Presales Solutions Architect

As a Specialist Solutions Engineer (SSE) on the Modern Workspace team, you will be a key contributor in presales engagements with our clients to design and scope Modern Workspace focused solutions. In this position, you will collaborate with our clients and other architects to define journey maps, adoption plans, and long-term strategy. This will include defining customer requirements, delivering proposed technical architectural designs, demonstrating solutions, leveraging vendor relationships and tools, and defining associated professional services.

In this role, you will work within the Presales and Engineering organization responsible for designing, architecting and consulting for AHEAD clients. We expect our Solutions Engineers to continuously build knowledge across our Enterprise Cloud Framework including Cloud Management and Operations, Security, Datacenter Infrastructure and Public Cloud. Your goal as a Specialist Solutions Engineer should be to build skills, relationships, and industry credibility across more than one of these segments to drive product and services sales.

Responsibilities- Engage in conversations with customers aligned to their industry to understand their business challenges and introduce AHEAD products, solutions and services.
- Initiate conversations with customers specifically focused around Modern Workspace- Productivity, Collaboration, Endpoint Management, Identity Management, Experience Monitoring, Virtual Desktop - in collaboration with vendors and the Ahead services organization.
- Identify gaps in the client environment, process, and skills with the intent to address, educate, and bring their teams together to drive client enablement.
- Explain and educate complex solutions, architectures and integrations in a clear and articulate manner.
- Create guiding examples of customer transformation through seminars, workshops, webinars, and direct engagement.
- Collaborate with team members to discover new opportunities. Drive incremental revenue growth through personal campaigns (e.g., portfolio analysis) or internal sources (e.g., Marketing). Collaborates with account teams, partners, or services to track and qualify new opportunities.
- Identify customer business needs and technology readiness. Contribute to the development of solutions in collaboration with internal teams, partners, and services. Propose prioritized solutions that align with customers' needs. Articulate the business value of proposed solutions.
- Collaborate with other teams (e.g., account teams) and services to build pipeline. Interface with customers and build relationships via social selling. Apply AHEADs sales process to adequately qualify an opportunity.
- Identify opportunities to drive consumption and grow business with existing customers by initiating conversations, providing demos or quotes, and collaborating with partners or internal teams.
- Proactively engage with vendors to leverage funding mechanisms available as part of sales campaign.
- Implement strategies to accelerate the closing of deals. Contribute input on strategies to drive and close prioritized opportunities. Implement close plans (e.g., how to map timeline, engage the customer, get customer buy-in and commitment) to de-risk and drive predictable deal closure.

Technical Expertise:- Experience working in a Modern Workspace focused pre-sales environment on solutions including
- ProductivityMicrosoft 365, Entra ID, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and Exchange
- Identity and Access ManagementActive Directory, Entra ID, Okta, Duo
- Endpoint ManagementMicrosoft Intune, Microsoft SCCM, Workspace ONE UEM
- Virtual DesktopCitrix DaaS, Microsoft AVD, Nerdio, VMware Horizon
- Digital Employee ExperienceControlUp
- Endpoint DevicesMicrosoft Surface, Dell Wyse, IGEL
- Data and AIMicrosoft Copilot
- Ability to partner with various teams across the organization to identify and build solutions for customers
- Provide market intelligence to management staff and participate in development of future solution strategies and offerings
- Participate in the preparation of sales campaigns, business plans, and technology heat maps for prospects
- Participate with OEM vendors and SE teams on product roadmaps and strategy
- Participate in continued education to maintain and grow your career.
- Stay informed about new services, technologies, and other information that may be of interest to clients
- Maintain existing certifications and continue to grow technical skill set

Pre-Sales Expertise:- Experience in conducting white boarding sessions, creating diagrams, and technical solution roadmaps
- Experience presenting solutions to clients and addressing any issues/concerns
- Ability to identify, validate, and grow opportunities in high potential customer accounts
- Increase customer loyalty through effective communications, professionalism, and exceeding customer expectations
- Preferred experience in pricing and scoping managed service designs
- Preferred experience selling Microsoft products, licensing and services.

Requirements:- Must have a minimum 4 years of experience selling or configuring Microsoft products, services, and integrations
- Strongly prefer experience with Microsoft Productivity suite and Copilot
- Strongly prefer experience with Endpoint Management, Identity/Access Management and VDI solutions
- Must have the ability to analyze existing and anticipated client requirements and promote consideration of companies solutions and services to meet the clients requirements
- Demonstrated ability to work with and communicate with other team members
- Must have excellent communication, documentation, and customer facing skills
- A desire to learn and be a problem solver
- Prefer recent role-based Microsoft industry recognized certifications

Education and Training

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in IT
• 4+ years of experience in an Engineer or Consultant role
• Multiple industry-recognized certifications from key vendors