Pre-Sales Solutions Architect

Title: Pre-Sales Solutions Architect

Reports to: Director of Pre-Sales Engineering

Location: Remote - California

Job Description: The Sterling Sales Engineer will work closely with sales Account Managers in a presales technical role configuring solutions to meet specific customer complex technology needs, showcasing product solutions, setting up product demonstrations, and explaining features and value of technology solutions to customers. The Sales Engineer will be a key partner in the sales cycle and interact with customers both over the phone and on site to build trust and act as a trusted advisor for Sterling s customers. Additionally, the Sales Engineer will identify, research and present industry solutions related to client devices, wireless and wired networking, servers, storage, cloud infrastructures and data centers for customers. As part of the team, the Sales Engineer will develop technical sales strategies for deeply complex and large organizations operating on behalf of and in tandem with Commercial, SLED and Government agencies, while articulating the value of Sterling to these customers and industry peers. We are looking for a high caliber technical thought leader in the areas of AI, ML, HPC, storage, compute & infrastructure that can accelerate our growth by inspiring and enabling individual contributors to perform at high levels.

Job Experience Requirements: The SE should have a minimum of 5 years of experience in a Pre-Sales Engineer, Systems Engineer, or related customer facing role. A four-year technical degree or military service is not required. The SE must be able to connect the dots technically, while also having a personality that is salesy enough to develop a personal relationship with customers, sales teams and vendors. A Solutions Architect should understand the tactical and strategic elements of Enterprise IT Consulting as a technical VAR to position solutions from one or more of the following:

Core Technical Skillset Requirements (experience with one or more in each group)

• Systems: must have a strong understanding of virtualization technologies, including hypervisors such as VMware, Hyper-V, KVM, and Citrix. Must understand OS layers from Microsoft, Red Hat, and other Unix platforms.
• Storage: must have knowledge of storage architecture, including storage area networks (SANs), network-attached storage (NAS), and software-defined storage such as: vSAN, Dell, HPE, Pure Storage, NetApp, NetApp, Pure Storage, Qumulo and VAST.
• Network Architecture: should have in-depth knowledge of network architecture, including software-defined networking (SDN) and network virtualization such as: Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Juniper, Extreme, Ruckus, VMware and HPE/Aruba
• AI/ML: should have desire to track AI/ML technology trends, understand AI models and algorithms, ability to work with large datasets: cleaning, analysis, and interpretation. Familiar with Python, R, Java and TensorFlow/PyTorch. Experience with NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, DataBricks and other AI vendors.

Additional Technical Fundamentals (high level familiarity with each group)

• Security: should have a strong understanding of security principles, including authentication, authorization, and encryption to ensure that infrastructure is secure
• Cloud: should be familiar with cloud computing technologies, including public, private, and hybrid clouds, and be able to recommend the best cloud solution based on customer requirements. Must be familiar with: AWS, Azure, Google, Oracle, Gov Clouds
• Cost Optimization: must have a good understanding of cost optimization techniques, including using open-source solutions and scaling infrastructure based on demand, to provide cost-effective solutions to customers.
• Services: must understanding the role of services to customers and sales organizations and be able to position appropriately.

The minimum requirements for this SE role are outlined in the five categories below:

• Productive: Sterling is a large small business that requires our employees to have an entrepreneurial motor to remain productive. Our SEs maximize their day and downtime to ensure their teams overachieve their sales goals while building deeper relationships and trust with our customers.
• Teamwork: Sterling s selling motions are built on utilizing cross-functional teams to maximize success. Our SEs must work well with peers, vendors and other segments within our business.
• Coaching: Technology is always changing, and we would never expect our SEs to know everything. We do however expect our SEs to learn from the experience of our extended engineering group and leadership. We try to minimize our mistakes and losses however learning from them is vital.
• Winning: Sterling has large ambitions and the only way we can achieve them is by winning together as a team. We want our SEs to have a winning mindset and to celebrate all successful events. When they win, we want them to enjoy the limelight, to grow in their influence, and to increase their earnings.
• Development: We expect our SEs to constantly evolve their knowledge, process and influences within the company and customers. What works today may not work tomorrow and we need SEs to prepare for the future of Sterling.
• Other:
  • Ability to communicate, coordinate, and work effectively with sales, engineering, leadership and services delivery teams.
  • Understand financial benefits of solutions and can speak to TCO/ROI of comparable offers.
  • Ability to comprehend, understand, and confidently articulate technology solutions and how they best apply to customers.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Ability to apply critical thinking and empirical evidence to solve problems.
  • Able to clarify and assimilate information from different sources into a unified communication.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Confidently articulate features and value of technology solutions to customers.
• Configure products according to specifications.
• Ensure any RFP responses are technically acceptable and profitable.
• Build deep relationships with key customer decision makers.
• Develop and perform technical presentations to customers, partners, and prospects.
• Participate regularly in industry training and seek and maintain certifications to keep up-to-date on relevant competitive solutions, products and services.
• Provide technical guidance to the business on forward looking technologies.
• Build partner relationships with key technology vendors and OEMs.
• Participate in account planning and QBRs with sales and sales leadership.

Sterling Computers is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, military status, national origin or any other characteristic protected under federal, state or applicable local law.