Job Description
As a PS Client Solutions Architect (CSA), you will be responsible for the PS design and scoping of services of complex transformational solutions for our customers. The role will require you to understand the products, frameworks, and design patterns used for VMware solutions. You will be asked to contribute to these frameworks, develop reusable domain solutions, and mentor internal & external stakeholders on the use of the tools. You will be working as part of a team with similar charters. To effectively build solutions to solve for complex business problems it will be important to build a strong network among your peers and internal & external teams. You should be ready to take ownership of the pre-sales initiatives and programs to aid in delivering of our solutions. The ideal candidate will have a good mix of Technical Skills, Business Acumen, and a strong bias for customer centricity. The ideal candidate will need to be able to understand the customers vision and to be able to translate this to desired business outcomes and the IT solutions which underpin them. You will be acting as a lead technologist and should have a broad understanding of VMware and related technologies. The ideal candidate would have domain level understanding in one or more of the following Franchises:
- Multi-Cloud
- Application Modernisation
- Virtual Cloud Networking
- Intrinsic Security
Responsibilities
- Working in partnership with the core sales, services sales and delivery teams you will lead the pre-sales engagement with customers to understand desired customer outcomes, technical objectives, and services requirements
- Design high level solutions to meet the business outcomes and IT objectives
- Development of Vision for the Solution, Strategy and Services Roadmaps
- Ability to think past individual products and create end to end solutions to meet the business outcomes
- Effectively communicate the proposed services architecture to the customer, partners and project teams to demonstrate its tangible value
- Ensure that proposals, services solution designs and Statements Of Work are technically sound, deliverable, competitive and representative of market leadership in the application of technology to addressing business outcomes
- Assist with the completion and response of customer issues RFI’s, RFQ’s and RFP’s
- Ownership of the technical components of the Statement Of Work including pre-requisites, responsibilities, technical scaling factors, out of scope items etc.
- Accurately define role based Level Of Effort required to deliver the solution in line with VMware best practice and support guidelines
- Facilitate accurate, timely and efficient handover of projects from the sales phase to delivery
- Author blogs, technical articles and white papers based on experiences
- Speak at events such as VMworld, Sales Kick-Offs, Technical Summits etc.
- Provide lessons learned feedback to Services Sales, Delivery Management and Engineering based on customer feedback
- Adhere to VMware PS sales process and methodologies on all opportunity pursuits
- Mastery of necessary tooling including PS Solution Builder
- Maintain proficiency in VMware service offerings, value propositions, and representative case studies
- Support Field enablement of Client Solution Executives (PS Client Sales Execs), CSAs, inside Client Sales Execs and iCSAs as appropriate
- Obtain continuous feedback from the field, including customers, bringing IP back to corporate teams and making recommendations on future service offerings
- Working with PS Client Sales Execs help to scrub franchise specific forecasts to provide the best possible view for the business
- Confidently gather use case requirements and solution designs while functioning as an advocate for “Best Practices” and driving adoption of VMware solutions.
- Ensure the solution being delivered is fit for purpose, referencing the initial business goals and objectives of the project through strong governance
- Maintain up to date high-level technical knowledge of the VMware product line and future product direction and expert level knowledge of your specialist domain
Requirements
- A minimum of 3 years Pre-Sales /Business development / Advisory experience in a consulting and/or professional services environment
- Technical services scoping experience in a consulting/services environment, including time supporting sales and liaising with technical practices and delivery
- Delivery or production experience in at least 2 of the 5 main Franchises
- Strong presentation, executive client management and business development skills with the ability to articulate options & ideas
- Superior organizational and negotiation skills
- Experience of working in a multi-dimensional and matrixed organisation
- Ability to influence external & internal decision makers and to anticipate challenges and take pro-active action to address
- Willingness to travel up to 50% of the time
- Strong documentation and technical writing skills
- Ability to demonstrate solid commercial acumen
- Adaptable and progressive learner with the ability to communicate complex technical topics to both a technical and non-technical audience
- An active listener with excellent communications and interpersonal skills, with an ability to utilizes different styles of questioning techniques and manage conflict and objection handling
Certification and Education
- Bachelor’s degree as a minimum or ability to demonstrate equivalent experience
Desirable skills and experience
- VMware certifications
- Certifications in technologies related to Public Cloud provider (AWS, Azure…), Private Cloud, Virtual Infrastructure, Modern Applications, Digital Workspace and/or Systems Management
- Experience in producing and reviewing Statements of Work for services
- A broad range of vSphere, NSX, Cloud management products (e.g. vRA, vCD etc.), DevOps tools and End User Computing design experience in medium to large environments
- Experience of broadly accepted architectural frameworks (e.g. TOGAF, ITIL etc.)
- Experience of Project Management
- Experience of presenting at a user group, trade show or similar is highly desirable
- Technical knowledge of Third Party infrastructure and / or cloud native products and solutions (e.g. Microsoft, Red Hat, Dell, Cisco)
- Active participation in Vmware user groups or being a vExpert is a plus
- Experience of working with a wider team to respond to RFI, RFQ or RPS’s
- Willing to help to develop a ‘one team’ spirit
- Ability to collaborate in a multi-competency environment (sales, presales, generalist, specialist…)
- Demonstrates empathy
- Ability to adapt internal and external communication to a target audience
Category : Sales
Subcategory: Solutions Architect
Experience: Manager and Professional
Full Time/ Part Time: Full Time
Posted Date: 2021-02-03
