Director, Solution Architecture & Enterprise Architecture

As the SA Lead for Value Delivery Europe, you will own and elevate the Solution Architecture capability across the region. Your mission is to ensure that all architecture delivered into customer projects is consistent, scalable, performance‑ready, and aligned with Cognite’s delivery standards. You will lead a high‑performing community of Solution Architects who operate as trusted advisors to our customers—shaping architectures that accelerate value realization, reduce delivery risks, and create a repeatable technical foundation for scale.

You will drive the professional development, methods, and technical excellence of the SA function, ensuring architects apply best practices, reuse accelerators, and work in deep alignment with Data Engineering, Data Science, Product, and PM communities. This role is primarily leadership, with a maximum of 20% customer‑facing involvement to focus on uplifting the Solution Architecture function.

Responsibilities

Architecture Leadership (Regional)

• Own the region’s end‑to‑end architectural quality across customer implementations.
• Ensure consistent, high‑quality design practices, reference architectures, and performance standards across all pods.
• Oversee architecture readiness in scoping, design, implementation, and go‑live phases.

Customer Value Realization

• Champion a value‑led architecture approach where solution design directly supports measurable customer outcomes.
• Act as a senior technical advisor for strategic accounts—supporting escalations with clarity, empathy, and strong technical judgment.
• Ensure architecture drives performance, scalability, and long‑term adoption.

Scaling & Growth

• Partner with Sales, Product, and Delivery leadership to shape technical approaches that unlock expansion and scale.
• Support pre‑sales architectural scoping and ensure technical feasibility for complex engagements.
• Drive technical excellence that accelerates customer onboarding and reduces implementation friction.

Operational & Delivery Quality Management

• Ensure SAs deliver robust, supportable, and scalable architectures aligned with Cognite’s delivery standards.
• Improve efficiency and predictability by driving reuse of architecture patterns, accelerators, and deployment packs.
• Track design quality, technical risks, and architecture‑related delivery health indicators across the portfolio.

Team Leadership & Development

• Ensure personal delivery participation remains capped at 20% utilization to prioritize capability uplift, coaching, and architectural consistency.
• Lead, mentor, and upskill the region’s Solution Architect community with a strong focus on capability development.
• Create and maintain the SA competency model, learning pathways, and coaching structures.
• Foster a culture of excellence, continuous learning, and technical leadership across pods.

Collaboration & Alignment

• Work closely with Product Management, Engineering, and Industry Innovation & Solutions to align solution designs with platform strategy.
• Partner with PM, DE, and DS leaders to ensure cohesive end‑to‑end delivery.
• Support the creation of repeatable best practices, templates, and standardized architecture methods.

Required Qualifications

• 8–12+ years of Solution Architecture experience across SaaS, cloud, data platforms, or enterprise‑scale implementations.
• Proven track record leading technical teams or architecture communities in complex, data‑centric environments.
• Strong experience working with cross‑functional teams to deliver scalable solutions.

Skills

• Deep expertise in data integration, data modeling, cloud‑native architectures, API design, and performance engineering.
• Strong communication and executive presence—able to translate complex technical concepts for varied audiences.
• Ability to drive architectural consistency and influence technical decision‑making across pods and functions.

Equal Opportunity
Cogni