Sr. Specialist Solutions Architect

About the role

You will serve as a trusted technical advisor guiding enterprise customers through the full lifecycle of Databricks deployments on Amazon Web Services (AWS). You will partner closely with internal and external stakeholders to design, validate, and deliver mission-critical workloads that align with customer technical roadmaps and the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. You will act as a subject matter expert in AWS infrastructure, cloud networking, and security compliance, translating complex requirements into robust architectural blueprints. This role emphasizes hands-on mentorship where you will continuously sharpen your skills through internal training, knowledge sharing, and collaborative learning. You will contribute to platform adoption by creating technical content, delivering tutorials, and engaging with the broader community. This position can be remote and reports to the Specialist Field Engineering Manager.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define and lead end-to-end architectural designs for Databricks on AWS, translating business requirements into secure, scalable, and highly available solutions.

Architect and implement production-grade infrastructure using AWS services, focusing on VPC networking, PrivateLink, IAM identity integration, and security compliance controls.

Serve as a domain expert in AWS infrastructure, infrastructure-as-code, cloud networking, identity management, and platform administration best practices.

Collaborate with Solutions Architects and Sales Engineers during complex technical sales cycles, building proof-of-concept architectures and technical artifacts on AWS.

Evaluate and recommend patterns for deploying Databricks workloads that meet enterprise performance, reliability, and cost objectives.

Lead proof-of-concept development, validation testing, and documentation to support customer evaluation and adoption.

Advise customers on automation strategies using Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, and AWS CDK.

Champion platform adoption through community engagement, including tutorials, hackathons, conference speaking, and open-source contributions.

Provide technical leadership across the deployment lifecycle, from initial design and pilot phases through production rollout and optimization.

Mentor junior engineers and collaborate with cross-functional teams to elevate the overall technical excellence of Databricks solutions on AWS.

Stay current with AWS service innovations and Databricks platform features to deliver cutting-edge architecture recommendations.

Act as a trusted advisor to customers, ensuring alignment with governance, risk, and compliance requirements in diverse operating environments.

Represent Databricks in technical discussions with enterprise stakeholders, influencing decisions that impact long-term platform strategy.

Drive continuous improvement by capturing lessons learned and best practices to enhance reference architectures and customer engagements.

Requirements

8+ years of hands-on experience in a technical role with deep expertise in Amazon Web Services (AWS), including cloud security, networking best practices, and enterprise data platform design.

5+ years of professional experience with distributed architectures and big data technologies such as Apache Spark, Hadoop, and Kafka.

5+ years of experience in a customer-facing technical role, including Pre-Sales, Post-Sales, or Consulting responsibilities.

Demonstrated ability to design and deliver secure, scalable, and highly available infrastructure on AWS.

Strong understanding of AWS identity and access management, including AWS IAM and AWS IAM Identity Center, and federation protocols such as SAML and OAuth.

Proven experience with AWS networking services, including VPC design, peering, PrivateLink, and performance optimization for large-scale environments.

Experience with infrastructure automation and Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or AWS CDK.

Solid knowledge of AWS observability and cost management services, including Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, and AWS Cost Management.

Experience with disaster recovery, high availability patterns, and cluster orchestration in cloud environments.

Ability to work effectively with technical and executive stakeholders in fast-paced, ambiguous, and customer-facing situations.

Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into actionable recommendations.

Willingness to travel as required for customer engagements, and compliance with applicable visa and work authorization requirements for United States-based roles.

Practical notes

Work is remote eligible. Travel may be required as part of customer engagements. Visas may be required for United States-based roles depending on candidate location.