Solutions Architect - Cloud

Due to continued growth, we have a fantastic opportunity for a Solutions Architect to join the Comms-care solutions team to act as a Solutions Architect, with an alignment to Cloud technologies.  As a Solutions Architect within Comms-care you will play a pivotal role in owning, developing, and driving high-value/profile opportunities (incl. bids responses), generated by our sales and commercial team, through the sales cycle from initial qualification, through solution proposal, to successful handover to the internal technical delivery teams. 

Where an opportunity falls outside your area of technical discipline, you will be responsible for engaging with the appropriate internal or third-party resources to ensure a coherent and fit-for-purpose solution is proposed.  Other key responsibilities of the role include acting as the interface between the internal sales and technical teams, acting as an evangelist of our services and capabilities to our channel partners, end-customers and internal stakeholders along with being integral to the identification and development of our solutions offerings.

Location: Home or Office based

Salary: Competitive dependent on experience

Package includes: Phone, laptop, certified training & benefits package

Comms-care (a wholly owned subsidiary of Ingram Micro Inc.) is the UK’s market-leading strategic service partner to the IT channel community. With a commitment to being 100% channel-focused, Comms-care provides a highly qualified technical team, complementary and supportive business model and an unrivalled level of service to over 900 channel partners ranging from SME to enterprise level; delivering services on their behalf to ‘000’s of end user organisations with site locations throughout the UK and occasionally into Europe.  Comms-care has a rich and scalable value add portfolio which spans the IT lifecycle from pre-sales, professional services, managed services, maintenance as well as a range of complementary business services such as flexible resourcing, finance and IT asset disposal.

Responsibilities

The principal responsibilities of the role include, but not limited to, the following:

• Solutions Pre-Sales and Bid Responses
  • Drive architectural solution development through understanding and translating customer challenges and requirements to identify and articulate the best-of-breed solution
  • Act as the technical owner and leader of proposals (bid responses and high-profile/value opportunities) taking full ownership of the technical response, including managing technical inputs from SMEs
  • Provide technical representation and leadership for high-value/profile end-customer pre-sales meetings and qualification calls
  • Guide and drive solutions consistency through peer reviewing and providing overarching sign-off on high-value/profile opportunities
  • Lead, with the support of SME’s, overarching solutions art-of-the-possible workshops with end-customers and assist with the creation of their strategic technology roadmap
  • Attend end-customer project kick-off meetings, as appropriate, to ensure seamless handover from pre-sales to delivery
• Channel Partner and Vendor Relationships
  • Build and drive a sustained, responsive, technical, and influential relationship with channel partners and vendors
  • Position self as a ‘trusted advisor’ and ‘thought leader’ to channel partners for pre-sales translation and qualification of technical opportunities and ongoing engagement evolution
  • Actively promote pre-sales, solutions offerings, and consulting capabilities to channel partners
  • Be a visible representative of Comms-care at partner engagements and key vendor events, supporting the identification and development of future solutions offerings
  • Build and maintain a strong relationship with Ingram Micro’s Solutions Architect’s, identify synergies and project attach opportunities
  • Support the continual development of channel partner and end-customer relationships in collaboration with account management and service delivery teams
• Solutions Development
  • Position self as a thought leader and drive the development and evolution of solutions offerings
  • Work with internal peers to ensure accurate mappings of technical disciplines to the solutions pillars, along with identifying skills gaps / opportunities
  • Identify and drive opportunities to support the cross-sell and cohesion of solutions offerings within the Ingram Micro business
  • Provide pre-sales support and educate the internal sales team on latest solutions offerings
• Engagement Governance
  • Provide overarching technical assurance on proposals (bid responses and high-profile/value opportunities)
  • Provide consistent handover of engagements from pre-sales to delivery teams
  • Provide continual thought leadership and guidance to internal and external stakeholders, supporting engagement evolution
  • Act as an overarching escalation point for scope validation and assurance

Experience and Qualifications

As a Solutions Architect, you will be expected to have broad experience and knowledge of helping organisations modernise through outcomes-based solutions with a focus area in cloud-based technologies.  Whilst Comms-care are continually evolving our solutions offerings and capabilities, our key vendors in the cloud arena include Microsoft, AWS, Google and VMware.

Knowledge, Skills and Characteristics

• Experience in a similar Solutions Architect type role
• Commercially astute with a winning mentality
• Excellent communicator both verbally and written
• Influential, assertive, and diplomatic
• Able to operate independently or as part of a larger team
• Able to network with industry peers and customers
• Thrive on being a problem solver with the ability to think outside of the box
• Industry leading knowledge of within technical discipline
• A flexible approach to work and prepared 'go the extra mile' to exceed customer expectations
• Applies knowledge and skills through handling complex problems beyond own area of expertise

Make an application to join the team

Our team is as much about our people as it is our customers and business partners. We want associates with a strong desire to succeed. We offer a competitive base, bonus and benefits package.