Lead Solution Architect

JR United Kingdom; Reading; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job description

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK and be a local resident. Unfortunately, we are unable to consider candidates who require sponsorship or who are on temporary/student/work visas.

HANDD Business Solutions (HANDD), an independent Managed File Transfer and Secure Data Integration specialist, is looking for a technically minded, customer-focused individual to fill a senior position within its Solutions team.

The primary tasks of the successful applicant are to aid the sales process and customer relationships from a technical perspective through the portfolio of software available via HANDD and provide consultancy and delivery of certain technological aspects.

The successful individual will be a prominent external voice of the organisation. They are expected to present publicly, contribute to strategy and go-to-market activities, guide the organisation regarding technical direction, and evaluate products to be considered within its vendor portfolio.

Acting as HANDD's voice, the Lead Solution Architect will author marketing collateral and drive thought leadership to shape HANDD's position in the market.

As the Lead Solution Architect, the successful applicant will act as an escalation point within the Solutions function. They are expected to review designs, coach, and guide other engineers on opportunities and issues that may arise. This will include the day-to-day management activities of the team across EMEA, such as setting priorities and assessing KPIs.

HANDD is looking for a motivated self-starter with excellent communication skills, someone who is capable of building and leveraging strong internal and external relationships, an adaptive team player with a strong work ethic who is not afraid to go above and beyond and work at a fast pace.

Responsibilities

• Articulate the company's ethos, technology, services and product portfolio, positioning to both business and technical users.
• Attend meetings with existing and prospective clients to determine technical and business requirements, ensuring that all necessary information is collated before producing a solution.
• Create high-level design diagrams, statement of works, solution flow diagrams, and presentations to support the customer's understanding of how a solution would work.
• Build productive relationships internally and externally, fostering teamwork by keeping colleagues updated as required.
• Act as a Technical Account Manager for high-profile customers.
• Support and answer technical questions from our customers on HANDD products and new integration challenges, IT security trends, policies and processes.
• Demonstrate products effectively face to face or by web sharing and using slides and/or live products.
• Communicate to internal stakeholders about the status of technical evaluations and any issues that may arise.
• Report to director level status of ongoing sales opportunities.
• Deliver technical requirements through software implementation to customers post-sale.
• Plan and follow delivery methodologies to customers' environment.
• Be able to showcase innovation and adapt to an ever-changing environment.
• Speak publicly at in-person and online events.
• Create marketing content such as blogs, slideware and other appropriate collateral.

Skills Required:

• B2B and Managed File Transfer Pre-Sales.
• Working knowledge of common data integration technologies and a demonstrable interest in keeping abreast of technical developments in this field.
• Requirements gathering, design and solution building and the ability to replicate this in a commercial setting.
• Organised and analytical, able to eliminate sales obstacles through creative and adaptive approaches.
• Ability to cope under pressure and prioritise work accordingly.
• Proven ability to technically drive the sales process from plan to close.
• Report writing skills.
• RFP writing experience.
• Excellent communication and "people" skills.
• Good planning and organisational skills.
• An independent and proactive worker with a customer-focused team player mindset.
• Strong communication skills for technical and business (non-technical) customers.
• Record of taking ownership of issues and following through to resolution.
• Hunger to learn.

Understanding and knowledge of the following areas:

• Familiarity with Microsoft Windows Server family including but not limited to AD, DNS, DHCP, GPO & IIS technologies.
• A basic understanding of UNIX/LINUX operating systems would be advantageous.
• Exposure to Virtualization technologies, on-premise and cloud-based.
• Current IT Security trends, policies and processes.
• Experience with transfer protocols (SFTP, FTPS, HTTPS).
• Experience of B2B protocols (AS2/3/4, EDI, MQ, Connect:Direct).
• Understanding of encryption technologies, e.g. SSH, SSL, AES, 3-DES, PGP, etc.
• Experience with networks and domains.
• Experience working with APIs and understanding of REST/SOAP systems.

This is an excellent opportunity for a forward-thinking sales engineering leader to work with high-calibre customers and mission-critical software across multiple verticals in EMEA and APAC.