This opening is for a Solution Architect role to provide pre-sales assistance. The role will perform project-based consulting with various customers. This will include discovery calls, design efforts, and planning to implement, and support infrastructure projects. The successful candidate must be a self-starter, and work well in a team environment. A successful Solutions Architect must demonstrate the ability to listen to customer needs, find solutions to their business challenges, understand the IT ecosystems for different IT infrastructure components, and resolve issues independently. Additionally, a positive demeanor, along with excellent customer service and communication skills are foundational skills for success in this role.
You will:
Provide consulting and solution architect services for key projects and customers focused on growing s4nets business with solution sales including a combination of professional services, hardware, and software.
As a Solutions Architect you will assist clients in solving business issues and develop overall solutions that includes both high-level and detailed design for technologies related to IT infrastructure.
Coordinate with client and lead s4nets team in scoping projects (professional services Level of Effort Estimates and Statements of Work), building Bill of Materials, and presenting the solutions to clients along with the sales team.
Understand manufacturer and provider programs and pricing to provide recommendations to the sales organization regarding sales opportunities.
Coordinate with our internal sales organization to provide quotes to the direct account teams.
Building relationships with strategic customers as their “Trusted Advisor “for strategy, budgeting, and key projects.
Creating relationships with vendor account teams to coordinate technical presentations and sales efforts for clients
Facilitating hand-off of consulting engagements to s4nets senior or junior consulting staff.
Develop both high-level and detailed implementation and test plans infrastructure solutions.
Provide formal documentation, scheduled presentations and informal training to clients when needed.
Familiarity and confidence in discussing the following solutions and their functions in IT infrastructure:
Enterprise Networking
LAN Design (Fabric vs Traditional)
SD-WAN Architecture
Data Center Networking
Key Vendors: Cisco & Arista
Secondary Vendors: HPE/Juniper/MIST & Fortinet
IT Security
NGFW Architecture
Identity Management solutions
Remote Access Solutions including VPN & SASE
Collaboration
Cloud vs On-premises
ISP Circuit Management
Compute / Workload Management
Servers & Storage
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure
Hypervisors
Cloud Services
Azure / GCP / AWS conceptual familiarity
Differenced between FaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS
IT Financial Operations
Project Budgeting / Estimates
Operations or Engineering Management Insights
CAPEX / OPEX Budget experience
Program / Project Roadmaps
Qualifications
This position requires strong skills and experience in enterprise networking. Skills in the following areas are expected to support upcoming projects:
Demonstrated experience including the following:
Assessing, architecting, designing, implementing, troubleshooting, and documenting networks and related systems.
Scoping projects – Creating Bill of Materials for hardware/software, developing level of effort for professional services, creating Statement of Work for client.
Pricing – recommending programs and pricing for opportunities.
Developing relationships with clients for strategy, budgeting, and projects.
10+ years of experience with selling and/or working with enterprise network, wireless, collaboration, and security products.
Superior interpersonal and communication skills. Must be able to work with all levels of client (engineers, managers, and C level), communicate clearly, and meet deadlines.
Experience with working with a combination of the following products:
Cisco Routing & Switching
Cisco Identity Service Engine (ISE)
Network Management Tools
Cisco DNA Center (Cisco Catalyst Center)
Cisco ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure)
Fabric Based Networking (SDA, ACI, and/or MP-BGP/VXLAN fabrics)
Cisco TrustSec and Cisco ISE Policy creation
Network security and firewalls (Cisco and Palo Alto)
Cisco Collaboration Tools
Alternative network solution providers (Arista, Fortinet, Palo Alto, etc.)
Experience independently managing multiple projects and large-scale network projects.
Passion for learning and an organized and professional approach to designing and implementing solutions.
Other Requirements
Must be self-directed individual who is highly motivated in working towards mutual goals with client and s4nets sales team.
Must be able to work with COO, sales teams, and practice leads to coordinate scheduling to meet customer needs, sometimes coordinating multiple projects at one time.
Must routinely communicate work status and potential issues without prompting.
Able to travel or work remotely as needed to support consulting customers.
Minimum Education: Bachelor's Degree or equivalent. Six (6) years of general experience is considered equivalent to a Bachelor's Degree.
Continuous learning required.
Certification attainment, updates and re-certifications required.
solutions4networks is an award winning IT network engineering and cybersecurity consulting company that provides integration services and equipment/software. Focus areas include network infrastructure, collaboration, wireless, datacenters, cybersecurity and Microsoft (Azure, Modern Workplace, Sharepoint and Teams Voice). Our clients include Fortune 500 companies, healthcare, financial, manufacturing, and universities in Southwestern PA as well as other companies in the US. http://www.s4nets.com