Industry Lead Solutions Architect - Financial Services
$363k+Application analysis
Industry Lead Solutions Architect - Financial Services at Databricks is a forward deployed data & ai platform role for engineers who want customer-facing technical work with real deployment ownership.
Reading this role
This Solutions / Sales Engineering role centers on technical discovery, demos, POCs, and helping buyers build internal consensus. Key signals from the listing: AWS, Azure, GCP, Government / DoD context.
About Databricks
Databricks sells a unified data platform to enterprises. Forward deployed engineers help customers migrate workloads and prove value on live data. The role is anchored in Georgia; Illinois; Massachusetts; New York; North Carolina; Washington, D.C., so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Signals in the listing
Stand out for Industry Lead Solutions Architect - Financial Services
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Industry Lead Solutions Architect - Financial Services to a specific customer or deployment you owned — Databricks hires for shipped outcomes, not tool lists.
- Bring a tight demo narrative: customer pain, live workflow, and measurable before/after — treat the interview like a compressed POC.
- Show how you qualify opportunities and say no to bad-fit pilots; Databricks values technical judgment in customer-facing roles.
- State clearance status clearly up front (active, expired, or eligible) and mention any prior NIPR/SIPR, IL5, or government cloud accreditation work — recruiters filter on this early.
- This role is tied to Georgia; Illinois; Massachusetts; New York; North Carolina; Washington, D.C. — mention willingness to work on-site with customers and any existing ties to that market (clients, partners, or domain knowledge).
- Compensation is in a senior band — emphasize staff-level scope: cross-team influence, architecture decisions, and customer exec communication.
Stand out at Databricks
- Demonstrate Spark/SQL fluency with a concrete example — Databricks will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Demonstrate enterprise stakeholder management with a concrete example — Databricks will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Strong candidates show they can whiteboard a lakehouse migration and then actually implement the first milestone.
- Read recent engineering blog posts, product launches, and customer stories on databricks.com — reference one explicitly in your outreach to show genuine interest.
Tailored from this listing’s title, company, and description. Always verify requirements on the company careers page before applying.
Role description
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Mission
The Industry Lead Solutions Architect will serve as the connective tissue between GTM leadership, field teams, partners, and customers to deepen Databricks' Financial Services positioning by sub-industry. In this role, you will develop opinionated points of view (POVs), and be the primary technical owner of domain-specific messaging and tailored assets, that establish credibility with customer technical and business leadership. You will work with Databricks account and GTM teams to position Databricks as a strategic partner in solving customers' most critical business challenges across Financial Services sub-verticals. This is a high-visibility individual contributor role that will bridge the gap between product capabilities and industry-specific business outcomes, working closely with account teams, partners, and product engineering to drive growth and technical excellence across your assigned vertical. You will split your time across customer-facing engagements, internal collaboration on content strategy and thought leadership, and partner engagement on joint GTM motions. You will report directly to the FS Tech GM leadership within the Financial Services team at Databricks.
The Impact You Will Have
Define and execute the Databricks Industry strategy — work with Industry GTM leaders to lead creation and curation of high-quality, sub-industry-specific assets (POVs, demos, reference architectures, customer references, evaluation templates, implementation plans) that showcase Databrick’s value for high-priority use cases across Financial Services sub-verticals (e.g., Capital Markets, Insurance, Banking, Payments, Professional Services, Alternative Investments, FinTech, Data Providers) Create standardized frameworks for asset quality and prioritization — define what "good" looks like for industry assets, and determine prioritization of asset creation including build-vs-partner decisions Drive joint GTM strategy with partners — collaborate with Global System Integrators (GSIs), Regional System Integrators (RSIs), and data partners to co-build assets, align partner solutions to Databricks sub-vertical POVs, and identify the right partners for specific use cases and implementations Embed with strategic Financial Services customers — engage directly with customer technical and business leadership, and advise on how Databricks solves their most pressing domain-specific challenges. Aggregate shared pain points across similar customers to refine messaging and asset creation strategy Guide customers through the full use case lifecycle — from establishing credibility and setting vision, through winning evaluations with "golden" POC templates and reference architectures, to realizing value with recommended implementation partners, sample SOWs, and value realization templates Scale Industry Adoption: You will act as the field enablement lead, training Solutions Architects (SAs) and partners on how to leverage Databricks assets to accelerate customer success globally.
What We Look For
Technical Expertise: 15+ years in a customer-facing pre-sales or consulting role, with deep experience in big data technologies (Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow) and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) Deep domain expertise in Financial Services — strong understanding of sub-industry dynamics across one or more of: Capital Markets, Banking & Payments, Insurance, Asset & Wealth Management, Alternative Investments, FinTech, or Financial Data Providers. Ability to engage credibly with senior business and technology leaders (e.g., Heads of Markets Technology, Chief Data Officers, Heads of Quant Research) Proven ability to develop and execute industry-specific GTM strategies — experience building outcome-focused content, POVs, and technical assets that resonate with both business and technical personas Cross-Functional Partnerships: Experience working with global system integrators, consulting organizations, financial services technology, or financial services data providers is a positive differentiator Leadership & Enablement: Strong communication skills with a track record of mentoring technical teams and enabling partner ecosystems (GSIs and regional boutiques). Excellent communication and storytelling skills — ability to craft compelling narratives that connect Databricks platform capabilities to measurable business outcomes for Financial Services customers Education: Undergraduate degree or higher in an engineering or mathematics discipline (Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, etc.)
Pay Range Transparency
Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here.
Local Pay Range
- $264,000—$363,000 USD
About Databricks
Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Benefits
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.