Managed Services Sr Solution Architect MEA

Role Overview

Managed Services Senior Solution Architect, Middle East and Africa (MEA), at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. This role is onsite 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. We live by three core values: Innovate boldly, Win together, and Be a force for good.

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 provide technical expertise, solution advice, proposal creation, and customer communications.

Key Responsibilities

Solution Design & Architecture

• Apply technical knowledge to sales situations and craft solutions for customers with a focus on Hybrid Cloud Managed Services solutions and services.
• Understand the customer's business problem, need, or opportunity and design a services-oriented platform-based solution that appropriately addresses the business problem.
• Create designs for medium to large IT-based solutions within 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 services designs as required to address client concerns and emergent opportunities or challenges.

Customer Engagement & Relationship Management

• Establish and maintain professional working relationships at multiple levels both internally and with the customer by developing a 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 customer IT Management team and staff level.
• Serve as the technical expert and valued partner with HPE sales team members.
• Assess customer business needs to tailor the right solution with the right HPE services to help the customer succeed.
• Develop a core understanding of the customer's unique business needs and competitive challenges.
• Influence customers through consultative engagement.
• Be a services and technology evangelist for HPE in the market and partner ecosystem.

Proposal & Documentation Development

• Create solution proposals, pricing, presentations, and other customer communications.
• Write Statements of Work for small to medium size solutions for single technologies or operational areas.
• Translate a customer RFP into a requirements document and proposal.
• Translate verbal requirements gathered in customer meetings into requirements documents, statements of work, and proposals.
• Creation of financial models for the solutions or services designed, reflecting cost of service and customer pricing.
• Play a key role in preparing proposals and bids for small to medium opportunities.

Sales & Opportunity Development

• Serve as the technical expert and valued partner with HPE sales team members.
• Link the business need to the proposed IT solution.
• Combat competitive threats in accounts and educate the customer on HPE's key values and benefits.
• Position company offering against the competition.
• 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.
• Demonstrate good consultative, solution selling skills.
• Participate in the Architect profession at the local level.
• Participate in internal review and Solution Opportunity Approval and Review (SOAR) process.

Project & Delivery Management

• Collaborate with others in advancing client selection or internal acceptance of proposed solutions.
• Collaborate with others to address and resolve challenges posed in design to successful implementation.
• 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.
• Assist the project manager to develop detailed project plans and work breakdown structures.
• 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.
• Successfully work on project teams with individual success defined by impact to the project.
• 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 many different types of solution or service opportunities concurrently.

Risk & Business Analysis

• Identify technical risks and challenges the customer should expect to encounter with the solution.
• Identify likely problem areas that require attention and address those areas.
• Apply business management and financial concepts and general aspects of business contracts.
• Use knowledge to analyze business needs and develop meaningful technical recommendations.
• Systematically gather, assess and apply technical or operational and sales/marketing information for business decisions.

Leadership & Mentoring

• Demonstrate thought leadership in the services and technology space.
• Assist country business teams, Solution and Pursuit teams as necessary.
• Coach and mentor aspiring architects.
• Participate in the Architect profession at the local level.

Communication & Consulting

• Articulate technical or operational problems or issues into understandable business terms.
• Design and present high-impact messages to customer.
• 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.
• Prepare clear, concise, and persuasive communications for multiple audiences.
• Demonstrate effective writing and presentation skills, listen actively, and project a trustworthy image.
• Possess excellent speaking and writing skills.
• Have the ability to influence customers.
• Consider all sides of an issue within the contexts of time, breadth, and range of options.

Qualifications & Experience

• 15+ years of experience in 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 the relevant domain.

Skills & Competencies

Technical Knowledge

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

Architecting

• Ability to understand customer business problems, needs, or opportunities and design services-oriented platform-based solutions.
• Ability to create designs for 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 aligned with customer vision.
• Ability to understand customer IT operational issues and design efficient and cost-effective solutions.
• Ability to design planning for accessibility, scalability, and availability.

Business Acumen

• Ability to identify technical risks and challenges customers should expect to encounter.
• 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 analyze business needs and develop meaningful technical recommendations.
• Ability to translate verbal requirements from customer meetings into requirements documents, statements of work, and proposals.

Engagement & Delivery

• Ability to write Statements of Work for small to medium size solutions for single technologies or operational areas.
• Ability to apply program and project management methods and processes.
• Ability to assist project managers in developing detailed project plans and work breakdown structures.
• Ability to successfully work on project teams with individual success defined by project impact.

Opportunity Pursuit

• Ability to play a leadership role in business development activities for small to medium opportunities.
• Ability to lead in identifying, qualifying, and closing small to medium opportunities.
• Ability to develop and deliver sales presentations at CIO and IT management levels.
• Ability to position company offering against competition.
• Ability to play a key role in preparing proposals and bids for small to medium opportunities.
• Demonstrates consultative, solution selling skills.

Consulting & Influence

• Thought leadership in services and technology space.
• Ability to build and manage relationships at customer IT Management team and staff level.
• Ability to influence customers.
• Ability to technically or operationally consider