Databricks to raise SG headcount by up to 50% as AI demand grows

Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji, senior vice president of field engineering and one of Databricks’ seven co-founders, says that the roles on hire span the “full gamut” of sales, engineering, marketing, and other functions. / Photo credit: Databricks

US startup Databricks plans to increase its Singapore headcount by up to 50% over the next year as it rolls out new AI products to meet growing enterprise demand.

The data management and AI company currently has more than 250 employees in Singapore, which serves as its headquarters for Asia Pacific and Japan, out of a regional workforce of more than 1,500.

It is already actively hiring for more than 50 new roles in the city-state, said Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji, senior vice president of field engineering and one of Databricks’ seven co-founders.

These roles span the “full gamut” of sales, engineering, marketing, and other functions, Tavakoli-Shiraji told The Business Times in a recent interview.

The startup was most recently valued at US$134 billion. Media reports have put its annualized revenue as of June at US$6.9 billion, up more than 80% year on year.

Niche roles

One “very interesting” area of hiring in Singapore is for forward-deployed engineers, said Nick Eayrs, vice president of field engineering for Asia Pacific and Japan, in a separate interview.

These are hybrid technical and customer-facing roles, which work with clients to customize AI systems for their business problems, rather than offering standard software tools.

Such roles have risen in prominence as AI companies help enterprises move from experimentation to production. In Singapore, firms such as OpenAI have also signaled plans to hire and train more people for these roles.

Asked if the focus on forward-deployed engineers means that companies are chasing the same limited pool of AI talent in Singapore, Eayrs acknowledged that “there is definitely a fight for talent.” But he noted that “talent wants to work with the latest capability, and talent wants to work on the biggest problems that are out there, and we’re doing both.”

See also: Ex-Alibaba team builds Asia’s answer to Databricks

“We’ve got 50-plus requisitions that are open in Singapore, and we continue to hire,” he added. “To be clear, there’ll be a lot more coming.”

Model flexibility