Principal Partner Solutions Architect - Distributed US

Cockroach Labs

2d • $188,000 - $210,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Global Partnerships organization is building an ecosystem motion that genuinely multiplies CockroachDB's market reach. As Principal Solutions Architect for the Americas partner team, you'll be the technical authority across our Cloud, ISV, OEM, and GSI partner motions in the Americas — combining deep technical credibility with proactive strategic leadership. You'll own your domain end-to-end: identifying integration opportunities before they're requested, building and certifying assets, shaping GTM narratives, enabling partners, and driving real pipeline influence. This is a builder role — you set the agenda.

Requirements

• 10+ years in pre-sales, solutions architecture, partner engineering, or technical consulting roles within the cloud technology space
• A visible body of published technical work and GTM content — repos, white papers, blogs, validated architectures, reference implementations, presentation decks, and thought leadership materials — that establishes your credibility in the field
• Comfort speaking in front of groups for presentations, webinars, talks, both internally and externally
• Deep understanding of cloud ecosystems, with hands-on experience in at least one of AWS, GCP, or Azure — their architecture paradigms, partnership programs, marketplace mechanics, and co-sell motions
• Strong hands-on technical skills — you can build demos, write code, design architectures, and run POCs. You are not purely a slide-and-talk SA
• Experience with relational databases, distributed systems, and/or SQL — knowledge of PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, or distributed SQL is a strong plus
• Demonstrated track record of presenting to and influencing diverse stakeholders — from hands-on architects and engineering leads to VPs, CTOs, and partner executive sponsors — with the technical credibility to command a room and the versatility to adapt narrative, depth, and delivery format to any audience
• Proficiency with AI-assisted tools and workflows — you currently use AI tools (Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or similar) in your work and see AI as an accelerator, not a novelty
• Strong business acumen — you understand partner economics, marketplace dynamics, and how technical work connects to pipeline and revenue
• Self-directed and initiative-driven — you identify priorities, create plans, and execute without waiting to be told what to do
• Strong public speaking and presentation skills — you have presented at conferences, partner summits, executive briefings, or industry events and can point to a body of work (talks, webinars, blogs, video content, published writing) that demonstrates your technical credibility and thought leadership; you are comfortable on camera, capable of creating compelling recorded demos and integration walkthroughs, and you know how to build authentic developer presence on the platforms where technical audiences actually spend time
• Ability to travel as needed for partner events, customer meetings, and conferences

Responsibilities

• Formulate and execute technical partner strategy and GTM plans in close collaboration with your Business Development counterparts.
• Develop and deliver a full content arsenal — executive GTM presentations, thought leadership white papers, technical blogs, joint customer case studies, webinars, and conference talks — as well as integration walkthrough videos, quickstart demos, and co-marketing launch packages executed hand-in-hand with partner marketing teams to turn technical integrations into measurable developer adoption and pipeline.
• Act as the trusted technical advisor and strategic partner to Americas-based Cloud, ISV, OEM, and GSI partners during discovery and opportunity identification phase.
• Lead architectural discussions, design exercises, and integration planning across all levels of partner and customer organizations, from developer teams to C-suite executives.
• Support POCs and technical validation for internal teams relating to partner solutions and cockroachDB.
• Lead deep technical conversations with Internal and external stakeholders engineering - provide guidance on architecture, deployment patterns, migration strategies, and integration design while adapting technical depth and messaging to the audience and scenario.
• Build and publish reusable technical assets — validated architectures, integration SDKs, reference implementations, GitHub repos, and proof-of-concept applications — that the broader field and partner ecosystem can leverage; amplify each integration launch with co-marketing assets including integration quickstart guides, partner badge programs, and developer community presence on the platforms where builders actually spend their time.
• Use AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT) as part of your daily workflow to compress reactive support work, generate content, automate reporting, and accelerate asset creation.

Benefits

• Stock Options
• Medical Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Life and Disability Insurance
• Professional Development Funds
• Flexible Time Off
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Sick Days
• Paid Parental Leave
• Retirement Benefits
• Mental Wellbeing Benefits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed