# Staff Forward Deployed Engineer at Alation

- Company: Alation
- What the company does: Global enterprises trust Alation to get their AI right — and keep it right. So we built the Alation Intelligence Operating System. Backed by a16z and Sapphire.
- Company website: https://www.alation.com
- Type: Startups
- Level: Senior
- Location: USA-REMOTE
- Work setup: Remote
- Pay: $167K to $227K base salary per year (USD)
- Posted: 2026-09-17
- Apply by: 2026-11-01
- Apply: https://alation.wd503.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/ExternalSite/job/USA-REMOTE/Staff-Forward-Deployed-Engineer_R10000785
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/alation-staff-forward-deployed-engineer/

## About the role

Design and prototype AI agent systems and agentic workflows that automate data governance processes and complex reasoning tasks within Alation's platform. Engage directly with enterprise stakeholders to understand their data ecosystems and governance challenges, translating requirements into technical roadmaps tied to Alation's Knowledge Layer capabilities.

## What they're looking for

- 8+ years in software engineering, with meaningful experience in customer-facing technical roles such as Solutions Engineer, FDE, or similar
- Hands-on experience with LLM frameworks and AI tooling, including familiarity with orchestration patterns, vector databases, and RAG architectures
- Experience delivering BI and data pipeline solutions, with strong SQL skills and familiarity with cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, GCP, or Azure
- Solid understanding of enterprise data governance, metadata management, and distributed systems architecture
- A builder's mindset: comfortable moving quickly from ambiguous requirements to working prototypes, iterating based on customer feedback
- Strong communication skills with the ability to engage both technical and business stakeholders and translate complex concepts into clear, actionable terms