Director of Solutions Architecture

Open source is our beating heart and it's something that fuels our work and our culture. It's where we began. It's where we'll always be. Our vision is to become the trusted open source data platform for everyone. We are a Cast of over 450 individuals ('Crabs') located across the globe. Why Crabs? Because we believe in thinking sideways. And right now, we're looking for sideways-thinking Director of Solutions Architecture.

We want individuals who can embody our values of ownership, courage, and openness.

What does that mean in practice?

We take ownership of the problems we solve. What we do is about improving life for our customers, enabling them to meet their goals. So we own our decisions and mistakes. Sometimes that takes courage. But we don't falter - we take on challenges with confidence. And right at our heart is openness. We're always open to new ideas - from wherever and whomever they come.

Aiven's vision statement is to be "Your Trusted Data & AI Platform." To help achieve this vision, we are looking for a Director of Solutions Architecture that can be a trusted advisor to both Aiven customers and Aiven employees as we look to expand our business to meet our customers demands. You will create and drive new processes, analytics, initiatives, and tooling for the EMEA SA organisation and engage with our customers on a day to day basis.

The SA Director will work closely with the EMEA VP of Sales and other department heads across Technical Sales, Customer and Partner Success, and Sales Engineering. This also includes other Aiven internal teams (e.g. Analytics, CRM, RevOps, Finance, and Product) to identify, scope and deliver improvement projects that can help the team be more productive and allow them to focus on what matters: maximising value and impact to Aiven customers.

• Collaborate with leadership, project management, department heads, and other collaborators to own initiatives
• Contribute to regional and global initiatives as Aiven scales the SA organisation to meet customer demand
• Own analytics, reporting, and tooling for the EMEA SA organisation at Aiven (e.g. measuring SA effectiveness)
• Be responsible for territory of opportunities and existing customer base
• Identify and implement process improvements for efficiency and accuracy
• Hire, build, lead and evaluate multiple teams consisting of 7 SA's.
• Lead customer relationships to help customers succeed, building successful relationships from pre-sales stage through renewal and expansion
• Be an active contributor during the sales process
• Be an ambassador for Aiven
• Travel up to 50% of the time

• Fluency in one or more programming languages such as Java, Python, Go or Ruby
• Hands on experience and knowledge of public clouds (AWS, Google or Azure) and in the areas of compute, storage - block and object, networking, and security groups including scaled multi-region deployments.
• 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
• A fairly deep conceptual, and hands on understanding of at least one of Kafka, Opensearch (Elasticsearch), Postgres, or Clickhouse.
• Act as a subject matter expert on Aiven service offerings
• Attention to detail and good problem solving and project management skills
• Flexible to recognise and fill gaps in organisational structure as Aiven scales
• Understanding of cloud finance models and FinOps fundamentals

• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science (or similar field) or an equivalent amount of professional experience in software engineering

• Writing technical blogs and conducting webinars
• Giving talks at conferences and meetups

Don't worry if your experience doesn't line up perfectly - we still encourage you to apply! We believe in investing in our crabs' professional growth.

If you ask us what's the best thing about working for Aiven, many will probably say it's the high concentration of talent from around the world that we have here. Enjoy the agile environment of a hyperscale scale-up where you can truly make an impact and have fun while at it.

• Participate in Aiven's equity plan.
• With Aiven locations spanning the globe, we want all of our crabs to find the right balance with our hybrid work policy. 3 days per week in one of our hubs is required for this role.
• Get the equipment you need to set yourself up for success.
• Step up your career game with real employer support (use one of our learning platforms, annual learning budget, and more).
• Get holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program.

• Contribute to open source projects that you find meaningful outside of work - and get paid for it! Our Plankton program recognizes extra work to the open source ecosystem for developers and non-developers alike.
• Use up to 5 days per year to volunteer for a good cause of your choice.
• Join one of our team member resource groups - empower yourself and others in missions that resonate with you.

If you think Aiven is the place for you, send us your CV and we'll get in touch.