Principal Solutions Architect (Databricks)

Role overview A boutique data and AI consultancy is hiring a Principal-level Solutions Architect to own its entire Databricks practice end to end. The role blends technical pre-sales, lead architecture on flagship engagements, and partnership leadership with the Databricks field organization. It is a senior, high-autonomy position reporting to delivery leadership and partnering directly with executive sponsors.

Responsibilities - Lead technical discovery and architecture sessions with client engineering and data leadership on Databricks opportunities, including competitive evaluations against alternative platforms - Design Lakehouse reference architectures spanning Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, workflow orchestration, and ML/AI components, sized to client data volume, governance posture, and cost constraints - Own the technical content in proposals and statements of work, including diagrams, migration approaches, team composition, and effort estimates - Act as lead architect on the largest engagements, setting direction for teams of three to six engineers and staying accountable through production handoff - Build and run the co-sell motion with Databricks field teams, drive partner tier advancement and specialization roadmaps, and represent the firm at partner events and conferences - Develop internal enablement programs, reusable architecture patterns, and certification pathways so engineering teams start from proven templates

Requirements - Eight or more years in data engineering, data architecture, or platform engineering, with at least four years architecting on Databricks in production environments - Deep solutions-architect command of Spark, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Databricks Workflows, Delta Live Tables, MLflow, and Mosaic AI, plus fluency in at least one major cloud and infrastructure as code - Proven pre-sales experience leading technical discovery, authoring proposal architecture, and winning deals against credible competition - Track record of enterprise delivery, including at least one large-scale migration to Databricks from a legacy warehouse, Hadoop, or homegrown Spark platform - Executive communication skills paired with the ability to debug alongside engineers in a notebook - Experience working within or alongside a technology partner ecosystem (consultancy, SI, or platform vendor); willingness to travel roughly 25%

Nice to have - Prior exposure to regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, retail, or manufacturing

Benefits and work setup - Base salary plus partnership performance bonus tied to Databricks-sourced pipeline and closed revenue - Full ownership of a growing practice with direct executive support - Professional development budget covering certifications, conference attendance, and speaking opportunities - Flexible remote work environment - Unlimited paid time off and paid parental/bereavement leave - Equal-opportunity employer; background checks may apply for certain projects