Specialist Solutions Architect - Google Cloud Platform & Infrastructure
$248k+Application analysis
Specialist Solutions Architect - Google Cloud Platform & Infrastructure 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: Terraform / IaC, GCP, Python, 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 United States, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Signals in the listing
Stand out for Specialist Solutions Architect - Google Cloud Platform & Infrastructure
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Specialist Solutions Architect - Google Cloud Platform & Infrastructure 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.
- Link to or describe Terraform modules you wrote with environment promotion strategy (dev → staging → prod) and how you handled state and drift.
- The posting mentions multiple languages — pick the one most relevant to this team and show production code, not tutorial exercises.
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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As an Infrastructure & Platform Specialist Solutions Architect (SSA), you will guide customers in the administration and security of their Databricks deployments. You will be in a customer-facing role, working with and supporting Solution Architects. This role requires hands-on production experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP). SSAs help customers with the design and successful implementation of essential workloads while aligning their technical roadmap to expand the use of the Databricks Platform. As a deep go-to-expert reporting to the Specialist Field Engineering Manager, you will continue to strengthen your technical skills through mentorship, learning, and internal training programs, and establish yourself in an area of specialty - whether that be cloud deployments, security, networking, or more. This role can be remote.
The impact you will have:
Provide technical leadership to guide strategic customers to the successful administration of Databricks, ranging from design to deployment. Architect production-level deployments, including meeting necessary security and networking requirements. Become a technical expert in an area such as cloud platforms, automation, security, networking, or identity management. Assist Solution Architects with more advanced aspects of the technical sales process, including custom proof-of-concept content and custom architectures. Provide tutorials and training to improve community adoption (including hackathons and conference presentations). Contribute to the Databricks Community.
What we look for:
5+ years of experience in a technical role with deep expertise in GCP platform architecture, including cloud security, networking best practices, and designing data platforms on cloud infrastructure.
Deep specialized expertise in at least one of the following core domains:
Security & Identity: Platform, network, data, and GenAI/model security, encryption, vulnerability management, compliance, and identity management (Provisioning, SCIM, OAuth, SAML, Federation). Networking & Deployments: Architecture design, implementation, performance optimization, and managing complex, enterprise-scale cloud deployments. Platform Administration: High availability, disaster recovery, cluster management, observability (logging, monitoring, audit), and cost management. Infrastructure Automation (InfraOps): Hands-on deployment using IaC tools like Terraform to maintain and extend complex environments (including Databricks) as technical needs evolve. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent practical work experience. 2+ years of professional experience with big data technologies (e.g., Spark, Hadoop, Kafka) and distributed architectures. Hands-on experience with Python, Java, or Scala, and proficiency in SQL. 2+ years of experience in a pre-sales or post-sales technical role. Ability to meet expectations for technical training and role-specific outcomes within 6 months of hire. Willingness to travel up to 30% as needed.
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
- $180,000—$247,500 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.