Solution Architect

At Black Box, the mission of a Managed Services Solution Architect (SA) is to utilize their technology and managed services expertise to build creative solutions and help our customers overcome IT operational challenges and achieve their business goals. Our SA’s are critical members of the pre-sales team, leading the consultative discovery of our global & enterprise customer’s business goals, objectives, and challenges and then creating and proposing high value managed services solutions, driving business case and financial justifications to show benefit and value.

Preferred locations: Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Seattle

RESPONSIBILITIES
- Manage opportunities and assist sales teams in the preparation, delivery, presentation and negotiation of Managed Services proposals, contracts and pricing.
- Respond to RFP s, RFQ s and proactive bids while working closely with all teams to develop the win strategy, competitor evaluation and creating differentiated value propositions.
- Develop solutions/strategies using technology to resolve customer issues and achieve business goals/objectives
- Develop a deep understanding of Black Box services capabilities and serve as a Managed Services thought leader and SME across the organization.
- Assist in identifying, developing and rollout of new, innovative and exciting service offerings.
- Evangelize & promote Black Box managed services offers and capabilities and educate both internal and customer stakeholders on the programs, value and differentiators of our Managed Services.
- Achieve sales and profit goals through joint account planning, partner teaming (internal & external), on-site client interface/visits, engagement/solution development and implementation support/follow-up.
- Continuous education on New Technology trends and market needs around IT Services

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES
- Strong business acumen and understanding of clients IT related business goals and challenges to ensure proper translation of the client’s needs into solutions
- Understanding various pricing models such as per port, resource based, ticket based, onsite, remote or Hybrid
- Strong understanding of Pre-sales/Solutions process and activities with hands-on experience good bid/project management skills ability to manage multiple bids simultaneously
- Ability to develop and deliver technical presentations with customers and tailor content to audience as appropriate. Display sustained energy and determination to meet challenging deliverables within stringent timelines
- Ability to work independently with diverse & global teams and interact confidently with customers and internal stakeholders at all levels
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Experience running support teams and/or operations a plus
- Strong experience with Unified Communications and UC Managed Services a plus

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
- Degree in a computer Science and Engineering or equivalent role relevant experience
- 5+ years in a customer/client facing technical role (Pre/Post Sales, Sales Engineering, Consulting, Solutions Architecture, Service Delivery, etc.) with a strong knowledge of various network architectures, virtualization, Cloud, Unified Communications and mobility solutions.
- 5+ years of experience in managed services practice.
- 3+ years of pre-sale experience developing managed IT and/or managed UC services solutions.
- ITSM training and certifications (ITIL,COBIT, etc.) a plus
- Extensive consulting experience, providing large, global customers with strategic and tactical planning for technology solutions.
- Demonstrated and verifiable track record of prior successful customer engagements. Examples of solution designs, statements of work and/or technical project plans are required
- Experience in the development and implementation of IT and/or managed Unified Communications solutions with accountability for end-to-end delivery
- Experience with enterprise OEM such as AVAYA, Cisco, etc. a plus
- Experience leading and/or managing teams a plus

CERTIFICATIONS

Current and valid industry certifications on technology partners,processes in one or more of the following preferred:

- UC and/or Contact Center (AVAYA, Cisco, Genesys, etc.)
- Network (Cisco, Juniper, Extreme, etc.)
- ITIL

KEY TECHNOLOGIES
- Unified Communications
- Network Architecture
- Wireless
- Cyber security

LI-MG12