Solutions Architect - Japan

Zilliz is a fast-growing startup developing the industry's leading vector database company for enterprise-grade AI. Founded by the engineers behind Milvus, the world's most popular open-source vector database, the company builds next-generation database technologies to help organizations quickly create AI applications. On a mission to democratize AI, Zilliz is committed to simplifying data management for AI applications and making vector databases accessible to every organization.

• Lead customer-facing technical engagements throughout the pre-sales and post-sales lifecycle, including discovery, solution architecture, technical demonstrations, POCs, and production deployments.
• Partner closely with Sales teams to articulate technical value propositions, address customer requirements, and remove technical barriers to adoption.
• Design and recommend scalable, secure, and high-performance architectures tailored to enterprise customer environments.
• Develop and standardize repeatable processes, best practices, and reference architectures to improve delivery efficiency and consistency across customer engagements.
• Create and maintain technical enablement materials, such as tutorials, solution guides, white papers, and tooling, to support both customers and internal teams.
• Act as a technical liaison between customers and product/engineering, providing structured feedback and influencing product roadmap decisions.
• Build long-term, trusted relationships with key customers and user communities, identifying expansion opportunities and driving deeper adoption.
• Support customers end-to-end, from initial evaluation and trial through production rollout and ongoing optimization.

• Bachelor’s degree or above in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in a customer-facing technical role such as Sales Engineer, Solutions Architect, Pre-Sales Engineer, or Dev Ops/Infrastructure Engineer supporting enterprise software.
• Strong understanding of cloud-native architectures, distributed systems, databases, and modern data or machine learning platforms.
• Hands‑on experience explaining complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience engaging with open-source technologies and communities, with a solid understanding of open-source principles and collaboration models.
• Familiarity with the Japan enterprise technology landscape and customer environment is a strong plus.
• Fluent in Japanese, both written and verbal.
• A proactive, collaborative team player with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Startup mindset: comfortable with ambiguity, eager to build from scratch, and motivated to improve processes rather than wait for them to exist.
• A fast learner who enjoys solving complex problems, balancing thoughtful analysis with decisive action in a fast‑paced environment.