Pre-sales Solutions Architect

**Company Description**
Version 1 has celebrated over 26 years in Technology Services and continues to be trusted by global brands to deliver solutions that drive customer success. Version 1 has several strategic technology partners including Microsoft, AWS, Oracle, Red Hat, OutSystems and Snowflake. We’re also an award-winning employer reflecting how employees are at the heart of Version 1.

We’ve been awarded: Innovation Partner of the Year Winner 2023 Oracle EMEA Partner Awards, Global Microsoft Modernising Applications Partner of the Year Award 2023, AWS Collaboration Partner of the Year - EMEA 2023 and Best Workplaces for Women by Great Place To Work in UK and Ireland 2023.

As a consultancy and service provider, Version 1 is a digital-first environment and we do things differently. We’re focused on our core values; using these we’ve seen significant growth across our practices and our Digital, Data and Cloud team is preparing for the next phase of expansion. This creates new opportunities for driven and skilled individuals to join one of the fastest-growing consultancies globally.
**Job Description** 1. Solution Architecture and Proposal Management**
- Architect solutions and lead the proposal and bidding process, including solution strategy, win theme alignment, proposal writing, effort estimation, and costing for Application Development and Managed Services opportunities.
- Understand and articulate non-functional requirements, design, and architectural concerns related to security, performance, scalability, observability, and user experience.

**2. Customer Engagement and Requirements Gathering**
- Lead competitive dialogue with customers and be comfortable leading workshops and presentations.
- Conduct high-level functional requirements gathering/clarification sessions with potential customers and internal sales/account management teams.
- Have a solution mindset to understand client pain points and address them by showing impact and value add. Work with the customer and internal sales teams to understand requirements, objectives, and business justification to respond with a viable solution.

**3. Technical Evaluation and Knowledge Maintenance**
- Evaluate functional/non-functional, architectural, technical, and commercial aspects of third-party software platforms and COTS products.
- Maintain knowledge of emerging technology, software trends, architecture styles, and design patterns covering end-to-end software development.
- Fully understand the functionality and limitations of multi-cloud architectures.

**4. Solution Validation and Optimization**
- Conducted successful customer demos/Proof of Concepts to aid in solution defence at the pre-sales stage.
- Influenced and optimized software test strategies in solution and delivery strategy at the pre-sales stage.
- Influence and optimize delivery phase sequencing, high-level planning, and resource loading in the program plan at the pre-sales stage.
- Work closely with practice and delivery leads to validate the solution and hand over for project delivery.

**5. Collaboration and Capability Building**
- Identify necessary capabilities within the organization. If capability is not available, work with practice teams to get external help (collaboration with vendors, partners, etc.).
- Create compelling propositions by pulling together technology and business capabilities, customer stories, intellectual property, accelerators, industry insights, and common customer challenges.
- Develop collateral like case studies, practice decks, client presentations, and sales pitches to support sales teams.

**Qualifications**
- 15+ years of experience in the services industry.
- 6+ years Proven experience in end to end solutioning in Application Development and Managed Services opportunities in Tier 2/Tier 3 customer base.
- Experience in managing end to end managed services deals, tickets analysis, process optimization, giving directions in automation opportunities etc.
- Strong understanding of bid processes and commercial experience with an understanding of bid finance and creating cost models.
- Strong technical experience, working across different cloud technology stacks.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to effectively communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Highly driven, proactive, team player, and a natural people leader.

**Nice to Have**:

- Willingness to work in flexible, hybrid teams and travel on an agreed basis to support wider commercial and customer engagement.
- Strong commercial awareness and focus on customer success outcomes.
- Thought leadership capability and expertise in delivering insightful and differentiating customer-focused content (blogs, webinars, white papers, etc.).
- Experience in one or more of the following business sectors - Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Manufacturing.

**Additional Information**
At Version 1, we believe in providing our em