Head of Solutions Architecture, Amazon External Payments
About The Position
Amazon External Payments (AEP) is building the payments infrastructure that powers agentic commerce. As a modular platform serving multiple high-growth partners, AEP requires a Solutions Architecture function that acts as a force multiplier, enabling partners and merchants to integrate, adopt, and scale with minimal friction. We are seeking a Head of Solutions Architecture to lead a global team of Solutions Architects. You will define how the SA function operates, design the technical engagement model across our partner ecosystem, and develop the people, processes, and artifacts that accelerate integration velocity and partner success. This is a leadership role with a transformational mandate: you will evolve an established team to meet a new charter and operating model.
Requirements
- 10+ years of infrastructure architecture, database architecture and networking experience
- 5+ years of managing a technical team of solution architects, sales engineers or similar technical roles experience
- Bachelor's degree
Nice To Haves
- Experience in management of technical, enterprise customer facing resources or equivalent
- Experience in payments or e-commerce
- Familiarity with agentic AI, generative AI, or conversational commerce as they relate to payments.
Responsibilities
- Partner with Product, Engineering, and partner teams to co-design the technical architecture of AEP's platform, influence roadmap decisions, and define how solutions scale across partners
- Serve as the connective tissue between GTM and the technical organization, translating partner needs and market signals into architectural requirements
- Lead joint architecture design sessions with partner engineering teams to define integration patterns, API contracts, and solution blueprints
- Evaluate emerging technology trends (agentic AI, identity, fraud) and inform platform strategy with a forward-looking technical point of view
- Define the SA engagement model: how the team partners with Product, Engineering, partner teams, and GTM to deliver solutions
- Design layered coverage: strategic advisory for complex architecture decisions vs. scaled self-service enablement (reference architectures, developer tooling, integration guides)
- Own capacity planning, ensuring the team prioritizes high-impact strategic work over transactional support
- Drive creation of reusable assets: reference architectures, solution patterns, and API adoption frameworks that reduce repetitive effort
- Define and own success metrics: partner satisfaction, platform adoption, architecture quality, and integration velocity
- Serve as trusted technical advisor to senior partner and product stakeholders, shaping joint roadmaps
- Represent the SA function to senior leadership with insights on platform health, partner technical alignment, and strategic opportunities
- Lead a global, distributed team of Solutions Architects; own hiring, performance management, career development, and retention
- Create structured career paths and technical depth standards; develop future leaders
- Foster a culture of strategic thinking, knowledge sharing, and technical excellence
Benefits
- health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage)
- 401(k) matching
- paid time off
- parental leave
- sign-on payments
- restricted stock units (RSUs)
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Manager
