery, including scope, timelines, and SOW management
- Strong stakeholder management skills navigating complex, high-stakes customer environments
- Ability to travel to customer sites approximately 20% of the time
Nice-to-Haves
- Prior experience at a hyperscaler (Google, AWS, Azure) or a top data/AI company
- An in-house/industry stint alongside vendor-side delivery experience
About Databricks
Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram.
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.
Editor’s Market Perspective (Our Custom Analysis)
Why This Position Matters
This dev opening is a useful opportunity for candidates whose experience matches the role-specific capabilities named in the listing. Its strongest career signal is the scope of the work itself — particularly Oversee regional performance targets, including billable utilisation, team growth, and hiring, while championing delivery excellence and customer success across the FDE portfolio. — rather than a generic title alone.
Resume & Application Strategy
For the application, mirror the employer's language where it truthfully matches your background: foreground the role-specific capabilities named in the listing, quantify outcomes from comparable work, and place the most relevant experience near the top of the resume. If the listing specifies tools, platforms, leadership scope, or domain experience, use those exact terms in context instead of presenting an unrelated keyword list.
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