Solution Architect - Public Cloud

As a trusted voice of technical expertise in our core product fields of Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Power Systems, Server, Network, Security, and Automation, the LightEdge Solution Architect Team guides our clients and our organization toward excellent technology and business outcomes. LightEdge is looking to augment this team with two additional people to help grow LightEdge in 2024 and beyond.

The Solution Architects work with our Account Executives to build relationship and cultivate opportunity within new prospects as well as existing clients. The Solution Architect helps identify business concerns and technology challenges, as well as uncovering areas for optimization and improvement that the client may be unaware of. This requires not only a deep technical knowledge of LightEdge solutions, but a broad knowledge that spans the five key domains of the LightEdge service offerings, as well as the practical knowledge that comes from a career of “doing.”

SAs also love learning, teaching and sharing knowledge. They pay attention to the industry and what is going on, and are always looking to add to their knowledge through training. They conduct trainings and give talks for the organization as a whole, as well as ensuring they are constantly building each other up. They also produce training and demo material for clients, including written as well as video. SAs are OK with being wrong or saying “I don’t know, but I’ll find out,” because that’s an opportunity to learn something new. They correct and are corrected with professionalism and kindness.

SAs are also proud product evangelists. We believe in the company and the products we sell, and work with marketing to produce marketing collateral (such as product guides and white papers) and participate in events (such as webinars and marketing videos.) They also work with our product team to ensure that the voice of the client is heard in the product process, sharing feedback around ways to improve or augment existing products, or insight as to what products we should be on the roadmap.

We are not looking for the “perfect” candidate that brings strength in all five areas, but for candidates to the team that strengthen the team as a whole by bringing unique perspectives and strengthen specific areas. We presently are seeking a candidates with this expertise:

- Public Cloud to bring experience working with hyperscale platforms such as AWS or Azure. Preferred canadiate should have a minimum of Solutions Architect – Professional Level on AWS and/or Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification. Knowledge of the AWS Migration Acceleration Program and/or Azure Migration Program would be advantegous. A strong background in evaluating customer environments, using the AWS and Azure calculators, and estimating and pricing customer configurations. Additional experience with Google Cloud, Alibaba, or Oracle Cloud would be helpful with many of the public cloud customers that we work with.

Responsibilities

• Sales Support

• Participate actively in the sales process, both in client meetings as well as internal planning sessions.

• Develop and maintain relationships with clients, especially client engineering resources and decision makers.

• Listen carefully to identify business challenges, opportunities, and desired outcomes, including helping the client identify previously unseen challenges and opportunities.

• Help guide the sales process to ensure it is following a technically sound path, and identify risks and potential blockers.

• Work closely with client technical resources to inventory and analyze client environments, including network layout, compute workloads, storage needs, security concerns, and more.

• Proudly demonstrate our products and solutions in a way that instills confidence

• Build and document solutions that solve the identified challenges and deliver the desired outcomes.

• Support creation of sales documentation including MSAs, SOWs, and quotes.

• Consolidation of various artifacts (PAs, SOWs, resale) into unified Customer solution.

• Teaching & Learning

• Follow industry happenings, especially in our core areas.

• Continuous learning through self-study and training, attaining vendor and partner certifications as required

• Regular engagement with strategic LightEdge vendors and partners

• Share knowledge with the team and organization by leading training classes and producing training material

• Create compelling product demos to arm the team better

• Product Evangelism

• Participate in marketing efforts, including contributing to written and video content.

• Represent LightEdge on LinkedIn and industry Slack/Discord/forums.

• Evangelize LightEdge via key market technology events such as VMware Explore.

• Be the voice of the client to the product organization, sharing opportunities for improving products as well as identifying in-demand products not yet on the roadmap.

• Every Day

• Be kind and professional always, with clients, co-workers, vendors, and partners.

• Disagreement is healthy, arguing is not. You won’t always “get your way” and that’s OK.

• Correct others and be corrected with kindness and humility.

• Recognize your coworkers’ value and celebrate their achievements.

• Be proud of your own achievements.

Requirements

• Ability and willingness to quickly learn, understand, and work with new emerging technologies, methodologies, and solutions in the IT technology space
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills for work in a collaborative team environment.
• Proven experience building/doing/working with relevant technologies is required
• Proven experience in a client-facing speaking role is required; pre-sales/service provider preferred
• Proven experience in solving complex cross-functional technical problems is required
• Experience with CRM software such as SalesForce is preferred.