Forward Deployed Data Engineer
US$180,000 – US$230,000 / yr base salary
Posted 3 Sep 2026
Advertised as “Forward Deployed Data Engineer - Houston”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Management level
- People management
| Base salary | US$180,000 – US$230,000 / yr |
|---|
The Opportunity
As a Forward Deployed Data Engineer (FDE) on our US Launch Team, you will act as the principal technical anchor embedded directly within high-stakes enterprise client accounts (focusing heavily on the Energy Sector). You won't just be writing specs or advising from afar—you will be on the front lines in client environments, bridging the gap between C-suite data strategy and hands-on production code.
Working at the tip of the spear alongside our elite partners at Databricks and Anthropic, you will lead architecture design, modernize brittle legacy ecosystems into cloud-native Lakehouses, build agentic AI data harnesses, and guide integrated "SWAT" pods to ship working software in weeks rather than months.
Key Responsibilities
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Embedded Technical Leadership: Serve as the primary technical authority on client engagements. Partner directly with client VP/CTO stakeholders to scope architectures, map data domains, and turn complex requirements into execution-ready engineering plans.
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Hands-On Lakehouse Modernization: Roll up your sleeves to write and optimize production PySpark, Databricks SQL, and Delta Live Tables (DLT)—actively refactoring complex legacy logic (Informatica, PL/SQL, legacy stored procedures) into Medallion Architectures.
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Agentic AI & Data Infrastructure: Architect deterministic, secure data "harnesses" that integrate LLM workflows (Anthropic/Claude) into traditional enterprise data pipelines safely and cost-effectively.
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DataOps & IaC Ownership: Write modular Terraform scripts to provision cloud environments (AWS/GCP), manage governance and lineage via Unity Catalog, and enforce CI/CD rigor across projects.
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Pod & Delivery Guidance: Partner with our LATAM-based nearshore engineering squads (600+ experts) as the US technical lead—conducting code reviews, debugging performance bottlenecks, and maintaining high engineering standards.
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Technical Unblocking & Escalation: Act as the ultimate technical safety net. If a pipeline breaks or a deployment stalls at 2:00 AM, you have the hands-on depth to jump into the code, fix the issue, and keep client delivery on track.
Qualifications & Requirements
Technical Mastery & Execution