Solution Architect – Data & AI Solutions

EXL; Hyderabad; Hybrid; INR 3,000,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

EXL is seeking an experienced Solution Architect for Data & AI presales in Hyderabad. You will design client-friendly demos, articulate complex architectures to executives, and contribute to RFP/RFI responses, shaping deals with differentiators in Data & AI solutions.

You will architect distributed, scalable data and AI platforms for presales demonstrations, build multi-model AI orchestration layers, and lead event-driven architectures using Kafka, SQS, and similar tools.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in software architecture, presales engineering, or enterprise data/AI platform design.
• Expertise in at least two hyperscaler platforms: Azure, AWS, GCP.
• Proven experience architecting distributed systems, microservices, and scalable AI/ML platforms.
• Strong knowledge of Data Governance, Data Quality, Metadata, Lineage, and DataOps.
• Experience with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, ELK).
• Advanced programming with Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or Go.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes, Istio, and serverless design patterns.
• Experience with CI/CD automation, GitOps, Terraform, Helm.
• Strong presentation, storytelling, and client engagement skills.

Responsibilities

• Partner with sales and industry teams to design client-ready demos, proof-of-concepts, and technical solution blueprints.
• Present complex architectures in a clear, business-outcome-driven manner to executive and technical stakeholders.
• Contribute to RFP/RFI responses, solution proposals, and deal shaping.
• Act as a trusted advisor in client conversations, highlighting differentiators of Data & AI Solutions.
• Architect distributed, scalable, and resilient data and AI platforms for presales demonstrations.
• Lead implementation of event-driven architectures using messaging frameworks (Kafka, Pulsar, SQS) and state machines.
• Build reusable, industry-specific demo environments leveraging hyperscaler services and data platforms.
• Define and enforce observability standards for demo and enterprise environments.
• Define security models (RBAC/ABAC, IAM) and ensure compliance (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC2).
• Work with Product, Data Science, Engineering, Governance teams to align demos with business/regulatory needs.

Skills

Software architecture

Presales engineering

Enterprise data/AI

Azure

AWS

GCP

Distributed systems

Data governance

Data quality

Data lineage

Observability

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

ELK

Python

JavaScript

Go

Kubernetes

Istio

Serverless

CI/CD

GitOps

Terraform

Helm

Presentation

Client engagement

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/Engineering

Tools

Kubernetes

CNCF ecosystem

Terraform

Git

Job description

• Partner with sales and industry teams to design client-ready demos, proof-of-concepts, and technical solution blueprints.


• Present complex architectures in a clear, business-outcome-driven manner to both executive and technical stakeholders.


• Contribute to RFP/RFI responses, solution proposals, and deal shaping.


• Act as a trusted advisor in client conversations, highlighting differentiators of Data & AI Solutions.


• Architect distributed, scalable, and resilient data and AI platforms for presales demonstrations.


• Design abstraction layers for multi-model AI orchestration, including fallback logic, dynamic model switching, and cost control.


• Lead implementation of event-driven architectures using messaging frameworks (Kafka, Pulsar, SQS, etc.) and state machines.


• Build reusable, industry-specific demo environments leveraging hyperscaler services and data platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with sales and industry teams to design client-ready demos, proof-of-concepts, and technical solution blueprints.


• Present complex architectures in a clear, business-outcome-driven manner to both executive and technical stakeholders.


• Contribute to RFP/RFI responses, solution proposals, and deal shaping.


• Act as a trusted advisor in client conversations, highlighting differentiators of Data & AI Solutions.

Solution Architecture & Demo Environments

• Architect distributed, scalable, and resilient data and AI platforms for presales demonstrations.


• Design abstraction layers for multi-model AI orchestration, including fallback logic, dynamic model switching, and cost control.


• Lead implementation of event-driven architectures using messaging frameworks (Kafka, Pulsar, SQS, etc.) and state machines.


• Build reusable, industry-specific demo environments leveraging hyperscaler services and data platforms.

Observability, Security & Compliance

• Define and enforce observability standards for demo and enterprise environments (logging, tracing, telemetry, real-time alerting).


• Implement zero-trust security models (RBAC/ABAC, IAM, OAuth2, encryption, API gateways).


• Ensure all demo and client environments meet compliance standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, SOC2.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work with Product, Data Science, Engineering, and Governance teams to align demos with business/regulatory needs.


• Collaborate with IMUs (verticals) to build domain-specific demo templates (e.g., Insurance claims, Healthcare payment integrity, Banking KYC/fraud, Retail personalization).


• Provide hands-on support to engineering teams during delivery, troubleshooting, and performance tuning.

Innovation & Technical Leadership

• Stay ahead of hyperscaler advancements, AI/ML frameworks, and orchestration patterns.


• Drive technical due diligence, PoCs, and vendor/platform evaluations.


• Create technical artifacts (architecture diagrams, design patterns, runbooks).


• Mentor presales engineers and junior architects in solution design and client presentation skills.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.


• Certifications preferred: - Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP).


• Kubernetes / CNCF ecosystem.


• Architecture frameworks (TOGAF, SAFe).

Skills & Experience

Must-Have Skills & Experience

• 15+ years in software architecture, presales engineering, or enterprise data/AI platform design.


• Hands-on expertise in at least two hyperscaler platforms: - Azure (Fabric, Synapse, Data Factory, Azure ML, Power BI).


• AWS (Redshift, Glue, S3, SageMaker, Lake Formation).


• GCP (BigQuery, Dataplex, Vertex AI, Pub/Sub).


• Proven experience architecting distributed systems, microservices, and scalable AI/ML platforms.


• Strong knowledge of Data Governance, Data Quality, Metadata, Lineage, and DataOps.


• Expertise in event-driven systems and asynchronous workflows.


• Hands-on with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, ELK).


• Advanced programming with Python (async), TypeScript/JavaScript, or Go.


• Familiarity with Kubernetes, service mesh (Istio), serverless design patterns.


• Experience with CI/CD automation, GitOps, Terraform, Helm.


• Strong presentation, storytelling, and client engagement skills.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with multi-tenant SaaS platforms and usage-based billing.


• Familiarity with data mesh, knowledge graphs, and semantic interoperability.


• Knowledge of frontend architecture patterns (micro-frontends, data visualizations).


• Experience building presales demo or sandbox environments.

Exposure to agentic AI concepts and LLM-based orchestration.