Senior Azure Solutions Architect (Presales)

Senior Azure Solutions Architect (Presales)

💰 £85,000 to £95,000 + £5,000 car allowance

📍 Home based with travel to customers and the office, ideal candidates will be within 1.5 hours of St Albans

Company & role

This opportunity sits with a well established technology services provider that is scaling up its cloud and infrastructure capability. They are investing in the people, propositions and delivery muscle needed to take on larger, more complex Azure engagements, and presales is a core part of that growth plan.

The role is genuinely customer facing. You will sit at the front of opportunities, getting under the skin of how customers operate, then translating that into future state designs that hold up commercially and technically. You will lead bid responses, run discovery sessions, present solutions and act as the senior technical voice on assigned deals.

Why This Role Stands Out

You will run opportunities properly from start to finish rather than picking up isolated bits of design work. There is real variety, with a mix of formal tenders, competitive bids, proactive proposals and live deals across multiple vendors and customer types.

There is a clear voice at the table when it comes to shaping how the practice develops. You will help influence the direction of the cloud and infrastructure offering, contribute to governance standards and have input into how new propositions come to market.

Protected time is built into the role for exploring new technologies and solutions, which most providers talk about but few actually carve out in practice.

You will work closely with practice leadership and other senior architects in an environment where technical challenge and peer input are genuinely welcomed.

Key Responsibilities

• Take ownership of a portfolio of opportunities spanning competitive bids, formal tenders, proactive proposals and active sales cycles
• Shape and lead the technical solution for Azure engagements, ensuring designs are commercially viable and aligned to customer outcomes
• Produce architecture artefacts, costed designs, bills of materials and well written proposal content
• Run customer workshops, present designs and act as the trusted technical advisor through the sales process
• Translate technical solutions into clear business value, including outcome led narratives and high level transition plans
• Act as a senior point of escalation and review for solutions developed by the wider presales team
• Help shape the future direction of the cloud and infrastructure offering, contributing to governance, standards and new proposition development
• Partner with practice leadership on strategic initiatives and continuous improvement across sales and delivery
• Stay close to emerging Microsoft and vendor technologies, feeding insight back into the wider portfolio

Ideal Experience

• Background in solution architecture or presales within a Microsoft partner, cloud consultancy, MSP or systems integrator
• Strong Azure design experience across the core pillars, including Azure landing zones and governance, compute, networking, identity, security, data services etc.
• Comfortable leading cloud transformation conversations and articulating the commercial case for change
• Understanding of how solutions transition into managed services and ongoing operations
• Strong written communication, with a track record of producing bid responses that win
• Commercial awareness and an appreciation of how presales fits into the wider sales motion
• Exposure to hybrid cloud platforms such as Azure Local or Azure Stack, and familiarity with infrastructure as code, would be useful
• Certified to Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert level
• Willingness to travel across the UK where opportunities require it