Specialist Solutions Architect - Data Engineering & Warehousing (Digital Native Business)

Databricks is a data and AI company that provides a unified platform for data engineering, analytics, and AI applications. The Specialist Solutions Architect will lead technical strategy for customer accounts, design scalable data engineering and real-time analytics solutions, advise senior technical stakeholders, drive platform adoption, and develop a technical specialization.

Responsibilities:

• Own the end-to-end technical strategy for your accounts, from discovery through production deployment and consumption growth
• Lead complex architecture discussions — designing scalable, production-grade solutions spanning data engineering and real-time analytics
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to customer architects, engineering leads, and Directors
• Drive technical wins in competitive scenarios by demonstrating Databricks’ differentiation through custom-built solutions
• Develop and declare an emerging technical specialization (archetype) — becoming a go-to resource for your team in that domain
• Orchestrate cross-functional resources (DSAs, SAs, Partners) to deliver comprehensive solutions for complex customer needs
• Influence product direction by providing structured feedback on customer requirements and competitive gaps

Requirements:

• 6+ years in solutions architecture, technical pre-sales, or a senior hands-on technical role in the following areas:
• Data and Software Engineering: Deep hands-on experience with Apache Spark™ ecosystem (Spark Core, Spark SQL, Spark Streaming), message queues (e.g., Kafka), batch ingestion, performance tuning, and troubleshooting complex Spark workloads
• Data Applications Engineering: Experience building or supporting data-driven use cases, predictive analytics pipelines, or customer analytics platforms
• Data Warehousing & Migration: Experience migrating EDW workloads (e.g., legacy SQL, Redshift, Snowflake, Synapse, EMR) across OLAP/OLTP systems; advanced query tuning, governance, and MPP debugging
• Strong coding proficiency in Python and SQL — you must demonstrate live coding, debugging, and solution-building skills
• Deep expertise in distributed data systems architecture: designing scalable pipelines, streaming architectures, lakehouse patterns, and cloud-native data platforms
• Proficient on the Databricks Platform (or demonstrated ability to achieve proficiency rapidly) with a developing technical specialization in one area (e.g., real-time/streaming, ML/AI, data governance, migrations)
• Proven ability to lead architecture discussions with senior technical stakeholders — whiteboarding, design reviews, and trade-off analysis
• Experience with production deployments on public cloud (AWS, Azure, or GCP), including infrastructure, security, and governance considerations
• Track record of driving platform adoption and consumption growth within accounts
• Excellent communication skills — able to translate complex architectures into business value for both technical and executive audiences
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a quantitative discipline (or equivalent experience)
• Willingness to travel up to 30% as needed
• [Nice to have] Data Observability & Security: Telemetry, high-velocity log ingestion, anomaly detection, and familiarity with SIEM tools (e.g., Splunk, Elastic, Sentinel)
• Databricks certifications (Data Engineer, ML, Platform)
• Experience with competitive platforms (Snowflake, AWS native services, Azure Synapse) — understanding the landscape you'll position against
• Background in a data/AI company or cloud provider
• Industry domain expertise (Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail, Media, etc.)