Senior Solution Architect, Modern Workplaceat CDW Careers (UK) - Dev

Description

Bring your IT career and talents to CDW, where you can have a greater impact, be inspired by our mission and excited about your career and future. A Fortune 200 leader, we’re the driven professionals and technology experts companies turn to most to solve their IT challenges.

About CDW

CDW is a leading multi-brand provider of information technology solutions to business, government, education and healthcare customers around the Globe. A Fortune 500 company and member of the S&P 500 Index, CDW was founded in 1984 and employs over 15,000 coworkers, with headquarters across the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.

CDW prides itself on “making amazing happen”. Our relationships are fueled by our deep expertise and are grounded in the CDW Way.  Our empowering leadership makes things happen and inspires their teams to do the same.  From the teammates beside us to the leaders who guide us, we move forward together.

Job Summary

CDW’s Modern Workspace team is a group of Solution Architects and Specialists that is part of the wider presales department. Its role is to:
 

• Lead presales Modern Workspace opportunities from inception through to handover into delivery
• Own CDW’s Modern Workspace go-to-market message, driving and evangelising our opinion, breadth of capability and experiences to internal teams, customers and partners
• Provide our diverse range of customers with agnostic, industry-leading advice and expertise to help them select the right technology solutions and make the most of them.
• Support the Sales teams in breaking into new accounts, demonstrating the experience, expertise and strength of opinion that proves credibility.

The role has three key areas of responsibility, which broken down by approximate split are:
 

• 80% -Act as a senior architect, using a combination of your own depth of expertise as well as the wider team to own opportunities, engage with customers and win business at enterprise-scale
• 15%-Support the development of the team and the wider department by contributing to team projects as well as helping junior team members achieve their own career aspiration
• 5%-Develop and maintain your own skills and knowledge through research, self-guided learning, lab time and formal training/accreditation

Key Responsibilities

As a Senior Solution Architect, you will be responsible for managing your own diary and hours, so how any given week ends up looking will be up to you. The job is also very varied, but below are some of the core focus areas of the role:

• Accreditation– Attain and maintain the appropriate level of relevant accreditations
• Commercial Acumen –The role requires that you understand the commercial impact of the proposed solutions and assist customers and CDW’s sales teams in choosing the correct solution to meet budget and expectations
• Customer Opportunities - Work with customers, salespeople and business development managers (BDM)to qualify opportunities, understand business and technical requirements and design appropriate solutions using Workspace technologies whilst maintaining accurate and up-to-date information in CDW’s CRM system to support sales forecast and pipeline management
• Customer Retention- Act as a trusted adviser to key customers through building knowledge of their environments
• Documentation - Produce high-quality documentation from solution designs and RFP responses to High-Level designs(HLD) and Proposals
• Go-To-Market Development–Work with the team, the Practice Lead, Office of the CTO and key stakeholders to continually assess technology trends and oursolutions portfolio and supporting the creation, launch, marketing and ongoing development of new propositions
• Handover –Support the smooth handover of projects into the delivery teams and acting as an escalation point during their life and transition into service
• Internal Collaboration–Build and develop strong relationships across the business, including with Sales, Professional Services, Managed Services and the wider presales community to draw upon as the need arises. Support the documentation and adoption of agreed standards and practices within our deployments and work to ensure a high-quality engagement for every customer.
• Management Support: Support the Practice Lead by providing input into team meetings, one-to-ones, appraisals and assessments, as well as providing cover for the Practice Lead where required
• Maximise Opportunities -Identify potential to expand opportunities where possible and engage and coordinate resources from other teams to support
• Partner Engagement–Cultivate strong relationships with CDW’s partner community to stay up to date with offerings and roadmaps and leverage this knowledge as an agnostic advisor to customers
• Repeatable Solutions–Support making what we do more repeatable, profitable and less risky by helping identify and build standardised offerings, boilerplate content and packaged services.
• Sales Enablement -Assist CDW Sales people with technical guidance on a variety of products and solutions across a range of customer sizes and types and evangelise the team’s capabilities.
• SME Evangelist -Explain and evangelise the features, benefits and technical specifications of your subject matter and adjacent technologies, solutions, and services to internal and external audiences
• Team Growth: Provide ongoing coaching and development to increase productivity and readiness
• Upsell -Identify potential to expand opportunities where possible and engage and coordinate resources from other teams to support
• Workspace Evangelist -Explain and evangelise the features, benefits and technical specifications of Workspace to internal and external audiences.

The above is not an exhaustive list of duties, and you will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by your changing role within the organisation and the overall business objectives of the organisation.

Qualifications, Skills And Experience
 

• A demonstrable track record of getting stuff done whilst managing competing pressures and deadlines and retaining an eye for detail and quality
• A key focus on user experience enhancement
• Ability to lead customers through a transformational journey that delivers tangible benefit quickly whilst maximising the scope and potential of an engagement
• Ability to understand what is required at all stages of the sales cycle, from understanding the customer’s decision-making process whilst managing vendor requirements for sales closure
• A very experienced individual in Modern Workspace within a technical presales capacity or similar role with experience in designing complex solutions for a range and size of customers within different verticals
• Commercial acumen with an awareness of the financial implications of design decisions across Capex and Opex budgets and how they affect TCO and ROI
• Experience selling both professional and managed services
• Previous experience in a channel presales role or similar, including leveraging partner resources, incentives, and teams during presales engagements
• Relevant technical certifications. 
• Very strong real-world, demonstrable proficiency/knowledge in Microsoft 365 technologies and at least one other vendor/product within the workspace portfolio. Use experience and skills to aid in their adoption, with a proven ability to use this to own and win complex opportunities with mid-market and enterprise and public sector customers and drive further digital workspace transformation.

Essential Attributes
 

• Ability to lead customers and articulate Workspace journey that delivers tangible benefit quickly whilst maximising the scope and potential of an engagement
• Able to achieve potential, stay inspired and motivated
• Commercial aptitude to specify appropriate solutions
• Desire to retain the highest levels of accreditation in the area of specialist focus
• Excellent communicator in all forms to key customer stakeholders
• Excellent organisation and time management skills
• Experience and ability to develop and build relationships with a range of stakeholders, including C-suite
• Passionate about technology and the impact it can have on business and our customers
• Positive attitude and influence on others and gain/maintain a broad understanding of the workspace portfolio
• Pragmatic and collaborative approach
• Quality focussed with excellent attention to detail, producing high-quality documentation from solution designs and RFP responses to TCO models, business cases, High-Level Designs(HLD) and Statement of Works (SoW

More about CDW and your career with us:

At CDW, you’ll work with people who inspire you. People with positive, success-driven attitudes whom you will learn and forge strong relationships with. Bring your best true self — and your best ideas — to CDW.  Because diverse perspectives bring forth better problem solving — and better solutions for our customers in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.

CDW is an equal opportunity employer committed to maintaining a policy of non-discrimination towards all coworkers and applicants for employment in all aspects of employment. CDW does not discriminate against any applicant because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion/belief, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other basis that is prohibited by local employment law, including those protected by the UK Equality Act 2010. 

We encourage candidates from all walks of life to apply and join us in our mission of cultivating a culture of belonging, diversity and inclusion for better collaboration, innovation, and business results.

Together, we strive to create a workplace where everyone feels like they belong and is empowered to bring their full energy, capabilities and authenticity for coworker and business benefits. Will you be a part of it?

What we offer:

• Life Assurance
• Competitive Contributory Pension
• Private Medical Insurance
• Enhanced Maternity Pay
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays
• Option to buy additional holiday
• Dental Insurance
• Season Ticket Loan + additional perks

Who we are:
CDW is a leading technology solutions provider to business, government, education and healthcare organizations across the globe. Our fingerprints can be found on technology in workplaces of more than 250,000 companies; from fresh-faced start-ups to international conglomerates. With the breadth of products and services we offer, there is no request too big or too small. 

What you can expect from us: Culture, coworkers, careers. 
CDW is not only the People Who Get IT but the People who get People. Our relationships are fueled by our deep expertise and grounded in the CDW Way. Our empowering leadership makes things happen and inspires their teams to do the same. From the teammates beside us to the leaders who guide us, we move forward together. At CDW, you’ll work with people who inspire you. People with positive, success-driven attitudes who you will learn from and forge strong relationships with. Bring your best true self—and your best ideas—to CDW. Because diverse perspectives bring forth better problem solving—and better solutions for our customers on a rapidly evolving technology landscape.