Lead Forward Deployed Engineer - Databricks

Position Summary

At Deloitte, Lead Forward Deployed Engineers (LFDE) don't just build AI solutions, they help clients turn AI ambition into enterprise-scale impact, pairing leading class engineering with pod-based delivery and vertical expertise. If you thrive at the intersection of product, engineering, problem-solving, and client impact, this role puts you at the forefront of AI transformations.

Recruiting for this role ends on September 30, 2026

Work you'll do

As a Lead Databricks FDE, you will serve as the senior practitioner-leader embedded directly with our most strategic clients, leading forward-deployed engineering pods that develop and deploy GenAI solutions into production for Deloitte's most strategic clients. You'll set technical direction, remove delivery blockers, and stay hands-on; designing, reviewing, and debugging systems with the team. You'll translate engineering trade-offs into clear decisions for client leaders when needed. Your ability to influence decisions at the C-suite level, while maintaining hands-on technical credibility, is what sets you apart. Pods under your leadership may be deployed onshore with clients or in hybrid onshore/offshore configurations, leveraging Deloitte's global delivery capability to maximize speed and scale.

Client Engagement

• Serve as the senior client-facing presence, building trusted advisor relationships as the senior engineering partner for client product, data, and platform leaders
• Lead executive-level discovery, define success metrics (quality, latency, cost, adoption, risk) and a phased plan from prototype to production and scaling
• Navigate organizational complexity and influence to align executive sponsors, IT leadership, and business owners around a shared vision
• Represent Deloitte's FDE capability in client pursuits, executive briefings, and platform partner engagements-contributing to pipeline development and deal shaping.

Cross-Functional Pod Leadership & Program Governance

• Lead FDE pods of 2-5 onshore anchored and offshore supported engineers, owning execution, resource management, escalations and overall delivery health
• Enforce delivery standards across the pod: sprint cadences, stakeholder communication plans, risk management, and quality gates
• Coordinate multi-pod or multi-workstream engagements, ensuring reliable architecture and consistent client experience.
• Mentor and develop junior FDEs

GenAI Solution Development

• Architect and oversee delivery of LLM-enabled applications including copilots, agentic workflows, assistants, and knowledge search experiences using one or more enterprise AI platforms (see Platform Requirements below)
• Set direction for prompt engineering, tool-use patterns, and human-in-the-loop controls
• Govern end-to-end RAG pipeline design-including ingestion, chunking, embedding, vector retrieval, and hybrid search-ensuring production-grade quality and scalability.
• Define evaluation frameworks covering quality, hallucination risk, safety, latency, cost, and governance; ensure the pod meets agreed engineering quality bars to these standards.

Engineering & Data Foundations

• Review and contribute to production-quality code
• Guide architecture of data pipelines powering GenAI use cases
• Enforce strong data management, testing, CI/CD, logging, versioning, and documentation practices
• Deep familiarity with cloud environments (AWS, Azure, and/or Google Cloud)

The team

AI & Engineering leverages cutting-edge engineering capabilities to build, deploy, and operate integrated/verticalized sector solutions in software, data, AI, network, and hybrid cloud infrastructure. These solutions are powered by engineering for business advantage, transforming mission-critical operations. We enable clients to stay ahead with the latest advancements by transforming engineering teams and modernizing technology & data platforms. Our delivery models are tailored to meet each client's unique requirements.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Data Science or Engineering
• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, data science, or analytics engineering
• 1+ years of hands-on experience building and deploying GenAI/LLM-powered solutions in client or production environments
• 1+ years of experience with Databricks including hands on experience with one of the following key platform technologies; DBRX, MLflow, Vector Search, Databricks AI Gateway
• 1+ years of experience leading project workstreams/engagements and translating business problems into AI solutions
• 1+ years of experience building reliable, maintainable, and well-documented code
• Ability to travel 50%, on average, based on the work you do and the clients and industries/sectors you serve
• Limited immigration sponsorship may be available

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with cloud environments (AWS, Azure, and/or Google Cloud) and common platform services (storage, compute, IAM, networking)
• Demonstrated ability to work directly alongside client technical teams and program stakeholders in fast-paced, ambiguous delivery environments
• Data engineering experience with Spark, Airflow/dbt, streaming, data modeling or ML/data science background feature engineering, experimentation or model evaluation
• Experience with MLOps/LLMOps practices: evaluation frameworks, model monitoring, and prompt management
• Experience integrating LLM solutions with enterprise systems via APIs, microservices, or event-driven architectures
• Experience operating within hybrid onshore/offshore teams
• Familiarity with security, privacy, and compliance considerations

The wage range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. At Deloitte, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is $189,200 to $372,900.

You may also be eligible to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing the program, whereby an award, if any, depends on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.

Deloitte is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the recruiting process, please direct your inquiries to the Global Call Center (GCC) at USTalentCICInbox@deloitte.com.

Recruiting tips

From developing a stand out resume to putting your best foot forward in the interview, we want you to feel prepared and confident as you explore opportunities at Deloitte. Check out recruiting tips from Deloitte recruiters.

Benefits

At Deloitte, we know that great people make a great organization. We value our people and offer employees a broad range of benefits. Learn more about what working at Deloitte can mean for you.

Our people and culture

Our inclusive culture empowers our people to be who they are, contribute their unique perspectives, and make a difference individually and collectively. It enables us to leverage different ways of thinking, ideas, and perspectives, and bring more creativity and innovation to help solve our clients' most complex challenges. This makes Deloitte one of the most rewarding places to work.

Our purpose

Deloitte's purpose is to make an impact that matters for our people, clients, and communities. At Deloitte, purpose is synonymous with how we work every day. It defines who we are. Our purpose comes through in our work with clients that enables impact and value in their organizations, as well as through our own investments, commitments, and actions across areas that help drive positive outcomes for our communities. Learn more.

Professional development

From entry-level employees to senior leaders, we believe there's always room to learn. We offer opportunities to build new skills, take on leadership opportunities and connect and grow through mentorship. From on-the-job learning experiences to formal development programs, our professionals have a variety of opportunities to continue to grow throughout their career.

As used in this posting, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see https://www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or protected veteran status, or any other legally protected basis, in accordance with applicable law.

Qualified applicants with criminal histories, including arrest or conviction records, will be considered for employment in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, City of Los Angeles's Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the California Fair Chance Act. See notices of various fair chance hiring and ban-the-box laws where available. Fair Chance Hiring and Ban-the-Box Notices | Deloitte US Careers

Requisition code: 350642

Job ID 350642