Solutions Architect (Pre-sales) – Manufacturing & Automotive

About the role

Databricks is hiring a Pre-sales Solutions Architect focused on Manufacturing and Automotive, based in Tokyo, Japan. Reporting to the Manager, Field Engineering, you will work with leading global automotive manufacturers and strategic industry accounts, partnering with Account Executives, Solutions Architects, technology specialists, partners and customer teams to develop technical strategies that help customers adopt the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. Business-professional Japanese is required; business-level English is preferred.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and run customer engagement strategies with Account Executives and Solutions Architects for strategic automotive and manufacturing accounts.
• Lead the full technical pre-sales lifecycle: discovery, requirements gathering, solution scoping, architecture design, workshops, demonstrations, proof-of-concepts and implementation planning.
• Coach account teams and peers on positioning, adoption strategies, use-case prioritization and execution plans.
• Influence stakeholders from data practitioners to C-level executives by linking technical decisions to business value.
• Act as a trusted advisor on data, analytics, machine learning, generative AI, architecture and Databricks adoption.
• Design end-to-end solutions on Databricks and public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), and build custom demos, prototypes, reference architectures, migration plans and how-to materials.
• Help customers identify and prioritize use cases such as vehicle platforms, connected vehicles, quality and warranty, industrial IoT, smart factories, supply chain, demand forecasting, engineering and R&D, aftersales and EV or battery analytics.
• Integrate Databricks with cloud services, enterprise platforms and third-party applications, and collaborate with Product, Engineering, Services, Customer Success, Partners, Marketing, Sales and Field Engineering.
• Run workshops, seminars and meetups to spread technical awareness and best practices in Japan.

Required profile

• Experience in technical pre-sales, consulting, technical architecture or an equivalent role with complex customers.
• Technical background in data engineering, data warehousing, machine learning, AI or related fields.
• Experience designing and implementing solutions on public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure or GCP).
• Hands-on experience delivering proof-of-concepts and technical demonstrations.
• Ability to influence decision-makers and C-level executives and to coach or mentor others.
• Strong communication, presentation, whiteboarding and storytelling skills.
• Business-professional Japanese; business-level English preferred.

Required skills

• Ability to code in Python or SQL; willingness to learn Apache Spark; Scala, Java or R experience is beneficial.
• Understanding of enterprise data platforms, distributed data systems, analytics, machine learning, generative AI and modern cloud architectures.
• Preferred: experience with automotive manufacturers, vehicle platforms, connected vehicles, industrial IoT, smart factories, supply-chain analytics, EV or battery analytics, and familiarity with Databricks, Apache Spark, MLflow, Delta Lake and lakehouse architectures.
• Preferred: Databricks or cloud and data certifications.