I've been at AWS for about a year now as a Partner Solutions Architect. When I was interviewing, I was told I would have free reign to build solutions and tooling for partners, as long as it clearly enabled them to build products more efficiently/safely/easily on AWS (e.g., things like CLIs, starter kits for UIs, architectural guidance tailored to a specific industry, etc.). I was also told I would get to travel as much as I needed to support the partners I work with (getting to travel and speak at conferences is the primary reason I work as an SA instead of doing pure software engineering). The reality is I have no say over what I work on (except projects I come up with in my free time, not as part of my core job), and the work I am assigned doesn’t feel technical or architecture-related. My team is new so a lot of my assigned work focuses on process definition and document writing. I understand that this is important in the early days of any initiative, but I don't feel I'm learning any useful skills and have zero insight into any of the decisions being made. It all feels like a lot of hoopla. I don't get to work with partners or any peers, so it is a very solitary job and involves absolutely zero travel. I've been told roles are very team-specific, so maybe I just got unlucky with the team I joined and should try another one. Aside from that, I'm not really sure what to do next. What are previous AWS SAs/PSAs doing now? Architecture at other companies? Different roles entirely? Level: L5 Comp: Base + bonus = $260k (plus some stock but I don't think I'll stick around to see it)
It’s all dependent on what Partner Org you are on. Check out the AWS-IA team’s GitHub. Contact one of those folks on Slack. They might be hiring.
I’ll do that, thank you!
Oh wow, I think I saw this question in the Slack channel #ask-an-amazonian and it only had like 1 answer or something. But the answer was correct, this is the harsh reality in many places. I’m in ProServe and also get put into terrible projects where I don’t really learn anything, and most projects are like this
Do you think if you went enterprise SA instead of partner/channel it would have been different? Any reason you went partner track?
I have wondered that. The reason I went PSA was because that’s what the recruiter who reached out to me was hiring for lol. And then when we talked, my HM made it sound like with partners you are mostly building and not doing salesy stuff. But commercial SA may actually be a better fit.
Do you think this is only an issue of being a partner solutions architect in general (and perhaps with this particular client)? How about the architects on the direct sales side? Any exposure with them?
I’ve talked to a few people who are on the commercial side (regular SAs) who seem happy, but then again all of the PSAs I’ve talked to seem happy too. So maybe I am the problem? It’s a good idea, though, I’m going to reach out to some people and see what their experience has been. Thank you!
Fs! I was just curious from the outside looking in. The nature of the Solution Architect job looks great from the outside and it’s a little worrisome to know that the reality can be so mixed, as in your case. Specifically since I’m a developer angling towards that role and am having doubts crop up related to the true nature of the role.
Lol, that whole professional services org is batshit crazy. Years ago I was offered a L7 partner SA role, but the interviewing HM sounded batshit crazy at an entirely another level. I declined the offer, and thank my stars for doing that