Field Engineering Manager, Specialist Solutions Architects

Databricks; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Databricks is seeking a Specialist Solutions Architect Manager in the United States. You will lead a team of SSA's responsible for key elements of the technical sales cycle, growing expertise in enterprise software, data engineering, and data science/ML, and guiding complex customer architectures.

Reporting to the Director, Field Engineering, you will hire, train, and grow the team, collaborate with Sales and Solution Architects, and drive platform usage while reducing churn in strategic

Qualifications

• 5+ years leading Data & AI Engineering teams, technical pre-sales and/or post-sales teams.
• 5+ years developing data solutions with distributed computing, cloud data warehousing, MLOps, Generative AI infrastructure.
• Strong discovery, architecture validation, POC/MVP management, and value-selling frameworks.
• Trusted advisor to technical executives guiding strategic data infrastructure decisions.
• Self-starter, challenger, strategic planner & analytical thinker.
• Experience hiring, ramping, and promoting team members.
• Experience collaborating with Sales, Product Management, and Forward Deployed Engineering teams.
• Native proficiency in Korean is a must and business level English is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Hire, train, and grow a diverse SSA team for Databricks.
• Exceed regional consumption targets by coordinating with cross-functional teams.
• Make customers successful with Databricks and deliver outsized business value.
• Establish cross-functional relationships to enable customer and team success.
• Grow Platform usage and reduce churn in strategic accounts.
• Foster morale and collaboration between Field Engineering, Sales, and partners.
• Resolve customer questions on strategic accounts and manage escalations.
• Mentor team members and build clear career paths.

Skills

Data & AI Engineering

Team leadership

Pre-sales / post-sales

POC/MVP management

Value selling

Executive advisory

Strategic planning

Mentoring

Job description

The Specialist Solutions Architect Manager will lead a team of Specialist Solutions Architects (SSA’s) responsible for key elements of the technical sales cycle. You will grow and develop a dynamic team with expertise in areas including enterprise software, data engineering, and data science/machine learning, who will continue to deepen their knowledge of Databricks as the platform expands. You will guide and get involved to enhance your team's effectiveness; be an expert at communicating complex, business value-focused solutions; support complex sales cycles and customer architectures; and build relationships with key stakeholders in large corporations.

The SSA Team is engaged in our most important and complex customer engagements, providing deep technical expertise to both new and existing customers. Your team provides specialist expertise to the Solution Architect (SA) and Sales teams, which are responsible for developing and overseeing the overall technical account strategy.

Reporting to the Director, Field Engineering.

The impact you will have:

• You will hire, train, and grow a diverse team of Specialist Solutions Architects for Databricks, a company in hyper-growth mode
• Exceed your region's consumption targets - by working with your cross-functional counterparts to determine where to deploy your team of technical experts to drive the most critical use cases forward
• Make your customers extremely successful with Databricks and provide outsized value to their businesses
• Establish relationships across the business to make your customers and team successful
• Grow Databricks Platform usage and prevent churn in strategic accounts by overseeing and retiring a regional growth quota
• Create positive morale for the team and help foster a working relationship between Field Engineering, Sales, and other important internal partners
• Help resolve customer questions and concerns on accounts and opportunities deemed strategic by Sales and Pre-sales field leadership
• Act in a supportive manager capacity, including handling escalations, mentoring team members, building a career path for the assigned team members, etc.

What we look for:

• 5+ years of experience leading Data & AI Engineering teams, technical pre-sales and/or post-sales teams, with a proven track record in the management of elite technical individual contributors.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in developing data solutions with highly technical platforms (e.g., distributed computing, cloud data warehousing, MLOps, Generative AI infrastructure).
• Strong skillset in technical discovery, architecture design validation, structured proof-of-concept (POC/MVP) management, and value-selling frameworks.
• Trusted advisor to technical executives who guide strategic data infrastructure decisions
• Team player, but able to challenge and define priorities.
• Self-starter, challenger, strategic planner & analytical thinker.
• Experience hiring qualified candidates, ramping them up to be successful, and promoting into larger roles.
• Experience working with other teams such as Sales, Product Management, and Forward Deployed Engineering teams.
• Native proficiency in Korean is a must and business level English is preferred

About Databricks

Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog.

At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.

Compliance

If access to export-controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.