Managed Services Sr Solution Architect MEA

Role Overview

Managed Services Sr Solution Architect MEA at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), based in the Middle East and Africa region. This is an onsite role with an expectation that you will primarily work from an HPE office.

Company Overview

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the global edge-to-cloud company advancing the way people live and work. We help companies connect, protect, analyze, and act on their data and applications wherever they live, from edge to cloud, so they can turn insights into outcomes at the speed required to thrive in today's complex world. The organization operates within the Hybrid Cloud business unit.

Role Purpose

As a Senior Solution Architect in the Hybrid Cloud organization, you will design HPE Managed Services based solution and service offerings, including Hybrid Cloud Management, Private Cloud AI, Private Cloud Enterprise, AI-Ops enabled infrastructure solutions, Managed Services for HPE Greenlake solutions, and SAP HANA environments. You will work directly with HPE peers, sales representatives, partners, and customers to deliver technical expertise, solution advice, proposal creation, and customer communications that drive successful outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Architecting & Solution Design

• Apply technical knowledge to sales situations and craft solutions for customers with a focus on Hybrid Cloud Managed Services solutions and services.
• Understand customer business problems, needs, or opportunities and design services-oriented platform-based solutions that appropriately address them.
• Create design, development, deployment, and technical quality specifications for medium to large IT-based solutions across one or more technology or specialty areas.
• Provide architectural direction for medium to large sized projects.
• Visualize customer IT transformation needs and architect solutions to meet the end state aligned with customer vision.
• Understand customer IT operational issues and design solutions that are efficient and cost effective.
• Design planning for accessibility, scalability, and availability.
• Revise solution or service designs as required to address client concerns and emergent opportunities or challenges.

Business Acumen & Financial Modeling

• Assess customer business needs to tailor the right solution with the right HPE services to help the customer succeed.
• Identify technical risks and challenges the customer should expect to encounter with the solution.
• Translate customer RFPs into requirements documents and proposals.
• Apply business management and financial concepts and general aspects of business contracts to analyze business needs and develop meaningful technical recommendations.
• Translate verbal requirements gathered in customer meetings into requirements documents, statements of work, and proposals.
• Create financial models for the solutions or services designed, reflecting cost of service and customer pricing.
• Link the business need to the proposed IT solution.

Stakeholder & Relationship Management

• Establish and maintain professional working relationships at multiple levels both internally and with customers by developing core understanding of the customer's unique business needs and competitive challenges.
• Tailor solutions to meet client needs and interface with both internal and external industry experts to anticipate customer needs and facilitate solution development.
• Build and manage relationships at customers' IT Management team and staff level.
• Have the ability to influence customers.
• Serve as the technical expert and valued partner with HPE sales team members.
• Collaborate with others in advancing client selection or internal acceptance of proposed solutions.
• Collaborate with others to address and resolve challenges posed in design through successful implementation.

Sales & Opportunity Pursuit

• Play a leadership role in business development activities for small to medium opportunities.
• Lead in identifying, qualifying, and closing small to medium opportunities.
• Develop and deliver sales presentations at CIO and IT management levels for small to medium opportunities.
• Position the company offering against competition.
• Play a key role in preparing proposals and bids for small to medium opportunities.
• Combat competitive threats in accounts and educate the customer on HPE's key values and benefits.
• Participate in internal review and Solution Opportunity Approval and Review (SOAR) process.
• Demonstrate good consultative, solution selling skills.

Engagement Delivery & Project Management

• Write Statements of Work for small to medium size solutions for single technologies or operational areas.
• Apply program and project management methods and processes to define, plan, cost, resource, track, and ensure the accomplishment of targeted goals for small to medium size projects.
• Assist the project manager to develop detailed project plans and work breakdown structures.
• Successfully work on project teams, where individual success is defined by impact to the project.
• Anticipate potential challenges for the proposed project plan and bring those to the customer's attention with a resolution.
• Facilitate smooth transition from sales to implementation by orienting the appropriate teams to the solution design.
• Work with the Remote Delivery organization in building delivery capabilities for assigned projects through the sales life cycle.
• Must be able to multi-task and work on many different types of solution or service opportunities concurrently.

Leadership, Thought Leadership & Professional Development

• Demonstrate thought leadership in the services and technology space.
• Assist the Country business teams, Solution and Pursuit teams as necessary.
• Participate in the Architect profession at the local level.
• Coach and mentor aspiring architects.
• Act as a services and technology evangelist for HPE in the market and partner ecosystem.
• Engage with peers and partners on technical matters and help educate others on HPE's key values and benefits.

Communication & Consulting

• Design and present high-impact messages to customers.
• Use a wide variety of presentation tools to persuasively communicate complex messages to multiple audience levels.
• Use prepared and original materials to communicate with the customer, communicating mostly tactical information and some strategic information.
• Demonstrate excellent speaking and writing skills.
• Prepare clear, concise, and persuasive communications for multiple audiences, including effective writing and presentation skills, active listening, and projecting a trustable image.
• Articulate technical or operational problems or issues into understandable business terms.
• Systematically gather, assess, and apply technical, operational, and sales and marketing information for business decisions.
• Consider all sides of an issue within the contexts of time, breadth, and range of options.
• Identify likely problem areas that require attention and address those areas.

Technical Knowledge & Industry Awareness

• Demonstrate Managed Services IT industry knowledge in specific areas including AI-Ops, Agentic AI, DevOps, and ITIL frameworks.
• Maintain awareness of future technology or operational trends as they relate to and support customer technical requirements.
• Demonstrate basic knowledge across multiple technical or operational disciplines.
• Master at least one technical or operational discipline.

Qualifications & Experience

• 15+ years of experience in a Managed Services environment in a similar role.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Preferred: post-graduation or Master's degree in a relevant domain.

Skills & Competencies

Architecting

• Ability to understand customer business problems, needs, or opportunities and design services-oriented platform-based solutions that appropriately address them.
• Ability to create design, development, deployment, and technical quality of medium to large IT-based solutions within one or more technology or specialty areas.
• Ability to provide architectural direction for medium to large sized projects.
• Ability to visualize customer IT transformation needs and architect solutions to meet the end state aligned with customer vision.
• Ability to understand customer IT operational issues and design efficient and cost-effective solutions.

Business Acumen

• Ability to identify technical risks and challenges.
• Ability to translate customer RFPs into requirements documents and proposals.
• Ability to apply business management and financial concepts and general aspects of business contracts.
• Ability to translate verbal requirements into requirements documents, statements of work, and proposals.

Technical Skills

• Managed Services IT industry knowledge in AI-Ops, Agentic AI, DevOps, and ITIL frameworks.
• Awareness of future technology or operational trends.
• Basic knowledge across multiple technical or operational disciplines.
• Master of at least one technical or operational discipline.
• Ability to design planning for accessibility, scalability, and availability.

Engagement Delivery & Project Management

• Ability to write Statements of Work for small to medium size solutions.
• Ability to apply program and project management methods and processes.
• Ability to assist in developing detailed project plans and work breakdown structures.
• Ability to successfully work on project teams.

Opportunity Pursuit & Sales

• Ability to play a leadership role in business development activities.
• Ability to lead in identifying, qualifying, and closing opportunities.
• Ability to develop and deliver sales presentations at CIO and IT management levels.
• Ability to position company offerings against competition.
• Ability to prepare proposals and bids.
• Consultative and solution selling skills.

Leadership

• Thought leadership in the services and technology space.
• Coaching and mentoring capabilities.
• Ability to assist Country business teams and Solution and Pursuit teams.

Consulting & Communication

• Ability to serve as a services and technology evangelist