Field CTO, Americas Industries

Field CTO, Americas Industries at Databricks

Databricks is seeking a Field Chief Technology Officer (Field CTO) for the Americas Industries Business Unit to be a senior, customer-facing technology and business transformation thought leader for our most strategic, often global, accounts in regulated industries. This individual contributor role sits at the intersection of data and AI strategy, industry transformation, and executive relationship-building, working closely with C-level leaders to drive multi-year change on the data platform while representing real-world needs back into Databricks.

Impact You Will Have

• Build and maintain trusted-advisor relationships with C-level executives (CIO, CDO, CTO, CISO, business COs) in large US-based and global accounts, especially in highly regulated industries (financial services, public sector, healthcare, manufacturing).
• Proactively cultivate a strong social and professional network across customer executives, boards, key industry bodies, and partners, knowing which organizations and forums to engage to open doors with the right stakeholders.
• Shape executive thinking on modern data and AI architectures, with emphasis on Lakehouse and data platform modernization as the primary lever for long-term Gen AI impact.
• Lead C-level briefings, strategy sessions, and multi-day workshops that connect business outcomes, regulatory constraints, and operating model change to concrete Databricks-based roadmaps.
• Serve as a deep technical counterpart in the field, maintaining L200–L300 proficiency across Databricks products and being able to credibly engage architects, data engineers, and data scientists on solution design and trade-offs.
• Generalize patterns from the field into reusable reference architectures, industry blueprints, and best practices for regulated industries, and share them through blogs, webinars, whitepapers, and conference keynotes.
• Orchestrate the broader ecosystem (cloud providers, GSIs, consultancies, ISVs) around customer objectives, ensuring Databricks is at the center of multi-year transformation programs rather than isolated projects.
• Partner with Account Executives, Solutions Architects, Industry Leads, and Product Specialists to drive complex, multi-year sales cycles, securing platform decisions and expansions while influencing ACV and consumption growth.
• Provide structured, prioritized feedback from strategic customers into Product, Engineering, and Field leadership to influence product roadmap, especially around data, governance, security, and regulated-industry requirements.
• Mentor senior Field Engineering and industry-focused talent, contributing to a pipeline of principal- and CTO-level leaders and codifying ways of working for complex, regulated accounts.

What We Look For

• 15+ years of experience spanning enterprise technology and consulting, including leading or advising on multi-year data platform and analytics transformations in large, complex organizations.
• Significant time spent inside a large enterprise software or cloud company (e.g., Microsoft or similar) in roles that required navigating matrixed organizations and driving change at scale, combined with direct industry exposure rather than a career spent solely in horizontal software.
• Experience in or with regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, public sector, regulated manufacturing, utilities), with familiarity with regulatory and compliance considerations affecting data and AI platforms.
• Background that blends: Hands-on technology and architecture work on data platforms and analytics; Organizational and operating model change (ways of working, skills, governance); Executive consulting or advisory, ideally seeing transformations through from strategy to multi-year execution, not only strategy decks.
• Proven ability to operate as a highly credible peer to C-level executives, driving business-outcome-focused conversations while also diving deep into technical details when needed.
• Strong, proactive networker who is naturally curious about which associations, councils, and forums matter for a given customer set, and who uses those networks to create new executive entry points and opportunities.
• Demonstrated longevity and impact in prior roles, with evidence of building and sustaining long-term customer relationships and programs rather than frequent short stints.

About Databricks

Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Key skills/competency

• Data & AI Strategy
• Executive Relationship Management
• Lakehouse Architecture
• Industry Transformation
• Regulatory Compliance
• Solution Design
• C-level Consulting
• Product Roadmap Influence
• Ecosystem Orchestration
• Mentorship