Senior Cloud Service Architect

Job Description Summary

A Senior Services Architect is a pre-sales persona working with clients in a value co-creation process and internal sales and delivery teams resulting in the design and demo Managed Services solutions across all technology domains. Key focus areas include Client Experience, Service Management, DevSecOps process/tools and secure data API integration and hybrid delivery modelling. Designs often involve consulting and customized multi-product/multi-vendor solution elements with hardware, software, and cloud services.

They are responsible for the development of competitive, innovative, secure, multi-year, viable Managed Services solutions and associated costing inputs to commercial models.
The Services Architect will apply both solution design and sales skills to engage and help close opportunities with decision-makers. They spend a substantial amount of time in front of clients supporting the other internal sales expert teams such as sales, partners and services delivery teams; the delivery teams that will manage the client’s solution, continuous improvement and deliverables. Building and developing excellent stakeholder relationships with this virtual team, fully understanding the client and the industry in which they operate will contribute to the success of this role.

As a Senior Services Architect, you will have the opportunity to design solutions with some of the most innovative global organisations, technologies; accelerating the digital transformation business objectives and outcomes.
In some instances the Senior Services Architect will remain engaged during and post the implementation of services designed and may be required to participate in renewals.

Key Roles and Responsibilities:

• Guide a virtual team of domain experts to orchestrate the development of secure, multiple year, services solutions.
• Design complex managed service solutions to meet client requirements by integrating technology and service design across multiple domains.
• Works across multiple teams in the design of the Managed Service offering.
• Test and validate new designs features and delivery models or recommend improving existing service offers that is being taken to market
• Responsible for the service design deliverables of the solution and interfacing with multiple teams and partners to ensure supportability.
• Direct the validation processes by obtaining sign-off from technical, service and costing stakeholders.
• Lead the service design of solutions for the client that will be commercially competitive whilst mitigating risk.
• Map the client's requirements against proposed set of service elements and architectures and lead the end-to-end solution development (Cloud Services, Technology Architectures, SIAM, SLA, ITSM leading practices).
• Develop and execute a consulting approach that results in a consolidated statement of requirements, scope, transition documents and costing based need for change, role of IT, definition of the AS-IS versus desired state (Future Mode of operation defined), gap analysis and roadmap, highlighted impacts, consequences and benefits of the intended transformation (people, process, technology).
• Support the sales teams in presenting an architecture solution to clients with a focus on cost savings or uncovering other client growth opportunities using the ability to discover and analyze the client’s current architecture, platforms and operating models.
• Share client outcomes and market conditions with other stakeholders so that the global offering leads, and Managed Services community can evolve strategies and develop innovative solutions for the future.
• Coach, mentor and act as advisor and decision maker in service design situations.
• Support the sales teams to have a commercial model discussion with the client.
• Identify all service costs and populating cost models accurately to ensure a full visibility of costs related to the delivery of the service over the contract term.
• Create and get sign-off from relevant stakeholders on the solution design that will form part of the commercial model.
• Responsible for vendor management depending on the service offers and ensures that the transition to service delivery teams are well co-ordinated to ensure a smooth transition.

Knowledge, Skills and Attributes:

• Detailed knowledge of Managed Services service and delivery models, including cloud, global and distributed delivery models
• Comfortable working with costing models in partnership with sales and finance stakeholders
• Proficiency in Application and Cloud/Infrastructure Managed Services
• Ability to communicate potential improvements and value of our solutions to all levels of stakeholders; especially C-suite decision makers
• Proven ability to work within a team, contributing to the success of the team while making a personal contribution; especially in a matrixed organisation
• Strong point of view on emerging trends in technology, Managed Services Integration, Application Development – DevSecOps, Cloud Native Service Applications, Microsoft Development platforms and Open-Source Software, Cloud platforms like Azure, AWS and GCP, Data Analytics, Containers, RPA, IoT and Intelligent Automation
• Demonstrated analytical skills and ability to discover and analyze all input and data

Academic Qualifications and Certifications:

• Tertiary level – bachelor’s; or post-graduate degree with experience in a consulting capacity
• Certification and working knowledge of ITIL, Service Management and Integration, Automation Artificial Intelligence and Analytics
• Scaled Agile certification or equivalent
• Desirable: AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Training, MS Azure Fundamentals Training, or the latest equivalent are also desirable

Required Experience:

• Demonstrate an impressive track record of designing managed services solutions to large enterprise accounts
• Proof of structuring large, multi-year profitable contracts
• Solution planning and deal shaping expertise, with the ability to create compelling value propositions as part of the solution design
• Experience working in an environment with global delivery and in multiple geographies and industries