Presales Architect, TSP Cloud in London

Rakuten Symphony’s cloud‑native platform is built on a resilient Kubernetes architecture that unifies compute, storage, orchestration, and AI‑driven automation within a single operational model. Through intelligent storage management, policy‑based orchestration, and a fully declarative control plane, the platform ensures precise, consistent, and scalable application deployment across diverse environments. Its self‑service, low/no‑code interface enables 1‑click onboarding, automated workload placement, and simplified lifecycle management—significantly reducing operational complexity. By integrating AI and data‑driven optimization, Rakuten Symphony empowers teams to accelerate time‑to‑value, maintain operational consistency, and deliver telco‑grade performance without requiring deep cloud‑native expertise.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical pre‑sales lead for regional customers, acting as the primary technical authority across Rakuten Symphony’s Cloud, Orchestration, Storage, and AI/Data platform solutions.
• Work in tight partnership with the Regional Sales Director to shape opportunities, develop winning strategies, build successful solutions, and drive revenue growth.
• Support the full end‑to‑end sales lifecycle—from prospecting, discovery, and qualification through technical validation, negotiation, and purchase order.
• Lead and execute POCs, lab trials, hands‑on validations, solution integrations, and technical deep dives to demonstrate platform value and differentiation.
• Own and deliver high‑quality RFI/RFP/RFQ responses, ensuring technical accuracy, differentiation, and alignment with customer requirements.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive Technical Solution Designs, including architecture documents, deployment models, integration blueprints, and migration approaches.
• Document customer architectures using appropriate architecture frameworks and translate them into deployable Rakuten Symphony solution architectures.
• Collaborate with Sales, Bid Management, Engineering, Product Management, and Customer Success to progress opportunities from concept to contract—both technically and commercially.
• Drive solution building and use‑case development, tailoring Rakuten Symphony’s Cloud Native Platform, Orchestration, Storage, and AI capabilities to meet customer needs and market demand.
• Produce thought leadership, including white papers, solution briefs, technical blogs, and reusable assets that support inbound marketing and field enablement.
• Represent Rakuten Symphony in webinars, industry events, customer workshops, and executive briefings, showcasing technical expertise and product vision.
• Gather, document, and prioritize technical constraints, integrations, feature requests, and customer requirements, ensuring structured feedback to Product and Engineering.
• Act as the trusted technical advisor to customers, articulating platform capabilities, performance expectations, best practices, and architectural guidance.
• Deploy, operate, and customize internal demo and sandbox environments, tailoring them to target customer use‑cases and competitive scenarios.
• Work as an integral member of the regional presales team, supporting colleagues, running joint customer sessions, and ensuring a seamless, unified customer experience.
• Build and maintain strong technical relationships with customers and partners, jointly owning stakeholder engagement alongside the Sales Director.
• Stay current with cloud‑native technologies, Kubernetes ecosystem, Telco cloud modernization, AI‑led operations, and VMware/Red Hat migration patterns—positioning Rakuten Symphony as a trusted transformation partner.

Requirements

• Must‑have demonstrable skills & expertise:
• Exceptional verbal and written communication, organization, and presentation skills.
• Hands‑on experience with Docker, Kubernetes, Software‑defined storage, and CSI.
• Good knowledge of Linux/Unix systems.
• Good knowledge of VM’s / virtualization.
• Exposure to public clouds (GCP, Azure, and AWS).
• Programming proficiency in any one language: Python, C/C++, Golang, or any other programming language or scripting language.
• CKD/CKA certification is a plus.
• Experience and thorough understanding of DBaaS, PaaS, IaaS is a plus.
• Exposure to Splunk, Elasticsearch, Big Data, and AI/ML is a plus.
• Understanding of Networking, Storage, and Security concepts is desirable.
• Good senior stakeholder contacts in the region with potential telecom and service provider customers.

Our Principles

• Always improve, always advance. Only be satisfied with complete success – Kaizen.
• Be passionately professional. Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best.
• Hypothesize - Practice - Validate - Shikumika. Use the Rakuten Cycle to success in unknown territory.
• Maximise Customer Satisfaction. The greatest satisfaction for workers in a service industry is to see their customers smile.
• Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! Always be conscious of time. Take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team.