Senior Solutions Architect

Role Overview

We are looking for a Sr. Solutions Architect – Managed Services to join our Elastic Platform Operations (EPO) team.  In this role, you will operate, mature, and optimize modern cloud data platforms spanning streaming, data lakes, data warehouses, and analytics to ensure performance, security, scalability, and user satisfaction. You will collaborate closely with clients, internal engineering and support teams, and practice leadership to deliver high-quality solutions and advance phData’s delivery excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Client Delivery

• Own and drive the operation, reliability, and continuous improvement of modern cloud data platforms (streaming, data lakes, data warehouses, and analytics) for enterprise customers.
• Translate business and technical requirements into robust cloud-native data platform architectures and implementation plans that align with phData methodologies, standards, and best practices.
• Ensure engagements are delivered on time, within scope, and with measurable business value by providing architectural guidance and hands-on operational support for platforms such as Snowflake and Amazon Redshift.
• Proactively identify and articulate best practices, platform optimizations, and automation opportunities to help customers get the most value from their Cloud Data Platform.

Collaboration & Leadership

• Collaborate with cross-functional partners (engineering, analytics, ML, support, and others) to design, build, and operate modern data platforms for our clients.
• Act as a technical leader across multiple simultaneous customer accounts, skillfully navigating complex environments and aligning stakeholders on priorities and approaches.
• Provide technical and strategic leadership during workshops, discovery sessions, design reviews, and operational reviews, including creating and delivering detailed technical presentations.
• Ensure high quality in deliverables through rigorous troubleshooting, performance tuning, documentation, testing, governance, and change management.
• Partner with practice and account leaders to build Epics, Stories, and Tasks that mature and improve customer data platforms, delegating effectively to Engineers and ensuring successful and timely delivery.

Practice & Firm Contribution

• Contribute to internal initiatives such as codifying operational best practices, building accelerators, templates, and playbooks, and enhancing our cloud data platform offerings.
• Continually hunt for ways to automate and optimize existing processes, tooling, and workflows, and share improvements with the broader team.
• Train and mentor engineers on new technology stacks, operational practices, and platform standards.
• Represent phData with professionalism in all interactions, communicating clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Additional Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, shaping data platform roadmaps, influencing strategic decisions, and guiding long-term initiatives.
• Mentor and coach team members, fostering a culture of learning, feedback, and continuous improvement in cloud data platform operations.
• Help define and refine practice standards, reusable assets, and delivery frameworks for cloud-native data platforms and managed services.
• Lead complex incident response and post-incident review efforts, driving systemic improvements that enhance performance, reliability, and user satisfaction.

About You

You are a client-focused technical leader and problem solver who enjoys operating and improving complex cloud data platforms, driving automation, and coaching engineers to deliver reliable, scalable solutions. You are comfortable working in a fast-paced, outcomes-driven environment with distributed, global teams and partnering closely with clients across time zones.

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 10+ years of experience in modern cloud data platforms, data warehousing, consulting, and data engineering/operations.

Technical / Functional Skills

• Extensive experience providing architectural guidance and operational support for cloud-native data warehouses such as Snowflake and/or Amazon Redshift across a large user base.
• Expertise with cloud-native data technologies in AWS and/or Azure, including services such as S3, Aurora, Athena, Redshift, SageMaker, Azure SQL/DevOps, and Azure Data Factory.
• Production support experience in large enterprise environments supporting cloud data platforms and a variety of cloud data technologies.
• Strong working knowledge of SQL, with the ability to write, debug, and optimize complex queries for performance and maintainability.
• Strong troubleshooting, performance tuning, and database administration skills for cloud data platforms.
• Active daily use of AI coding tools (Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT, or equivalent) with demonstrated judgment about when to trust, verify, and correct AI-generated output. 
• Ability to describe specific engineering tasks completed with AI assistance.

Consulting / Delivery Skills

• Experience delivering projects for external or internal clients in a professional services or consulting environment.
• Ability to break down complex, ambiguous platform challenges into structured, actionable steps and drive them through to completion.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, including the ability to create and deliver detailed presentations to client and internal audiences.

Collaboration & Ownership

• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with distributed and cross-functional teams (including engineering, analytics, and support) to ensure seamless project delivery and high customer satisfaction.
• Proven track record of taking ownership, managing multiple priorities across several customer accounts, and delivering high-quality work with minimal supervision.
• Proven experience learning new technology stacks, training team members, and creating, challenging, and improving processes and procedures.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

Preferred qualifications help candidates stand out but are not required for success in this role.

• Production and/or database administration experience and certifications in core data platforms such as Snowflake, AWS, Azure, GCP, Hadoop, or Databricks.
• Production experience with cloud and distributed data storage technologies such as S3, ADLS, HDFS, GCS, Kudu, Elasticsearch/Solr, Cassandra, or other NoSQL storage systems.
• Production experience with data integration technologies such as Spark, Kafka, event/streaming platforms, StreamSets, Matillion, Fivetran, HVR, NiFi, AWS Data Migration Service, Azure Data Factory, Google Dataproc, or similar tools.
• Production experience with workflow management and orchestration tools such as Airflow, AWS Managed Airflow, Luigi, or NiFi.
• Working experience with infrastructure as code using Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Strong expertise in a scripting language (preferably Python) to automate repetitive tasks and improve operational efficiency.
• Experience with continuous integration and deployment frameworks and tools such as Bitbucket, GitHub, Flyway, and Liquibase.
• Experience as a technical team lead, providing direction, coaching, and support to engineers.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field.

Location & Time Zone Expectations

This role is based in the US and operates primarily in Central and Eastern time zones.

• We are a remote-first company, and you should be comfortable working with a distributed global team.
• Some flexibility may be required to collaborate across time zones with colleagues and clients.
• Client needs may occasionally require flexibility in working hours to support key milestones or workshops.

Why phData?

• Impactful Work: Partner with leading organizations on meaningful data & AI initiatives.
• Collaborative Culture: Work with a supportive, high-performing global team that values transparency, autonomy, and continuous improvement.
• Growth Opportunities: Access to challenging projects, mentorship, and structured development pathways.
• Values-Driven: We prioritize doing the right thing for our clients, our teams, and our community.

Benefits at phData

US:

• Remote-First Work Environment
• 401k plan with company match
• Dental and Vision insurance
• Home Office Equipment Stipend
• Annual stipend for Learning and Development
• Competitive comp, excellent benefits, 4 weeks PTO plan plus 10 Holidays (and other cool perks)