Pre-sales Solution Architect 💸Salary: £80,000 - £110,000 (depending on experience) 📍Location: Remote – must be based within the UK. Occasional visits to see customers and the team. 🧠Interview process: Two rounds. 1: Get to know you chat with one of Talent Team; 2: Technical competency with two of the technical team; 3: Final Interview with our Chief Architect 🤝Our Values:  Advancing, Come as you are, Zero burnout, We all level up together and Transparency Learn more about us:YouTube, read ourBlogs& understand ourvalues! Who Are We? Advancing Analytics are a market leader in delivering pioneering analytical solutions for customers all over the world. To thrive in today's market, businesses need to implement AI built on a solid, reliable Data Platform, and we are looking for you to help us build it! Who are we looking for? The Pre-sales Solution Architect is a sales-focused role and you will own the technical win across our pipeline. You will work alongside Sales, Senior Leadership, and Delivery Leads to turn opportunities into signed work. You will qualify opportunities, shape the solution, build the demo, and present it to the client. As the trusted Databricks expert in the room, you will guide clients from the first technical conversation to a signed SoW. You will work closely with clients to understand their challenges, shape the right solutions, and help them make the most of modern data and AI technologies. You will play a key role in our most strategic engagements, supporting complex programmes and influencing how we leverage Agentic AI, automation, data platforms, and self-serve analytics to drive client outcomes. Key Responsibilities: Solution Design & Architecture • Design and document end-to-end data and AI solutions using Azure, Databricks, and related services. • Translate business and technical requirements into clear architecture designs that delivery teams can build. • Apply our existing standards, patterns, and reference architectures. • Identify technical risks early, own them on the project risk register and be accountable for their mitigation and resolution. • Produce design artefacts and present them at architectural forums, from engineering teams through to senior executives. • Shape and guide the design of intelligent data platform projects using Lakehouse architectures, making data available for reporting, AI, and analytics. Pre-Sales & Commercial • Get involved early in client conversations to qualify opportunities and recommend the right approach. • Run structured discovery workshops with data, analytics, and platform teams. Capture requirements, current state, workloads, governance constraints, and target outcomes. • Shape the solution with subject matter experts across the business. Make designs scalable, supportable, cost-effective, and aligned with our standards. • Own the technical content of RFP and RFI responses, proposals, architecture diagrams, and Statements of Work. • Own the technical view on scope, effort, and delivery risk for opportunities. • Run technical pitches and demos. Handle deep technical and business-value questions. • Work with Databricks field teams on joint pursuits and co-selling. Client & Stakeholder Engagement • Build strong relationships with clients and become a trusted technical advisor. • Take complex technical concepts and translate them into plain language and clear business outcomes for senior business leaders, technology leads, and internal sales teams. • Hand each won opportunity to delivery with a clear, complete design. Walk the Solution Architect through scope, assumptions, risks, and estimates. Skills / Approaches: Technical • Proven experience in technical pre-sales, designing cloud data architectures, with hands-on consulting on Azure and Databricks. • Working knowledge of data engineering, ML/AI engineering, data governance, and platform design. • Experience designing and presenting scalable, secure, and cost-effective solutions using established patterns and standards. Pre-sales & Commercial • Track record running discovery, demos, POCs, and RFP responses for complex data and AI deals. • Comfortable working in ambiguous environments and helping clients shape problems as well as solutions. • Strong commercial awareness, comfortable shaping Statements of Work, T-shirt-size estimates, and linking technical choices to business value, total cost of ownership, and time to value. Commercial & Stakeholder • Strong communication and presentation skills with technical and non-technical people at all levels, up to C-level. • Confident running demos, technical pitches, client workshops, and negotiations. • Able to influence technical and business stakeholders without relying solely on formal authority. • Previous consulting experience is required, you understand the difference between working for one business and working across many. Certifications • Databricks Professional certification is required, or able to demonstrate equivalent knowledge through real project experience. • Azure certifications (such as Azure Data Engineer Associate or Azure Solutions Architect Expert) are a strong plus. What will it be like to work for Advancing Analytics? As a consultancy with strong partnerships across Microsoft, Databricks, AWS, Sigma, Tabular Editor and dbt Labs, you’ll get hands-on access to some of the most exciting technology and learning opportunities in the industry. We know this market moves quickly, so we invest in our people for the long term, giving you the space to build real expertise, keep developing, and stay ahead of what’s next. We’re also genuinely active in the wider data and AI community. That means speaking at events, sponsoring major industry moments like Big Data London, and showing up at some of the biggest stages in the space, including Databricks Data+AI Summit, Data+AI World Tour, and the Global AI AgentCon London. We encourage our team to get involved in the community, whether that’s in the form of a personal blog or an initiative you are passionate about advocating, we will support you! Aside from offering a competitive salary, we have a great set of benefits and perks including, but not limited to: • Industry matching Maternity & Paternity policy 🐣 • Private Medical & Dental Care plus Eye care scheme 👁️ • Health & Well-being fund 🩺 • 25 Days Annual Leave, Birthday Leave & Charity Leave 🌴 • Away days with the team 🚃 • Flexible Working Hours • Electric Car Scheme 🚗 • Databricks Champion Status Bonus! 🌟 Our company values define us: 🚀 Advancing– Being part of a team that drives innovation and pushing boundaries of what’s possible. Our work redefines industry standards and challenges the status quo in the data world every day. ❤️ Come as you are – we are an inclusive company. When you work with us, rest assured you're working in a safe environment. ❌ Zero burnout – We have seen it happen, and we never want to be a company that pushes our staff to breaking point. ⬆️ We all level up together – we have each seen the benefit that being part of a community can have, it is transformational. 💡 Transparency– We are big believers that there are no secrets in Advancing Analytics, and we try to live this day to day. You can read about our values in more detail here - Equal opportunities for everyone At Advancing Analytics both diversity and inclusion are a priority. We are all committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued, respected and empowered to be their authentic selves. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer; all applicants will be considered without regard to age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, veteran status, neurodiversity or disability status. This role profile is intended to provide an overview of the responsibilities and qualificationsrequired for the Pre-Sales Solution Architect role. It is not an exhaustive list and may be subject to change to meet the needs of the organisation. Originally posted on Himalayas