Solutions Architect

At Sift, we’re redefining how modern machines are built, tested, and operated. Our platform gives engineers real-time observability over high-frequency telemetry—eliminating bottlenecks and enabling faster, more reliable development.

Sift was born from our work at SpaceX on Dragon, Falcon, Starlink, and Starship—where scaling telemetry, debugging flight systems, and ensuring mission reliability demanded new infrastructure. Founded by a team from SpaceX, Google, and Palantir, Sift is built for mission-critical systems where precision and scalability are non-negotiable.

About the Role

As a Solutions Architect, you will be the pre-sales technical expert bridging Sift’s telemetry platform with our customers’ most complex engineering and data challenges. You’ll partner closely with Sales to articulate Sift’s value, run technical evaluations, architect customer solutions, and support closing high-impact opportunities through deep technical credibility.

This role is ideal for someone with strong engineering fundamentals, big-data intuition, and a passion for working directly with customers in industries like aerospace, autonomy, robotics, and advanced manufacturing.

In This Role, You’ll:

• Partner with Sales to articulate Sift’s value proposition, vision, and architecture to customers

• Own pre-sales technical engagements during pilots and evaluations

• Deliver compelling technical presentations and product demonstrations

• Architect customer-specific reference implementations and integration patterns

• Translate ambiguous customer requirements into clear technical solutions

• Support closing complex opportunities through advanced technical knowledge and credibility

• Develop technical content, documentation, and demo applications

• Provide structured feedback to Product, Engineering, and Marketing to strengthen Sift’s roadmap and positioning

• Stay current on competitive and complementary technologies in observability, data infrastructure, and telemetry

The Skillset You’ll Bring:

• 4+ years in Solutions Engineering, Solutions Architecture, Forward Deployed Engineering, or technical pre-sales roles

• Proven ability to support or close complex enterprise technical opportunities

• Strong storytelling and presentation skills, able to communicate technical value to both executive and engineering audiences

• Ability to design and explain distributed systems, data pipelines, and real-time integration patterns

• Experience with distributed storage and analytical/time-series engines (e.g., ClickHouse, Apache Druid, Bigtable, Apache Pinot)

• Understanding of stream processing and ingestion patterns, including windowing, aggregation, late/out-of-order data handling, and replay

• Knowledge of data partitioning, sharding, indexing, and modeling strategies for high-cardinality, high-volume time-series workloads

• Experience reasoning about data retention, tiered storage, and cost–performance tradeoffs at scale

• Ability to translate customer requirements into clear technical architectures and reference implementations

• Proficiency with at least one programming language (Python, Java, etc.) and familiarity with REST APIs

• Comfortable delivering technical demos, guiding POCs, and handling technical objections

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field

• Interest in aerospace, autonomy, robotics, or other advanced engineering applications

Bonus Points:

• Aerospace or autonomous systems experience

• Data streaming technologies (Kafka, Pulsar)

• SQL and database fundamentals

• Experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure

• Familiarity with observability, metrics, or logging platforms

• Experience in ML/AI workflows for engineering or sensor data

• Prior work mentoring technical sales team members

• Experience competitively positioning technical products

What We’re Looking For:

• A technical seller who leads with value and builds trusted-advisor relationships

• Someone who identifies customer pain points and maps them to product capabilities

• A communicator who can engage deeply with both engineering teams and executives

• A strategic thinker able to navigate complex sales cycles and drive technical consensus

• A collaborative partner who works effectively with Sales, Product, and Engineering

• Someone who brings a consultative, “understand first, propose second” approach

Location & Travel:

• You must be willing and able to work from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and be onsite Monday through Thursday due to the nature and business needs of the role.

• Ability to travel 50%+ required. Varies by location and customer needs.

Sift headquarters is located in Los Angeles (El Segundo), and we work in a hybrid environment. We work closely with hardware companies building everything from autonomous vehicles to spacecraft, and it's essential to be nearby for site visits and collaboration.

Salary range: $125,000 - $175,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.

Eligibility:

U.S. Person Required: Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual such as an asylee or refugee in compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) regulations.