Sr. Manager, Capability Engineering & AI Adoption — APJ

Databricks is experiencing tremendous growth as enterprise organizations transition from evaluating AI to rapidly deploying production-grade AI systems. This role exists to redefine how we enable our largest customers to move faster, activate their data workforces, and convert platform investments into measurable business outcomes. As the Senior Manager of Capability Engineering & AI Adoption for APJ, you will lead a regional team of deeply Customer Enablement Architects who act as the ultimate trusted advisors and builder-enablement partners for Databricks’ most complex customers. You will operate at the intersection of technical depth and business strategy—translating advanced product roadmaps into just-in-time, personalized capability programs that meet customers exactly where they are in their modernization and AI adoption journeys. This position will be reporting to Director, Capability Engineering APJ. The Impact You Will Have People Leadership: Lead, coach, and develop an elite regional team of Customer Enablement Architects across APJ, setting a high standard for technical depth, customer impact, and creative problem-solving. Capability Engineering at Scale: Redesign enterprise enablement workflows, moving away from legacy episodic models to continuous, contextual, and hyper-personalized capability building aligned with customers' modernization curves. AI Adoption & MAU Activation: Partner directly with account teams and field leadership to diagnose capability blockers and drive measurable increases in Monthly Active Users (MAU) across strategic enterprise accounts. Hands-on Builder Innovation: Cultivate a builder culture within the team to design and deploy custom enablement applications, tools, and prototypes (e.g., via Databricks Apps, Genie, or agentic frameworks) when standard curricula fall short. Executive & Stakeholder Alignment: Conduct deep discovery sessions with enterprise technical leaders and C-suite executives, aligning strategic capability roadmaps with the customer's high-level AI transformation goals. Global Operational Integrity: Serve as the regional voice into global curriculum and certification teams to prioritize APJ market needs and skill gaps, while maintaining strict operational rigor with training logistics teams. Strategic Regional Presence: Undertake significant regional travel across APJ to engage directly with strategic enterprise accounts on-site, lead high-stakes executive alignment sessions, and provide hands-on leadership to a geographically dispersed team. What We Look For Technical Depth: Deep foundational understanding of lakehouse architecture, data engineering/ETL pipelines, data governance, and generative AI/agentic workflows to earn immediate respect from customer data teams. Hands-on Builder Mindset: A non-negotiable track record of personally designing, building, and deploying working prototypes, automation tools, or technical apps. Customer-Facing Solutioning: Prior experience in a solutions architect, customer success engineering, technical pre-sales, or advanced delivery role, with a proven ability to confidently navigate ambiguity and discover core user friction points. Enablement Reinvention: Passion for moving beyond legacy classroom-style or completion-centric learning models into just-in-time, contextual capability building embedded directly in user workflows. Commercial & Business Insight: Ability to connect technical skill outcomes to core P&L levers, influence renewals/expansions, and collaborate effectively with sales on strategic account planning. APJ Fluency & Mobility (Required) : Lived experience operating across APJ markets (ANZ, SEA, Japan, India, Korea). Ability and willingness to travel extensively (frequent regional travel expected) to meet customers and support team members across different geographies. You possess the resilience and cultural adaptability required to remain highly effective while managing a demanding regional travel schedule. Leadership