Unique paths to rewarding solutions architect careers at AWS

Damian Zell is a senior manager who helped envision the original Tech U program and then took it a step further by developing an early-career Central SA team where Tech U graduates could land for continued on-the-job training. The Central SA program in AWS’s Worldwide Public Sector organization is designed to help solutions architects become generalists first before they choose a specialty.

“Central SA was formed in 2017 as an initiative inside of AWS to help hire and develop more women and underrepresented talent. It was specifically designed to hire early-career talent, which includes people right out of university or people who are changing careers,” Zell said. “Specifically, I wanted to create an opportunity for women and military spouses.”

To date, the Central SA team has trained more than 275 solutions architects for AWS’s Worldwide Public Sector organization, supporting public sector domains such as national security, federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, state and local government, and education.

"The solutions architect acts as the technical glue between everything inside of Amazon—our support teams, our service teams, our sales teams,” Zell said. “They are the advisors our customers lean on.”

One recent Tech U cohort had five women who came together and formalized a community where they could support each other through the 12 to 18 months of on-the-job training with the Central SA team. This Women in Central SA community has grown to more than 35 women, where members network, connect with leaders across AWS to understand different career paths or find mentorship, and support each other's growth.

"We wanted to build a space for solutions architects where we could encourage more women to support each other and succeed in this role," said Arianna Burgman, an associate solutions architect on AWS’s Central SA team.

Zell couldn’t be prouder to see the program continue to sprout in new directions, all while maintaining the same original vision of supporting early-career talent by giving them space to learn, belong, and develop their careers.

“Their success is my success,” he said. “I feel like I’ve only done a good job when they meet their own career objectives and they feel supported along the way.”

Burgman, Johnson, and three other women—Shwetha Radhakrishnan, Racquell Fuller, and Natalia Arce Basante—are the founders of the Women in Central SA community. While there are many communities across Amazon and AWS for women, such as the Women in Engineering and Women at Amazon affinity groups, they wanted a supportive space specifically for solutions architects.

With guidance from a female senior manager, they wrote their ideas into an Amazon-style narrative document and presented it to leadership. In the paper, they outlined their vision for the Women in Central SA group, including its tenets and purpose.

“Women in Central SA has a purpose of supporting women solutions architects who are transitioning in from Tech U, the military apprenticeship program, or any other internal team. The key difference is we are focused on enabling women through this specific Central SA program within the Worldwide Public Sector organization,” said Basante, who has since transitioned from Central SA to Partner SA in the same organization. “We also encourage early-career talent to attend tech talks that we host so they can network, grow their knowledge, and advance in their careers. We bring them exposure to opportunities outside of Central SA through networking and technical topics they are interested in or that are relevant based on their stage in Central SA.”

There are many internal trainings and upskilling resources at Amazon and AWS that also foster career development, but the Women in Central SA find the additional specialized support helps them not only learn and grow their skills, but also deliver better for customers.

“If you ask five solutions architects what they do on a day-to-day basis, you’re going to get five different answers,” Johnson said. “But I would say the role mainly revolves around four areas: coordinating internally with account teams to strategize for customer growth, meeting externally with customers to understand their challenges and provide technical guidance, delivering customer enablement like workshops and demos, and continuously learning about AWS's latest innovations to share with customers.”

Johnson’s first career was in geology before she went back to school to get a computer science degree and then landed an internship at AWS. As an associate solutions architect on the Central SA team, she’s now doing an apprenticeship for an account team focused on higher education research institutions in the Great Lakes region of the United States.

Fuller has a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from the early 2000s, but she ended up working in the spa industry as a licensed massage therapist and esthetician. When COVID upended the spa industry, she went back to school for a master’s degree in computer information systems.

Basante pursued a career in graphic design before going back to school for a computer science degree with a minor in mathematics. She recently transitioned to a partner solutions architect role supporting AWS partners in Latin America.

Burgman majored in business analytics and information technology, and Radhakrishnan majored in computer science, but they both found their undergraduate courses didn’t include a lot of cloud computing tracks. They were thrilled to find the Tech U program where they could develop their skills and envision long-term careers in the cloud.

“The great thing about being a solutions architect at AWS is you have so many potential paths. We may start in similar roles, but can really go in different directions,” Burgman said. “You can progress to more experienced individual contributor levels, move into management overseeing other solutions architects, or specialize in a specific service or domain. The flexibility to grow your technical career in so many ways—that's the real beauty of this role. The options are wide open for how you want to develop and advance.”

There’s also flexibility in the autonomy that’s part of AWS’s work culture. Not only can they pursue a solutions architect career path that aligns with their interests, but they also have freedom to learn and explore new challenges.

“AWS encourages us to step out of our comfort zones,” said Radhakrishnan, who moved from the Central SA team to become a specialist solutions architect in data analytics. "Being able to put myself out there, like speaking at a summit last year despite being anxious about public speaking, gives me the encouragement to step outside of my comfort zone."

Learn more about becoming a solutions architect at AWS or explore open roles.  

Damian Zell, senior manager, Central SA, Worldwide Public Sector Solution Architecture