Forward Deployed Engineer

Extraordinary teams building inspiring projects:

Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world's infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place. 

Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers' objectives to create a lasting positive impact. We serve the Infrastructure; Nuclear, Security & Environmental; Energy; Mining & Metals, and the Manufacturing and Technology markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. 

Core to Bechtel is our Vision, Values and Commitments. They are what we believe, what customers can expect, and how we deliver. Learn more about our extraordinary teams building inspiring projects in our Impact Report. 

Our offices in Gurgaon, Vadodara and Chennai will grow significantly and sustainably with exciting career opportunities for both professionals and young graduates who are passionate about creating a cleaner, greener, and safer world; building transformational infrastructure; making decarbonization a reality; and protecting people and the environment.

Job Summary:

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you will operate at the intersection of advanced data engineering and real-world business execution—embedding with operational teams to uncover gaps, translate ambiguous needs into clear technical plans, and deliver production-grade solutions that measurably improve throughput, reliability, and efficiency. This is not a “back-office” engineering role. You will be on the front lines with stakeholders in operations, supply chain, finance, customer success, or project delivery—working side-by-side to understand how work happens, why bottlenecks occur, and what decisions need better data and automation.

You will design and implement end-to-end data products that connect disparate systems (ERP, MES, CRM, ticketing tools, IoT/telemetry, logistics platforms, and third-party APIs) into governed, trusted datasets and real-time event streams. You’ll build scalable pipelines using modern data stack patterns (batch + streaming), apply strong engineering practices (testing, CI/CD, observability, performance tuning), and model business entities in a way that enables reliable analytics and operational applications. Where appropriate, you will layer decision support and intelligent workflows on top—such as anomaly detection, recommendations, or AI-assisted triage—always grounded in security, auditability, and business outcomes.

A successful FDE is equally comfortable writing production code and whiteboarding with business owners at all levels within the company, up to the C suite. You will run discovery sessions, define measurable success metrics, prototype quickly, and then harden solutions into durable systems with documentation and enablement so teams can sustain and extend what you build. You will manage trade-offs across time, scope, and complexity, prioritizing pragmatic delivery while still building the right foundations for scale.

This role suits someone who thrives in ambiguity, enjoys earning trust through execution, and brings a “builder” mindset to solving operational problems. Expect a fast iteration cadence, frequent stakeholder interaction, and occasional travel to where the work happens. Your impact will be measured not only by shipped software, but by improved operational performance and business confidence in data.

Major Responsibilities:

1. Embed with business teams to identify operational pain points, define success metrics, and prioritize use cases.
2. Design and build scalable batch and streaming pipelines (ingestion → transformation → modeling → serving).
3. Implement real-time/event-driven architectures using streaming tools (e.g., Kafka/Event Hubs/Kinesis) with SLAs.
4. Create strong data models/semantic layers representing core business entities and workflows (orders, assets, shipments, etc.).
5. Deliver operational applications and decision workflows (dashboards, workflows, write-backs, audits) that drive action.
6. Ensure reliability and governance: testing, lineage, access controls, data quality checks, monitoring, and incident response.
7. Collaborate with security/compliance/IT to meet enterprise requirements for privacy, auditability, and controls.
8. Document solutions and enable users/engineers through playbooks, training, and repeatable patterns. 

Education and Experience Requirements:

Bachelor’s degree in CS/Engineering/STEM (or equivalent practical experience) and 5-8 years of relevant experience or 9-12 years of relevant work experience

Required Knowledge and Skills:

• Exp in software engineering, data engineering, or platform engineering delivering production systems.
• Strong coding ability in Python & SQL; experience with Spark/PySpark or equivalent distributed processing.
• Proven experience building streaming & near-real-time data solutions (Kafka/Event Hubs/Kinesis or similar).
• Experience integrating data from APIs, databases, files, & operational systems; handling messy/heterogeneous data.
• Solid understanding of data modeling, schema evolution, incremental processing, & performance optimization.
• Experience with cloud data ecosystems (Azure/AWS/GCP) & modern storage/compute patterns (lakehouse/warehouse).
• Strong engineering discipline: version control, testing, CI/CD, observability/monitoring, & production support.
• Experience delivering solutions on Palantir Foundry or similar enterprise data platforms (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake), including production pipelines, governance, and operational applications.
• Familiarity with Foundry Ontology &/or operational application patterns (semantic modeling, object-centric workflows, write-backs, access controls) & willingness to ramp quickly in Foundry.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with platforms like Palantir Foundry, Databricks, Snowflake, or comparable enterprise data platforms.
• Experience with orchestration tools (Airflow, ADF, Prefect) and data quality frameworks.
• Exposure to AI-enabled operational workflows (RAG/LLM apps, recommendations, anomaly detection) in governed settings.
• Prior customer-facing/embedded role (solutions engineering, consulting, or forward-deployed delivery) & willingness to travel.

Total Rewards/Benefits:

For decades, Bechtel has worked to inspire the next generation of employees and beyond! Because our teams face some of the world's toughest challenges, we offer robust benefits to ensure our people thrive.  Whether it is advancing careers, delivering programs to enhance our culture, or providing time to recharge, Bechtel has the benefits to build a legacy of sustainable growth. Learn more at Bechtel Total Rewards

Diverse teams build the extraordinary:

As a global company, Bechtel has long been home to a vibrant multitude of nationalities, cultures, ethnicities, and life experiences. This diversity has made us a more trusted partner, more effective problem solvers and innovators, and a more attractive destination for leading talent.

We are committed to being a company where every colleague feels that they belong-where colleagues feel part of "One Team," respected and rewarded for what they bring, supported in pursuing their goals, invested in our values and purpose, and treated equitably. Click here to learn more about the people who power our legacy.