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Aiven is an open-source data platform enabling builders to run PostgreSQL, Apache Kafka, ClickHouse, OpenSearch, Valkey and more in production across any cloud. The company prioritizes speed, data availability, security and control.
You will be the technical owner of Aiven's strategic OEM partnerships, responsible for the full lifecycle from initial pre-sales conversations through production deployment at scale. OEM partners embed the Aiven platform inside their own products, meaning your architectural decisions impact hundreds of their end customers.
Key responsibilities include:
**Win the technical evaluation:** Partner with Sales as the technical lead through discovery, architecture proposals, and objection handling. Scope and run proofs of concept using AI agents to scaffold environments, generate test data, and document results—compressing PoC timelines from weeks to days. Translate complex technical details into business value for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
**Design the architecture:** Develop expert-level knowledge of the Aiven platform across all services, features and limits. Understand each OEM partner's customer use cases and design scalable, secure architectures that support both current workloads and future growth. Guide partners in building best-practice architectures and continuously improve processes using AI.
**Enable partner rollout and growth:** Integrate Aiven into partner infrastructure via APIs, SDKs, Terraform and best practices. Actively contribute to partner stability and enablement, helping them consume Aiven services effectively so utilization and value grow together. Run technical training and workshops for partner teams. Keep reference architectures and integration guides current.
**Own the relationship and resolution:** Build trust-based relationships with partner engineering teams and technical decision makers. Act as the technical liaison between partners and Aiven's Product, Engineering and Support teams. When partners are blocked, own resolution end-to-end across teams. Close the loop fast by converting partner feedback into Product and Engineering tickets within the same week.
You will work AI-native, with agents handling deployment analysis, usage monitoring, rightsizing, PoC scaffolding and documentation. Your time focuses on judgment calls, partner engineering collaboration, and hard integration problems. You own how your work gets done and redesign processes as tools improve, without waiting for a playbook.
Aiven values urgency, shared outcomes, challenging the status quo, and delivering on commitments. You will work cross-functionally with Sales, Technical Account Managers, Product, Engineering and Support on every partner engagement.
**Requirements:**
- 5+ years in solutions architecture, pre-sales, solutions engineering or technical consulting for software or cloud infrastructure, with production experience across data technologies (Kafka, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, ClickHouse or similar)
- Experience with OEM, embedded or ISV partnerships where your architecture ships inside someone else's product
- Proven track record running proofs of concept that address real business requirements and convert to production
- Fluency in at least one programming language (Java, Python or Go) and comfort with Linux (installation, securing systems, storage, networking basics like DNS)
- Working knowledge of at least one public cloud (AWS, Google Cloud or Azure) across compute, storage (block and object), networking and security
- Hands-on experience with streaming frameworks (Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, Spark Streaming or Kinesis) and strong understanding of search ecosystems (OpenSearch, Elasticsearch or Lucene)
- Daily, hands-on use of AI tools and agents in technical work, with examples of work you have redesigned or cut as a result
- High agency with a record of owning problems end-to-end across teams without waiting for a blueprint
- Clear communication with engineers, executives and non-technical buyers in written and spoken English; ability to build trust quickly with internal sales reps and external partners
- Self-motivated approach to continuous learning and pushing your boundaries
**Nice to have:**
- Multi-cloud experience across AWS, Google Cloud and Azure
- Terraform, Kubernetes and infrastructure-as-code in production
- Familiarity with distributed storage, NoSQL databases and data lakes
- Comfort with usage-based or consumption pricing and using usage data to spot risk and opportunity
- Public speaking or technical writing for developer audiences
- Open source contributions
