Cloud Native Architect, Strategic Accounts, Telco (EMEA) in Staines

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Position Overview

As a member of the World Wide Strategic Accounts field team, the Cloud Native Architect (CNA) is a senior technologist who owns the technical sales strategy, evaluation program, and architectural vision creating repeatable business with software opportunities with the company's largest multinational customers. You will guide C‑level and engineering stakeholders through solution discovery, validation, and financial justification, ensuring every engagement results in a technical win and a clear path to enterprise‑wide adoption that delivers the customers business outcomes aligned to the project. Driving the company as the standard solution for delivering data‑management in the WWSA Segment. Creating market penetration strategy and thought leadership across the entire theater/segment.

The role of a Cloud Native Architect (CNA) serves as a technical bridge between the sales, product, and engineering teams. The role is important for driving revenue growth and enhancing customer relationships by providing technical solutions for a specific set of accounts. Primarily focused on the pre‑sales process, the individual in this role will engage with potential and existing customers to understand their business issues and technical hurdles related to Kubernetes. They will deliver tailored product demonstrations, respond to technical inquiries, and work with the company technical field to architect solutions that integrate the company offerings with clients' software‑driven platforms.

The responsibilities of the Cloud Native Architect will fall into the following five categories:

• Participation in Lead Generation
• Technical Qualification
• Solution Validation
• Prospect to Customer Transition
• Established Customer Satisfaction

Role Scope

Theater: Strategics (by theater EMEA/AMER)

Builds and leads: CNA team pooled to deliver outcomes in aligned theater Strategic accounts

Role type: Technical Pre‑sales Architect

Revenue alignment

This role is directly assigned to the Theater Strategics Portworx and the company Cloud quota and is expected to meet and exceed TCV Sales goals. CNAs have primary vertical/account assignments while also being goaled on overall Theater quota performance, ensuring the team operates as a focused unit without losing shared accountability.

Focus Areas & Key Responsibilities

• Technical Sales Leadership
  • Lead the full Cloud Native technical sales process life‑cycle, Discovery, Strategy Alignment, Demo, Workshop, POC/POV, and Wrap‑Up to secure the technical decision in deals for WWSA.
  • Architect Kubernetes‑centric data platforms spanning multiple regions, clouds, and business units.
  • Own the technical sections of proposals, RFx responses, and SOWs.
• Financial & Business Value Selling
  • Translate technical capabilities into quantified business outcomes that resonate with executive sponsors.
• Customer Engagement
  • Act as the primary technical face of the company's Cloud Native portfolio to WWSA teams; orchestrate executive briefings, architecture workshops, and steering‑committee updates.
  • Locating and coordinating with other BU and technical sales stakeholders to deliver outcomes for customers goals.
  • Establish a cadence (weekly checkpoints, executive QBRs) aligned to the customer's program milestones.
• Thought Leadership
  • Evangelize best practices in Cloud Native data management, platform engineering, and cost optimization through conference talks, blogs, and executive roundtables.
  • Mentor fellow Cloud Native Architect (CNA) on enterprise engagement methodology and financial value selling.
• Co‑Seller Collaboration and Leadership
  • Interact with the WWSA Sales Global Account Manager, Lead Client Director for each strategic account to bring full the company portfolio solutions to customers.
  • Enablement of Cloud Native Processes, standards and excellence.

Lead Generation

• Bi‑Weekly Interactions should focus on meaningful changes in opportunity status, emerging risks, customer sentiment, deal velocity, and where technical leadership can improve outcomes or remove friction.
• Quarterly Interactions should support shared planning and reflection, including QBR/QSR collaboration, headwinds and tailwinds, participation effectiveness, and alignment on priorities for the coming quarters.
• Attend industry events to deliver a talk or support booth staff.
• Produce technical content in the form of blogs, webinars and podcasts.
• Proactively engage contacts in professional network through LinkedIn etc.
• Support monthly Hands‑on Labs.
• Attend the company user groups.
• Organize community user groups.
• Attend co‑seller Sales Engineering Manager/Directors team meetings monthly to reinforce alignment, share relevant insights, and ensure consistent technical messaging across teams.
• Collaborate with the Co‑seller Technical Sales Directors to co‑sponsor targeted PX sales efforts for a small number of priority customers, engaging directly where technical leadership can materially influence outcomes.

Other duties as assigned by Technical Sales Leadership

Technical Qualification

• Review current architecture, company capabilities critical to the customer and their project.
• Proposed solution including updated architecture with the company data management and key components.
• Success criteria for the proposed solution and method to demonstrate (demo, workshop, POC/POV).
• Review information gathered as part of Sales Stage 1.
• Discuss the opportunity with the AE to identify missing data related to BANT and/or other qualifiers.
• Capture the project success criteria from the customer.
• Create a mapping to the desired Business Impact & Outcomes.
• Review & document the customer’s current state.
• Document technical pain points & focus areas.
• Review the Assessment Scorecard to ensure alignment with the customer.
• Document the technical details and other data points in SFDC.
• Present the proposed Evaluation Program, based on information gathered from the discovery phase.

Solution Validation

• Provide a capabilities demonstration to the prospect.
• Conduct a Technical Workshop with the prospect to gather deeper solution configuration parameters, discuss additional benefits, and highlight specific solution capabilities.
• Plan and coordinate a Proof Of Concept/Value that will address the customer’s outstanding solution parameters.
• Provide a POC/POV outcomes report that highlights the testing completed as part of the POC/POV, the relevant outcomes, and the overall business value to the customer.

Prospect to Customer Transition

• High‑level Project Plan.
• Key Milestones.
• Customer Key Technical Contacts.
• External Integration Overview.
• Observability.
• Identity Management.
• Security Requirement.
• Any additional Integrations.
• Other dependencies to begin the project (Hardware, Platform, etc.).
• Introduce & explain fixed scope installation services.
• Coordinate scoping of Professional Services (if needed).
• Discuss the value of BCS (Business Critical Services) and propose.
• Discuss the value of SA (Solution Architect) Hours and propose.
• Discuss the value of a CSM (Customer Success Manager) and propose.
• Discuss customer training/certification credits and propose.
• Prepare Transition Documentation.

Other duties as assigned by Technical Sales Leadership

Established Customer Satisfaction

• Establish a regular cadence beginning 90 days post deal close and continuing quarterly.
• Review product expansion and feature adoption as part of quarterly cadence.
• Document RFEs and usability concerns.
• Provide release updates and updated roadmaps.

Benefits

• Flexible time off.
• Wellness resources.
• Company-sponsored team events.

The company is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or any other characteristic legally protected by the laws of the jurisdiction in which you are being considered for hire.