Deployment Strategist
- Your exceptional interpersonal skills and charisma naturally build C-suite trust and rapport, making you a great trusted advisor who can navigate political landscapes.
- Your ability to inspire and align a team is perfect for managing the cross-functional FDE team and driving collaborative execution.
- You are highly attuned to customer needs and can represent their voice effectively in the PRD and prioritization process.
- You may need to develop a firmer product thinking and strategic rigor to scope value quantitatively and manage scope creep without being overly accommodating.
- The role's focus on 'relentless execution' and unglamorous tasks like manual QA can feel draining against your desire for harmony and meaningful connection.
CSQ327R152
About the Team
The FDE (Forward Deployed Engineering) team is a new, strategic initiative sponsored from the CEO and Founders down. Our mission is to win C-suite-sponsored, high-value AI opportunities by selling and delivering outcomes, not just a platform.
You will be part of the founding team, embedded with our most strategic customers from the very first sales call, all the way through to a production-ready solution. You will be the "product manager" for the customer's problem, responsible for the "why" and "what," while our FDEs (Engineers) will be your partners responsible for the "how."
Role Description
As a Deployment Strategist (DS), you are the critical bridge between a customer's multi-million dollar business problem and Databricks' technical solution. You are a "product manager for the field," owning the entire non-technical lifecycle of an FDE engagement.
You will partner with our Account Executives to build C-suite trust, perform deep discovery to map the customer's political and technical landscape, and, most importantly, scope the value. You will define the Minimum Viable Product for a pilot, write the PRD that guides the engineering team, and manage the project to a successful landing.
This role requires a rare mix of C-suite gravitas, deep product-style thinking, and a hands-on, "get it done" execution mindset.
The impact you will have:
- C-Suite Scoping & Value Definition: Partner with Sales to perform deep discovery, map the customer's organization, quantify the business value ($10M+ problems), and define the pilot (MVP, success criteria, timeline).
- End-to-End Product Ownership: Act as the "CEO" of the project by authoring the PRD, prioritizing the engineering backlog, relentlessly managing scope, and acting as the primary hands-on QA tester.
- Agile Project Execution & Delivery: Drive the FDE build team via an agile process, manage all stakeholder communications from the C-suite to individual engineers, and act as the "escalation manager" to unblock all technical or political issues.
- Solution Launch & Landing: Own the "Day 0" launch, manage the war room, and drive the solution from launch to full adoption by capturing user feedback, iterating, and proving the defined business value.
- Strategic Handoff & Growth: Scope the ongoing maintenance plan, create customer documentation/training, and leverage your trusted advisor status to identify the next high-value FDE engagement.
What we look for:
- Executive Presence & Communication: A "Trusted Advisor" with C-suite gravitas and superb communication skills. You are opinionated, humble, and can build rapport and drive decisions in days, not weeks.
- Product & Strategy Mindset: A "Product Thinker" and "Systems Thinker" who can perform a SWOT analysis, understand a competitive landscape, and define "what" to build and "why."
- Relentless Execution: An "Execution Driver" with a "Hands-On" mentality. You are relentless, an expert at escalation, and willing to do the unglamorous work to get the project done.
- Ideal Experience: Proven experience as a Deployment Strategist or in a high-growth startup environment in a hands-on ‘builder’ or ‘founder’ capacity. Alternatively, strong background in senior, client-facing product or delivery roles within leading technology companies or top-tier consultancies.
- Proven Skills: Demonstrated experience in value-based scoping (TCO/ROI), managing agile software projects, writing PRDs, and the ability/interest to travel up to 50%.
About Databricks
Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
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.
Best personality fits for this role
Your natural leadership and ability to drive decisions quickly are a perfect match for a role that demands managing escalations and unblocking issues across the C-suite and engineering.
Read the ENTJ career guide →Your exceptional interpersonal skills and charisma naturally build C-suite trust and rapport, making you a great trusted advisor who can navigate political landscapes.
Read the ENFJ career guide →Your strategic thinking and ability to zoom out on the big picture directly align with the role's need to map customer landscapes and quantify $10M+ value.
Read the INTJ career guide →