Forward-Deployed Delivery Lead (AI & Data)

Confiz is seeking a Forward-Deployed Delivery Lead (AI & Data) who combines strong technical expertise, strategic delivery leadership, and a customer-first mindset.

We are looking for individuals with a Forward-Deployed Delivery (FDD) mindset who embed directly within customer environments, develop a deep understanding of business objectives and technical architecture, lead distributed delivery teams, and ensure the successful execution of AI and data-driven solutions. The ideal candidate brings hands-on technical knowledge, strong business acumen, and the ability to engage confidently with customer executives, architects, and engineering teams.

Work Location: Denver, CO – Hybrid (Minimum 3 days onsite per week)

Employment Type: Full-time

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary on-site point of contact for the customer, engaging with executive sponsors, business stakeholders, architects, and engineering teams.
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive understanding of the customer's business model, business units, KPIs, priorities, and stakeholder landscape.
• Own end-to-end delivery of strategic AI and data engagements, ensuring alignment between business objectives, technical solutions, and delivery outcomes.
• Prepare for customer meetings through thorough research and bring tangible deliverables, including technical findings, prototypes, query results, and actionable recommendations.
• Own and manage the end-to-end solution architecture, including data ingestion, data modeling, governance, AI agents, and underlying platforms.
• Understand, interpret, and explain data schemas; independently write and execute SQL queries to address customer questions and business requirements.
• Demonstrate a strong understanding of Databricks agents and agentic platforms, including their architecture, capabilities, limitations, and implementation.
• Present technical designs, solution demonstrations, and architectural trade-offs to customer executives, architects, and technical stakeholders.
• Review delivered solutions to ensure alignment with actual customer business needs and expected outcomes.
• Manage engagement scope, delivery plans, milestones, dependencies, risks, and decision logs.
• Lead delivery ceremonies, including sprint planning, daily standups, project reviews, and executive steering meetings.
• Manage scope changes, competing priorities, and stakeholder expectations while maintaining delivery quality and timelines.
• Provide clear and effective project updates to Confiz and customer leadership.
• Translate customer requirements, business context, and feedback into actionable direction for distributed and offshore engineering teams.
• Ensure engineering teams understand the business purpose behind their deliverables and can confidently communicate project progress and technical solutions.
• Mentor team members and encourage engineers to independently present their work during customer meetings and demonstrations.
• Identify emerging risks, changing business priorities, and potential opportunities for account growth, providing proactive recommendations.
• Leverage AI tools in daily workflows to improve research, preparation, technical problem-solving, and delivery efficiency.

Requirements

• 10-12+ years of professional experience delivering data, analytics, or AI engagements, including at least 3 years in customer-facing delivery leadership.
• Hands-on experience with Databricks or equivalent lakehouse platforms, including Unity Catalog, Delta Tables, Workflows, and data governance.
• Strong SQL skills and practical experience working with notebooks, with the ability to quickly understand and explain unfamiliar data schemas.
• Working knowledge of LLM-based agent architectures, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), tool usage, orchestration, and evaluation.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end data and AI solution architecture, including ingestion, data modeling, governance, and agentic platforms.
• Proven ability to quickly understand new business domains and establish credibility with business and technical stakeholders.
• Experience managing distributed, offshore, or cross-functional engineering teams.
• Demonstrated ability to manage project delivery, stakeholder expectations, risks, scope, and competing priorities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with both executive leadership and technical teams.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with the ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments.
• Willingness and ability to work on-site with customers in Denver, CO, at least 3 days per week.
• Proficiency in leveraging AI tools to enhance daily productivity and delivery workflows.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Data Science, or a related field.
• 10-12+ years of relevant professional experience in AI, data engineering, analytics, solution architecture, or technology delivery.
• At least 3 years of experience leading customer-facing technology delivery engagements.

Good to Have

• Databricks Certifications: Databricks Data Engineer or Generative AI Engineer certifications.
• AI & Agentic Tooling: Hands-on experience with Databricks Genie, Mosaic AI, and agent development tools.
• Technical Background: Previous experience as a Solution Architect, Data Engineer, or Product Manager before transitioning into delivery leadership.
• Consulting Experience: Background in consulting or professional services, with accountability for both project delivery and account health.
• Industry Experience: Experience in telecom, media, retail, or other data-intensive industries with multiple business units.
• Data Governance: Experience establishing and implementing enterprise data governance frameworks across multiple business units.
• AI-Native Mindset: Actively leveraging AI tools to accelerate research, technical problem-solving, and delivery workflows.
• Business Acumen: Ability to connect technical implementations with measurable business outcomes and customer priorities.
• Forward-Deployed Mindset: Comfortable working directly within customer environments, independently navigating technical ambiguity, and taking ownership of outcomes from discovery through delivery.

We have a global team of amazing individuals working on highly innovative enterprise projects & products. Our customer base includes Fortune 100 retail and CPG companies, leading store chains, fast growth fintech, and multiple Silicon Valley startups.

What makes Confiz stand out is our focus on processes and culture. Confiz is ISO 9001:2015 (QMS), ISO 27001:2022 (ISMS), ISO 20000-1:2018 (ITSM) and ISO 14001:2015 (EMS) Certified. We have a vibrant culture of learning via collaboration and making workplace fun.

People who work with us work with cutting-edge technologies while contributing success to the company as well as to themselves.

To know more about Confiz visit