Area Leader, Startup Solutions Architecture

Description Overview We’re seeking a Principal Manager, Startup Solutions Architecture to lead our technical engagement with the Canadian startup ecosystem. This role combines people leadership, technical depth, and regional expertise. The successful candidate will manage a team of Solutions Architects, set technical strategy for the Canada region, and directly support founders and CTOs of early-stage and high-growth startups. Canada’s startup ecosystem has distinct strengths — AI research hubs in Toronto, Montréal, and Edmonton; strong communities in fintech, climate tech, and health tech; and government-backed innovation programs that provide early funding. The Manager for Canada must understand these dynamics and ensure our SA team is both deeply technical and locally relevant, helping Canadian startups scale on AWS while building globally competitive businesses. Responsibilities Leadership & People Management: Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of Startup Solutions Architects across Canada. Leadership & People Management: Set technical priorities, coach on career development, and create a culture of builder-first, hands-on engagement with startups. Leadership & People Management: Ensure consistent execution of technical depth and startup empathy across the team. Leadership & People Management: Partner closely with Canadian startup account managers, BD teams, and ecosystem programs (VCs, accelerators, incubators). Regional Technical Strategy: Develop and execute the technical engagement strategy for Canada’s startup ecosystem. Regional Technical Strategy: Tailor global mechanisms to Canadian needs, with emphasis on GenAI, data strategy, and regulated industries. Regional Technical Strategy: Represent AWS in Canada’s startup and research communities, building relationships with universities, accelerators, and industry groups. Regional Technical Strategy: Provide input to global SA leadership on trends emerging from Canada (AI/ML, fintech, climate tech). Hands-On Technical Leadership: While primarily a manager, stay hands-on enough to maintain credibility with founders and CTOs. Hands-On Technical Leadership: Guide startups on cloud-native architectures, Kubernetes/EKS, DevOps/SRE practices, and serverless-first design. Hands-On Technical Leadership: Provide expertise on GenAI workloads: foundation model usage, training/fine-tuning, inference scaling, and cost optimization. Hands-On Technical Leadership: Advise on data strategy: proprietary data as a moat, data labeling, pipelines, compliance (especially PIPEDA in Canada), and ML readiness. Scaling & Mechanism Building: Drive creation of reference architectures, reusable assets, and enablement programs that scale across the Canada SA org. Scaling & Mechanism Building: Build technical enablement programs for Canadian founders, including workshops on cloud-native, AI/ML, and data foundations. Scaling & Mechanism Building: Partner with Canadian accelerators (Creative Destruction Lab, NextAI, Communitech, etc.) to deliver impactful technical programming. Qualifications 10+ years of management of technical, enterprise customer facing resources or equivalent experience 10+ years of infrastructure architecture, database architecture and networking experience Bachelor's degree Experience architecting/operating solutions built on any cloud service provider like Azure, AWS, GCP, OCI, etc. Preferred Qualifications Strong familiarity with Canada’s startup ecosystem, including government programs (IRAP, SR&ED), AI research hubs, and local funding dynamics. EEO Statement Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status. Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner. #J-18808-Ljbffr