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Ask HN: Amazon recruiter asked me to apply for Solution Architect

1 points by kzim ↗ HN
Some time ago I was on Amazon Hiring Event. I've failed with SDE interview, but then one of the recruiter asked me to apply for Solution Architect role. I read on internet that it is more about sales than writing software.

Do you have any experience with this role or know anyone who is working as a SA ? I like to write software (8 years experience here), but maybe there is a time for new challenge.

1 comment

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sjg007
In general as a sales engineer or a solutions architect (this is not Amazon specific at all), you will do things such as evaluating the customer's needs from a technical perspective, figuring out how they can leverage your software products, and possibly prototyping or developing or leading the MVP to achieve the results they want. This will be at various levels of detail for the different people at the customer's company who make up the project team. You would be expected to communicate clearly up and down their personnel stack E.g. execs, project managers, actual software engineers, IT staff, support staff etc... Typically, whatever it takes (technically) to get their business integrated on your software stack/platform (and the kitchen sink too). You would also translate customer requirements into new product features and report back bugs etc... to your developers. At the same time you will aspire to get things implemented and figure out workarounds, triagem troubleshoot etc...

It's a great role if you like the variety. I would imagine that at a place like Amazon the processes may be well defined already (vs a smaller company) and have people already in various roles. For AWS related technologies I imagine you will have to communicate some incredible technical details to your customers as well as troubleshoot/debug in a complex environment. Also you also get exposure to what customers actually want, pain points and if there are gaps in the market and opportunity to build out your own thing!

You may end up writing less software but you will still be developing and delivering software solutions (if that makes sense).

If you can go further into the sales (pre-sales) side, see if you can get a sales commission arrangement. Or work your way up!