AWS Solution Architect - (Contract / Onsite)

Position: AWS Solution Architect

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Work Model: Hybrid

Emp Type: 6+ Months contract

Role: AWS Solutions Architect

Location: Minneapolis, MN Hybrid

Role Summary:

We are looking for an AWS Solutions Architect with strong Data Architecture/Engineering expertise who can operate in a client-facing consulting role.

This role requires a rare blend of 3 core capabilities:

1. Client Engagement & Consulting

2. Deep Data Architecture / Engineering Expertise

3. Strong Problem-Solving & Techno-functional Thinking

The ideal candidate is someone who has grown within consulting/service organizations, understands how to translate business problems into scalable data solutions, and is still close enough to technology to guide hands-on teams.

Key Responsibilities

1. Client Engagement & Consulting

Act as a trusted advisor to banking clients (business + technology stakeholders)

Lead:

• Discovery workshops
• Use case identification
• Solution discussions and architectural reviews
• Translate business problems (risk, fraud, customer analytics, reporting) into data-driven solutions
• Drive stakeholder alignment across business, data, and engineering teams

2. Data Architecture & Engineering Leadership

• Design and own end-to-end data architectures on AWS, including:
• Data lakes / lakehouse architectures
• Batch + real-time pipelines
• Data ingestion, processing, and consumption layers
• Define data models, governance frameworks, and architecture blueprints

Provide hands-on guidance on:

• ETL/ELT pipelines
• Streaming (Kafka / Kinesis)
• Analytics platforms (Redshift / Snowflake / Databricks)

3. AWS Cloud Architecture

• Architect scalable and secure AWS environments using:
• S3, Redshift, Glue, Athena, EMR
• Lambda, ECS/EKS, Step Functions
• API Gateway, EventBridge, Kinesis

Ensure adherence to:

• AWS Well-Architected Framework
• Banking compliance (RBI / PCI-DSS / data security)

4. Problem Solving & Solutioning

• Break down ambiguous business problems into structured solutions
• Drive solution design with trade-off analysis (cost, performance, scalability)

Support:

• Data modernization initiatives
• Legacy-to-cloud transformations
• Real-time analytics and reporting solutions

5. Delivery & Team Leadership

• Mentor and guide data engineers, cloud engineers, and analysts
• Ensure high-quality architecture implementation
• Collaborate with offshore/onshore teams for delivery success

Drive best practices in:

• Data engineering
• DevOps & automation
• Testing and observability

Required Skills

Core Technical

Strong hands-on experience in:

• Data Engineering (Spark, SQL, Python)
• Data pipelines & ETL frameworks

Deep expertise in AWS data stack:

• Glue, Redshift, S3, EMR, Athena
• Kinesis / Kafka for streaming

Experience with:

• Modern data platforms (Databricks / Snowflake preferred)

Architecture

Proven ability to:

• Design scalable data architectures
• Define data flows, models, and integration patterns
• Strong understanding of:
• Batch vs real-time processing
• Data governance & quality frameworks

Consulting & Client Skills

Experience in client-facing roles (consulting/services firms preferred)

Strong ability to:

• Lead discussions with business + tech stakeholders
• Convert requirements into solution designs
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills

Banking / Financial Domain (Preferred)

Exposure to:

• Risk, fraud, payments, reporting, regulatory systems

Understanding of:

Data compliance and security in banking