Hire a Data Forward Deployed Engineer
AX3 data forward deployed engineers embed with your teams to build the pipelines, models and data products that decisions actually depend on — in your warehouse, your orchestration stack and your governance model. Engagements typically start within two to three weeks and are scoped to a production data outcome, not a discovery report.
Talk to usWhat a data forward deployed engineer actually does
Data programmes stall when the platform exists but the data products do not. A data FDE works from the decision backwards: which metric, which owner, which system of record — then builds the ingestion, modelling, quality checks and serving layer needed to make that metric trustworthy every morning.
They work in your stack — Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, dbt, Airflow, Fabric or Salesforce Data 360 — and treat contracts, tests and lineage as part of delivery rather than as a later governance project.
Ingestion & integration
Batch and streaming pipelines from ERP, MES, CRM, product and third-party sources with reliable reprocessing.
Modelling & semantics
Dimensional and semantic models, dbt projects and shared metric definitions that survive reorganisations.
Quality & contracts
Data tests, contracts, freshness SLAs, lineage and alerting so failures surface before the business finds them.
Data products
Serving layers, APIs, reverse ETL and dashboards designed around a named decision and a named owner.
Four ways to engage — with pricing model and speed to start.
| Model | Best for | Pricing model | Speed to start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single Data FDE | Unblocking one critical data product or migration | Monthly engineer rate | 2–3 weeks to start |
| Data FDE + Pod | Platform build plus a backlog of data products | Fixed monthly pod cost | 3–4 weeks to a running team |
| Outcome-scoped | A defined migration or production data product | Milestone-based commercial model | Scoped in 1–2 weeks |
| Contract-to-Hire | Standing up a permanent data engineering team | Engagement rate, then an agreed conversion fee | 2–4 weeks |
Swipe the table sideways to see all columns.
Placed where AX3 already delivers.
Semiconductor & Hi-Tech
Yield, test and equipment data pipelines at production volume.
View skillsManufacturing
MES, OEE and quality data unified across plants.
View skillsCPG & Retail
Demand, trade promotion and retail execution data products.
View skillsEnergy & Utilities
Asset, sensor and field-service data at scale.
View skillsHire a Data Forward Deployed Engineer — frequently asked questions
What is a data forward deployed engineer?
An embedded senior data engineer accountable for a production data outcome — pipelines, models, quality and serving — built inside your platform and handed over to your team.
Which data platforms do your engineers work in?
Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Microsoft Fabric, dbt, Airflow and Salesforce Data 360, alongside the ERP, MES and CRM systems that feed them.
Can a data FDE help with a warehouse migration?
Yes — migrations are a common engagement, typically run incrementally with parallel validation so reporting never goes dark during the cutover.
How do you make sure the data is trusted?
Contracts, tests, freshness SLAs, lineage and alerting are built with the pipeline, and each data product has a named business owner who signs off the definition.
Talk to AX3 about data forward deployed engineering
Tell us which decision is missing trustworthy data. We will embed engineers who can build and hand over that data product.