Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer
About this role
The team builds end-to-end data and AI solutions on the Databricks platform to help enterprise organizations scale their analytics and machine learning applications. Engineers in this customer-facing group work directly with clients in Tokyo to design architectures, build production-grade systems, and guide strategic big data transformations. The position exists to drive technical project delivery while bridging the gap between complex engineering challenges and measurable business outcomes.
Professionals in this capacity handle hands-on software development, data pipeline creation, and model integration while embedding directly within client teams. Successful individuals combine deep technical competence in distributed computing with strong customer empathy and stakeholder management abilities. Candidates who enjoy collaborating across engineering, product, and developer relations while traveling up to 20 percent of the time will find a strong fit here.
What you will do
- Lead impactful customer technical projects by delivering production-grade systems, designing reference architectures, and integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence models.
- Guide strategic customers through the end-to-end design, build, and deployment of big data applications alongside engagement managers.
- Bootstrap and implement customer projects to facilitate the successful evaluation, understanding, and adoption of the Databricks platform.
- Own architecture and design decisions to ensure that solutions remain secure, scalable, and aligned with technical best practices.
- Collaborate with internal engineering and support groups to provide implementation feedback and resolve product issues.
- Embed directly with customer teams ranging from technical individual contributors to executives to understand challenges and deliver value.
- Contribute accelerators, frameworks, and best practices that scale impact across accounts and influence the product roadmap.
What you need
- Bring 10 or more years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, or data platforms and analytics.
- Write code comfortably in Python, Scala, JavaScript, TypeScript, and modern frameworks.
- Demonstrate working knowledge across at least two common cloud ecosystems including AWS, Azure, or GCP, with deep expertise in at least one.
- Possess deep experience with distributed computing using Apache Spark alongside knowledge of its runtime internals.
- Understand CI/CD pipelines for production deployments, MLOps practices, and AI APIs.
- Design and deploy performant end-to-end data architectures combining pipelines, models, and user-facing interfaces.
- Communicate fluently in Japanese while maintaining professional working proficiency in English.
Nice to have
- Travel to customers 20% of the time
- Databricks Certification
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the travel requirement for the role?
The position requires traveling to visit customers 20% of the time. Candidates should be prepared for customer-facing immersion and on-site collaboration.
What language proficiencies are required?
Applicants must be fluent in Japanese with a professional working proficiency in English. This is necessary for engaging with diverse stakeholders and enterprise clients.
What type of technical background is expected?
The team looks for 10+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, or data platforms and analytics. Candidates must also have deep experience with distributed computing using Apache Spark.