Comment by hellolemon

It’s risky to hire an engineer to be solutions architect because they deal with large clients. Most engineers don’t have soft skills and could easily offend people without knowing. Try and have an old colleague that is non-technical refer you. I think it’s a great role to do 1-2 years; especially, if you have strong technicals. Lot of C level roles requires interpersonal skills and dealing with external stakeholders. Don’t worry about it being a downlevel unless your goal is to stay technical your entire career. There are plenty of technical people and not many technical people that can communicate well with non-technical. Figure out what your end goal is.