Associate Solution Architect
The Role:
We are looking for a customer-centric Solutions Architect to promote the use of Aiven's managed open source services. An ideal candidate will be passionate about open-source technology and genuinely want to help customers in a pre-sales capacity. Suitable candidates must have proven experience in one of the following areas that will be required in their day-to-day job: Apache Kafka, PostgreSQL, or OpenSearch.
About this Team:
Our Customer Growth team plays a crucial role in our growth and profitability. We want to be the trusted data source platform for everyone – which, let’s face it, is an ambitious target. But thanks to our dedicated sales, pre-sales, and post-sales teams we are growing fast.
What you'll do:
- Champion the customer journey, fostering trusted partnerships from pre-sales strategy through implementation and long-term adoption.
- Assess customer needs, pain points, and strategic goals to ensure the proposed product is a viable fit.
- Design and deliver customized, high-impact technical presentations and product demos for various stakeholders.
- Manage pilot programs or POC evaluations to prove the value and technical feasibility of the solution.
- Respond to the technical and functional sections of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and vendor assessments.
- Act as the voice of the customer by relaying market feedback and feature requests to the Product and Engineering teams.
- Be an ambassador for Aiven by various means such as writing technical blogs, conducting webinars, sponsoring meetups, or technical talks at conferences.
- Travel up to 10% of the time
What we're looking for:
- Experience working in technology, software sales, pre-sales or consulting.
- Fluency in one or more programming languages such as Java, Python, Go or Ruby.
- Ability to translate complex technical jargon into clear, persuasive business value for non-technical buyers.
- Experience implementing proof of concepts as needed, to work with Aiven services in order to address business requirements (a plus).
- Knowledgeable of public clouds (AWS, Google or Azure) and in the areas of compute, storage - block and object, networking, and security groups.
- Linux operating system; demonstrable experience using various Linux utilities and tools (installation, securing system, storage, etc.) and a good grasp of networking basics like DNS.
- Hands-on experience with search-engine ecosystems (OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, or Lucene).
- Understanding of streaming frameworks: Proficiency with tools like Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, Apache Spark Streaming, or AWS Kinesis.
- Understanding storage systems: Familiarity with distributed storage, NoSQL databases, and data lakes.
- Attention to detail and good problem solving and project management skills.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills, ability to work well with cross-functional teams.
- Capability to build trust quickly and maintain strong relationships with both internal sales reps and external clients.
Our Offer:
- Participate in Aiven’s equity plan.
- Hybrid work policy.
- Necessary equipment to set yourself up for success.
- Real employer support (use one of our learning platforms, annual learning budget, and more).
- Holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program.
- Volunteer for a good cause of your choice.
- Team member resource groups.
Equal Opportunities:
Aiven provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, marital and family status or without regard to any other similar personal attributes.