Principal Architect - Databricks

About Us

Since 1989, SHI International Corp. has helped organizations change the world through technology. We’ve grown every year since, and today we’re proud to be a $16 billion global provider of IT solutions and services.

Over 17,000 organizations worldwide rely on SHI’s concierge approach to help them solve what’s next. But the heartbeat of SHI is our employees – all 7,000 of them. If you join our team, you’ll enjoy:

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Our commitment to diversity, as the largest minority- and woman-owned enterprise in the U.S.

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Continuous professional growth and leadership opportunities.

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Health, wellness, and financial benefits to offer peace of mind to you and your family.

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World-class facilities and the technology you need to thrive – in our offices or yours.

Job Summary
We are expanding our Databricks capability within the Data and AI practice and are looking for a Principal Solutions Architect to lead the technical side of it.

You will work directly with customers from the outset, qualifying opportunities, conducting technical discovery with customer architects and data leaders, designing target-state platforms, and owning the technical win. Much of the work ahead involves platform build-out, migration, and consolidation, helping enterprises move to the Databricks Lakehouse from Hadoop and Spark estates, legacy analytics platforms, established data warehouse and appliance environments, and other cloud platforms. The role also supports AI and machine learning initiatives that Databricks is designed to enable.

This is a senior individual contributor position with significant influence over the solutions we build and bring to market. It is ideal for someone who wants to shape a capability rather than operate within one that is already defined. Role Description

Own the Technical Side of Databricks Pursuits

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Lead qualification, technical discovery, target architecture design, effort estimation, and risk assessment.

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Develop technical content for proposals and Statements of Work (SOWs).

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Build and maintain technical relationships with customer architects and stakeholders.

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Provide customers with realistic and accurate assessments of migration complexity, implementation effort, AI workload readiness, and associated risks.

Provide Architectural Oversight Through Delivery

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Review architecture decisions throughout project delivery.

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Confirm that the delivered solution aligns with what was originally scoped and proposed.

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Surface technical risks and issues early in the engagement.

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Remain closely involved throughout delivery to ensure accountability for architecture and outcomes.

Shape Databricks Service Offerings

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Define the technical content of market-facing Databricks offerings.

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Establish what is included in scope, how success is measured, and what evidence validates successful completion.

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Create repeatable delivery standards and frameworks that teams can execute consistently.

Partner with Databricks

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Engage directly with Databricks field teams and specialist architects on joint customer accounts.

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Build productive relationships with Databricks technical teams.

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Effectively collaborate and navigate technical challenges, feedback, and differing viewpoints from vendor architects and specialists.

Behaviors and Competencies

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Willingness to Learn: Can apply new learning to daily work, encourage and facilitate learning in others, and actively make changes to work based on feedback.

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Self-Development: Can demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning and adaptability to new ideas and methods.

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Leadership: Can take ownership of complex team initiatives, collaborate with others in decision-making processes, and drive team performance.

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Strategic Thinking: Can analyze complex situations, anticipate future trends, and align and integrate strategies across departments or functions.

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Problem-Solving: Can proactively identify and take ownership o