Principal Solutions Architect

We’re seeking a Principal Solutions Architect who combines deep hands-on technical expertise with the ability to build scalable mechanisms that amplify the effectiveness of our Startup Solutions Architecture team.

This role requires a rare blend of builder’s depth and strategic impact: someone who can still design, code, and operate systems at scale, while also creating programs, frameworks, and reusable assets that multiply impact across hundreds of startups.

Why This Role

At AWS, we’re looking for builders who scale impact. The successful candidate will combine:

* Deep technical expertise (still hands-on)
* Scalable mechanism design (programs, frameworks, enablement)
* Startup empathy (credible in front of developers and co-founders)
* AI/data perspective (helping startups turn data into their moat)

This role offers the chance to shape how AWS engages startups at scale — while working at the frontier of cloud + data + AI innovation.

Key job responsibilities
Technical Leadership & Mechanism Building
* Design and implement scalable programs, reusable assets, and automation tools that amplify the impact of the Startup SA org.
* Create reference architectures, IaC templates, and enablement content to accelerate solution delivery across startups.
* Develop systematic approaches to capture, codify, and share technical insights from the field back into the org.
* Mentor SAs and drive technical upskilling programs that elevate the entire team’s capabilities.

Domain Expertise & Hands-on Impact
Principal SAs for Startups should have depth and expertise in one of the following technical domains, but the technical curiosity to become proficient in all:
* ML/AI Infrastructure:
* Architect training and inference systems at scale (distributed training, LoRA/QLoRA, quantization, GPU/TPU optimization).
* Design end-to-end ML pipelines and MLOps workflows (data prep, labeling, model registry, deployment).
* Build and optimize model serving architectures and inference systems for cost and latency.
* Cloud & Kubernetes:
* Lead design and ops excellence for Kubernetes/EKS, service mesh, microservices, and serverless-first architectures.
* Ensure security, compliance, and observability in containerized workloads.
* DevOps & Reliability:
* Drive GitOps-first workflows, CI/CD at scale, IaC (Terraform/CDK), and automated testing frameworks.
* Apply SRE best practices: monitoring, incident management, resilience, and scaling patterns.
* Data Strategy & Foundations:
* Advise startups on proprietary data strategy as a moat: collection, quality, labeling, governance.
* Architect data pipelines (ETL/ELT, streaming, orchestration) and integrate with modern analytics platforms (Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, Databricks).
* Guide adoption of feature stores, vector databases, and lakehouse patterns to enable ML/RAG use cases.
* Ensure compliance and governance across sensitive workloads (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2).

Technical Trend Analysis & Strategic Impact
* Maintain deep understanding of emerging technical trends in GenAI, cloud, and data ecosystems.
* Translate insights into actionable guidance for startups and scalable mechanisms for the org.
* Provide forward-looking perspectives on technology adoption, evolution, and competitive advantage.

Scaling & Developer Enablement
* Build repeatable solutions and reference architectures addressing common startup pain points.
* Publish blogs, whitepapers, open-source repos, and technical presentations that extend reach beyond direct engagements.
* Act as a “co-founder whisperer” — translating complex technical trade-offs into pragmatic startup-stage guidance.

About the team
Diverse Experiences
Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.
Why AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.
Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.
Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of that empower us to be proud of our . Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on and (CORE) and AmazeCon ( ) conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.
Mentorship and Career Growth
We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.