Senior Solutions Architect; Data & AI

JOB R333

Location:

Leeds/Manchester, United Kingdom - remote contract

Industry: Enterprise Retail or CPG (UKI Enterprise)

As a Sr. Solutions Architect, you are an expert-level technical leader responsible for the organisation's most complex customer engagements. You drive consumption strategy, own executive-level relationships, and serve as the definitive technical authority for your accounts. You have declared your archetype—a recognised technical specialisation that makes you a force multiplier across your team and region. You operate at the intersection of deep technical expertise, strategic account planning, and executive influence.

• Drive the technical and consumption strategy for the organisation's most complex customer engagements, directly influencing platform adoption and revenue growth.
• Own senior-level technical relationships — serving as a trusted advisor on enterprise data and AI strategy
• Lead the most complex architecture engagements: multi-workload platforms, enterprise-wide migrations, real-time systems, and AI/ML at scale
• Operate as an Expert on the Databricks Platform with a declared archetype — actively mentoring others and driving horizontal impact across your team
• Develop and execute competitive strategies for your customers, positioning Databricks against incumbent and emerging platforms
• Orchestrate cross-functional teams (DSAs, SSAs, Partners, Product) to deliver enterprise-grade solutions
• Coach and develop junior SAs (L3–L5) on technical depth, customer engagement, and use case prioritisation
• Contribute to Field Engineering thought leadership through customer-facing content, workshops, and community engagement

• 8+ years in solutions architecture, principal engineering, technical pre-sales leadership, or a senior customer-facing technical role
• Expert-level coding proficiency — Python, SQL, and ideally Spark/PySpark. You will complete a live coding assessment and a platform build during the interview
• Deep expertise in enterprise data architecture: distributed systems at scale, streaming/real-time, lakehouse design patterns, data governance frameworks, and cloud-native platforms
• Expert-level Databricks Platform knowledge (or equivalent depth in competing platforms with demonstrated rapid learning ability)
• Declared technical specialisation with recognised depth — e.g., real‑time architectures, ML/AI platforms, data governance, large‑scale migrations, or industry‑specific solutions
• Proven track record of driving consumption growth and platform adoption in large accounts
• Executive presence — ability to influence Directors, VPs, and C-level stakeholders on long‑term data and AI strategy
• Experience leading competitive displacements and complex enterprise evaluations
• Strong strategic thinking — connecting technical architecture decisions to business outcomes and revenue impact
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a quantitative discipline