Forward Deployed Engineer

Climb

46d•Remote

About The Position

Forward Deployed Engineers build the features and components that make up Climb's client engagements. You work inside real client environments alongside a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer or Forward Deployed Architect, taking well-scoped pieces of work from design through implementation and deployment. At Climb, this is where you learn the forward-deployed craft. You are fully autonomous on the work assigned to you: you own your components, make the implementation decisions within them, and are accountable for the quality of what you ship. The architecture of the wider system and the client relationship sit with more senior Climbers, which gives you room to go deep on the build while you develop the judgment that comes with broader scope. Our engagements focus on building production data platforms, AI applications, intelligent agents, and modern analytics systems, most often on Databricks, but always using the technologies that best fit the client's environment and business goals.

Requirements

2+ years of software engineering, data engineering, or technical delivery experience.
Demonstrated ability to take a scoped requirement and deliver working, production-quality software with limited supervision.
Hands-on experience in one or more of: application or backend development, cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP), data pipeline development, or LLM application development.
Strong fundamentals in at least one primary language (Python, Scala, Java, or equivalent) and SQL.
Clear communicator: can explain what you built, what you decided, and where you are stuck, to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
Comfort working in someone else's codebase and environment, and adapting to a client's constraints and standards.
Genuine appetite to learn the client-facing side of the work, not just the systems and code.

Nice To Haves

Exposure to Databricks (Delta Lake, Workflows, Unity Catalog, Mosaic AI) or a comparable modern data platform.
Experience with production AI or LLM systems: RAG pipelines, agents, or model-backed applications.
Familiarity with CI/CD, testing discipline, and infrastructure-as-code.
Prior consulting, systems integrator, agency, or other client-facing experience.
Experience working with AI-assisted development and agentic tooling (e.g., Claude Code or equivalent).
Databricks experience is valued but not required at hire. Both Databricks and Anthropic certification are expected to be obtained post-hire.

Responsibilities

Build the components and features you are assigned: production data pipelines, LLM applications, agents, and workflow automations that meet spec and hold up under real load.
Own the implementation decisions within your scope and be accountable for the quality, testing, and reliability of what you ship.
Work from a scoped brief: turn a defined requirement into working software without needing to be told how.
Participate in architecture reviews, standups, and working sessions; ask the questions that surface constraints early.
Raise blockers, risks, and scope changes to your Senior Engineer or Architect as soon as you see them, not after they land.
Write documentation and runnable, maintainable code so the client can operate what you build after the engagement ends.
Engage directly with client engineers and stakeholders in the course of your work, with support from more senior Climbers on the broader relationship.
Build your range deliberately: pick up new tools, patterns, and parts of the stack as engagements require.