Principal Solutions Architect

The Principal Field Solutions Architect is responsible for working in collaboration with the Cloud Practice Leaders, Business Development Team, and Field CTOs to drive technical strategy and sales GTM for AI technologies for CDW customers. Successful Principal Architects will design and develop capabilities that address DV opinions for leveraging the partner technology and adhering to industry best practices and norms.

Key Areas of Responsibility

Technology Leadership

• Consulting on leading-edge technologies and possess deep technical knowledge for a mixture of the following: Azure AI/ML Services and Products, Automation experience with Terraform, Kubernetes and AKS container orchestration, Cloud-native application patterns, & AI Architecture and strategy.
• Accurately design and scope professional services engagements leveraging Azure cloud technology for AI solutions.
• Maintain deep technical expertise in their role; Is the "Go To" person for the Azure AI/ML solutions, both technically and strategically; is on the forefront of their solution(s) and the implications for CDW offerings.
• Lead Azure-focused AI/ML design and assessment engagements.
• Communicates and trains the team on changes in technologies, procedures, solution implementations, and approaches based on customer engagements.
• Promotes a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration by organizing knowledge bases, contributing regularly, and encouraging team members to contribute.
• Coaches and mentors team members to improve their technical, consulting, and sales skills.
• Acts as a resource to other FSAs for advice and recommendations on technical design issues and product choices.
• Serves in the customer escalation path for technical problem resolution.
• Assist managers with new hire FSAs’, leads shadow assignments; proactively provides assistance and guidance to new hires to accelerate productivity.

Sales

• Follows up on implemented solutions and identifies new opportunities that complement the work that was completed, advising team members and sales prior to customer calls and/or sales strategy sessions.
• Assists customers in understanding their equipment maintenance contracts, upgrade needs, and renewals; analyzes the most cost-effective approach for the customer (e.g. renew the contract or purchase new equipment and contract.)
• Incorporates financing (through manufacturer or third party) as part of the sales proposal and discussion; looks beyond the current infrastructure/problem toward a 3 to 5 year roadmap.
• Initiates new event ideas; collaborates with Partners and Sales to design events that can be replicated by other FSAs; secures funding to support CDW customer events.
• Delivers presentations and conducts sales conversations with confidence and credibility to C-level clients, both in small meeting and large group formats, developing presentation content for the team.
• Develops assessments, improvements and demos for FSAs to use as sales tools, identifies new ideas for cross-sell opportunities, teaches FSAs in Sales on how to use these tools.
• Collaborates with Partners, Inside Solution Architects (ISA), and Account Executives (AE) to drive mapped opportunities; fine-tune strategies and approaches to achieve greater sales results.
• Operates in a regular cadence with multiple partners to educate, plan, and execute on joint strategies in collaboration with multiple stakeholders (ISA, AE, Sales Manager, Field Sales); understands partner alignment in geography and leads customer opportunity mapping exercises; coordinates on-site partner visits, sharing best practices and tactics for enhancing profitability and closing deals.
• Acts as subject matter expert for marketing activities (e.g., marketing blog, content, references, videos, etc.); produces marketing-type documents and materials (e.g., data sheet, presentation, demo video) to use throughout the Practice.

Sales Support

• Manages competing priorities and sets expectations with sales and other stakeholders through proactive communication, planning, and potential for return on investment.
• Leads the development of Statements of Work, RFPs, RFIs, and proposal content for cross-technology solutions with high levels of accuracy and quality.
• Maintains pre-sales pipeline data, develops plans, and takes actions to move opportunities to closure.

Qualifications

Education and/or Skill-Set Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent experience
• 7+ years of experience in deployment of private/public cloud solutions
• Previous direct customer consulting experience or equivalent understanding of role responsibilities
• Experience with Azure and/or possessing Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification(s)
• Additional technology areas and experience: Python, Terraform and specialty Azure and AI/ML certifications

Required Qualifications

• Experience in Building AI Models: You should have at least 2 years of experience in creating and implementing AI models.
• Proficiency in Python, LangChain and TensorFlow: A proven track record of using Python and TensorFlow for building and deploying AI solutions is essential.
• Knowledge of NoSQL and RDBMS: Familiarity with NoSQL databases (such as MongoDB, Cassandra) and relational databases (like MySQL, PostgreSQL) is crucial.
• REST API Development: Experience in designing and implementing RESTful APIs.
• Mathematics and Algorithms: A solid foundation in advanced mathematics (including linear algebra and calculus). Additionally, understanding various machine learning algorithms and their implementation is essential.
• Demonstrated understanding of Terraform/Ansible or equivalent automation technologies
• Demonstrated knowledge of public cloud platforms, aware of multi-platform solutions and capabilities
• Demonstrated ability to speak to the business value of assigned technology areas such as DevOps, CI/CD, GitOps, and AI/ML concepts
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, must be able to lead client facing conversations to drive success in consulting engagements
• Demonstrate solid interpersonal skills, able to mentor and guide internal engineering and personnel technical development teams