Staff Designated Support Engineer

Role Overview

As a Staff Designated Support Engineer and technical expert in Apache Spark™ and associated data technologies, you will collaborate closely with Field and Engineering teams to provide specialized, high-impact support for Databricks' most significant customers within the Digital Native Business segment. This customer-facing role focuses on resolving complex technical issues and delivering customized solutions to advance client objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Execute advanced troubleshooting and root cause analysis to fix issues impacting performance and reliability across Spark, SQL, Delta Lake, Streaming, and the Databricks runtime, utilizing diagnostic tools such as Spark UI metrics, Mosaic AI Model Service, Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), and event logs.
• Identify and define continuous monitoring requirements that proactively detect early warnings of performance degradation, collaborating with Research & Development and Network Operations Center teams to optimize customer environments.
• Create rapid proof-of-concept solutions, test, deploy, and monitor enhancements developed by Databricks Engineering, demonstrating Spark, Machine Learning, and AI runtime capabilities aligned with customer business priorities.
• Develop and maintain detailed playbooks and knowledge bases covering frequent issues and their resolutions relating to Spark, Machine Learning, and AI workflows.
• Provide training to customer engineering and business teams on performance tuning best practices, debugging techniques, and the effective use of Databricks features.
• Pioneer new processes and programs, lead continuous improvement initiatives, and work cross-functionally to enrich the overall customer experience.
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor and primary point of contact in business review meetings, maintaining strong customer relationships.
• Engage onsite with Field Engineering, Sales, and Product groups during customer engagements and technical presentations to quickly resolve production-impacting challenges, exhibiting deep technical proficiency and building customer trust.

Desired Qualifications

• Over 10 years of experience in designing, developing, and troubleshooting distributed computing systems, with at least 4 years of hands-on production work delivering Spark, Machine Learning, and AI solutions using Python, Java, or Scala.
• Expertise in data engineering, including practical skills with Data Lakes, SQL-based databases, and cloud data warehousing or ETL platforms such as Snowflake, Redshift, and BigQuery.
• In-depth understanding of Spark core internals, Delta Lake/Iceberg, JVM optimization, and memory management, complemented by knowledge of AI technologies including Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Generative AI.
• Familiarity with cloud providers AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform, alongside experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, system monitoring, and alerting mechanisms.
• Three to five years of experience in customer-facing roles like Technical Account Manager or Solutions Architect, with demonstrated strong communication, relationship management, and problem-solving abilities.
• Strong proactive problem-solving skills with the ability to foresee, identify, and mitigate risks in production environments, applying sound business judgment and coordinating team efforts effectively.
• Proven leadership and collaboration capabilities, working across teams and engaging executive leadership to resolve impediments and promote customer success while producing significant documentation for self-service tools.

About Databricks

Databricks is a leading Data and AI company powering over 20,000 organizations worldwide, including numerous Fortune 500 companies. The platform offers unified solutions such as Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog, enabling enterprises to build scalable data and AI applications.

Additional Information

Databricks provides extensive employee benefits tailored to regional needs. The company emphasizes a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion, ensuring fair hiring practices without discrimination based on protected characteristics.

Compliance note: Access to export-controlled technology or source code for this role is subject to employer discretion regarding U.S. government licensing, which may influence hiring decisions.