Databricks
Pre-sales Solutions Architect (Manufacturing, Defence & Automotive)
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Senior Pre-Sales Data & AI Specialist – London, UK
JOB ID: FEQ327R451
Role: Pre-Sales Data & AI Specialist (Focus: Enterprise Manufacturing, Defence and Automotive) Recruiter: Dina Hussain Location: London, UK (with 20-30% business travel across UK&I and EMEA) Industry: Manufacturing, Defence, Automotive Reporting To: Manager, Field Engineering
About the Role
At Databricks, our mission is to empower businesses with a unified data and AI platform—bringing data science, analytics, and AI within reach of everyone. Our culture thrives on proactivity, customer-centricity, and innovation, fostering a space where creativity, experimentation, and continuous learning drive meaningful outcomes.
As a Pre-Sales Data & AI Specialist, you’ll act as a technical evangelist, leveraging your expertise to help customers solve complex data and AI challenges. Working closely with Account Executives and customers, you will:
- Build trusted advisory relationships to guide adoption of the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.
- Develop reference architectures, best-practice guides, and demo applications to support enterprise adoption.
- Lead workshops, seminars, and community events to scale expertise across UK, Ireland, and EMEA.
- Grow as a technical specialist, deepening knowledge in Generative AI, MLOps, and modern data architectures.
Your Impact
- Customer Growth: Strengthen relationships with enterprise clients in Manufacturing, Defence, and Automotive, delivering technical and business value.
- Platform Advocacy: Position Databricks as the leader in unified data and AI, driving adoption through technical storytelling and proof-of-concept (PoC) leadership.
- Community Building: Lead technical debates, customer meet-ups, and thought leadership to grow Databricks’ presence in the region.
- Team Development: Mentor junior team members, fostering both technical and customer-facing excellence.
Key Responsibilities
Technical & Architectural Leadership
- Design and deliver high-impact PoCs for AI/ML, Generative AI, and data pipelines, showcasing Databricks’ capabilities.
- Author reference architectures, how-tos, and technical documentation to standardise best practices.
- Collaborate with R&D and product teams to align solutions with evolving customer needs.
- Stay ahead of trends in Generative AI (fine-tuning, RAG, MLOps for LLMs), Spark, and cloud-native platforms.
Customer Engagement & Solution Design
- Engage with customers at all levels (execs to engineers), challenging assumptions and shaping clear technical/strategic outcomes.
- Lead pre-sales lifecycle activities:
- Use case discovery and requirements gathering.
- Solution scoping and architecture design for data, AI, and analytics workloads.
- Pitch refinement (technical and business narratives).
- Foster account team alignment, ensuring seamless collaboration between pre-sales, consulting, and delivery.
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Community & Thought Leadership
- Host and participate in customers, partners, and internalakon events to expand Databricks’ influence.
- Contribute to internal knowledge-sharing platforms (e.g., cooking documentation, training materials).
Team Growth & Mentorship
- Onboard and mentor junior team members, helping them develop technical depth and customer-facing skills.
- Share insights to cultivate a culture of learning and innovation within Field Engineering.
What We Look For
Core Technical Qualifications
✅ Hands-on pre-sales/consulting experience (3+ years preferred) with a deep background in Data Science, covering:
- Traditional ML, Deep Learning, AI, and Generative AI (fine-tuning, RAG, LLM optimisation).
- End-to-end AI/data solution design, with expertise in modern Generative AI tools (e.g., fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), MLOps for LLMs).
- Proficiency in open-source and cloud tools such as Dataiku, Domino, DataRobot, or similar.
✅ Programming & Data Technologies:
- Strong proficiency in Python or SQL (essential for demoing, document analysis, and solution discussions).
- Willingness to learn Spark (or existing knowledge), with familiarity in big data analytics (e.g., Delta Lake, Spark SQL, PySpark).
- Experience with public clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP), including serverless, containerisation, and data lakehouse architectures.
✅ Proof-of-Concept & Delivery:
- Proven ability to design, execute, and present complex PoCs (for AI pipelines, data lakes, or generative AI systems).
Pre-Sales & Customer-Centric Skills
✅ Technical Sales Expertise:
- Can challenge stakeholder assumptions and guide discussions toward actionable outcomes.
- Communicates both technical intricacies and business impact effectively across engineer-to-exec audiences.
- Full pre-sales cycle experience, including:
- Use case identification (What problem are we solving?).
- Solution scoping (How will Databricks deliver value?).
- Architecture storytelling (Technical narrative for buy-in).
✅ Customer & Partner Relationships:
- Natural collector, passionate about building long-term customer trust.
- Internalxis with Account Management, Product Marketing, and Delivery teams to ensure seamless client handoff.
- Exhibits a growth mindset, able to learn quickly and adapt to evolving tech stacks.
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Seniority & Leadership
✅ Mentorship & Collaboration:
- Track record of mentoring technical talent (either in past roles or volunteering).
- Fosters a no-Ego workplace culture, encouraging team members to talk to customers, even at early stages.
Nice-to-Have (Not Mandatory, but Advantageous)
✔ Certifications (Databricks, AWS/Azure, Cloud/ML platforms). ✔ Industry experience in Manufacturing, Defence, or Automotive (understanding of industry pain points helps).
About Databricks
Databricks is the data and AI company, trusted by 10,000+ global organisations, including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and 50% of the Fortune 500. Founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake, and MLflow, we offer the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform—unifying data governance, analytics, and AI to drive data-driven decision-making.
Our values:
- Proactivity (Keeping our innovation pipeline moving).
- Customer-Centricity (Putting their needs at the forefront).
- Creativity & Experimentation (Exploring new possibilities fearlessly).
- Collaboration (We thrive on teamwork and shared success).
Benefits (Learn Region-Specific Details [HERE])
We invest in well-being, career growth, and work-life balance with a package that includes:
- Competitive salary and performance bonuses.
- Flexible working policies (with commitment to regular office presence).
- Global healthcare, wellness, and support programmes (mental health, family assistance).
- Résing professional development (conferences, certifications, training budgets).
- Employee perks (stock options,Welcome meals, employee volunteer programmes).
- Prenatal and parental leave (UK-specific entitlements).
- Discounted彭ighting and tech products.
Databricks’ Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
We are firmly committed to equality and diversity, ensuring fair hiring processes regardless of: Age, Colour, Disability, Ethnicity, Family/Marital Status, Gender Identity/Expression, Language, National Origin, Physical/Mental Ability, Political Affiliation, Race, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Socio-Economic Status, Veteran Status, or Other Protected Characteristics.
Compliance Note
If the role requires access to export-controlled technology, we reserve the right to pursue applicable US government licences. This does not preclude proceeding with qualified candidates due solely to this filing requirement.
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