Pre Sales Engineer Hauts-de-France

DATA4'S MISSION

DATA4 creates Smart & Scalable digital facilities for our customers. Our network of highly connected, resilient and sustainable data center campuses underpins our customers’ digital growth in Europe.

DATA4 Group finances, designs, constructs and operates its own data centers. Delivered through our data center campus model, we provide our customers with secure, scalable and high-performance data hosting solutions.

DATA4 VALUES

At DATA4 we are driven by our values. These are the core of everything we do - from the proactivity we show in delivering great outcomes for our clients, to the responsibility we show as a key contributor to the digital economy. Our three values are:

• To be entrepreneurial - we are teams of doers who make things happen - with autonomy, energy and a sense of responsibility
• To always take responsibility- for our impact on the people we work with, the society we are part of, and the environment in which we operate
• To constantly be adaptable- our business is designed to adapt, answering not only today’s challenges, but also anticipating what’s coming next.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Sales Engineer provides technical support to the sales team. This support covers opportunities that need specialized expertise. As part of the Technical Sales team, the Sales Engineer helps grow company revenue. They also ensure that customer solutions can be implemented and supported for the full life of the contract.

The Sales Engineer translates customer requirements into robust, deliverable data center infrastructure solutions and acts as the key technical interface between customers, sales team, the Design team, and international stakeholders.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Pre-Sales & Solution Design

• Capture customer requirements accurately and translate them into deliverable technical solutions for new opportunities, amendments, and expansion projects.
• Validate solution feasibility across power, cooling, space, and operational constraints, with particular focus on high power density requirements and liquid cooling solutions (e.g., direct-to-chip, rear-door heat exchangers) for AI and HPC workloads.
• Develop Capex cost models for proposed solutions, assessing risks and identifying alternatives.
• Collaborate closely with the Design team, and other internal stakeholders on non-standard requirements - working together on costing, design validation, and solution alternatives.
• Coordinate with the Design and fit-out teams to ensure contracted solutions are accurately translated into deployment-ready designs and customer fit-out work.
• Drive standardization and re-use of design components and solution approaches across the region, guiding customers toward standard service offerings wherever possible.
• Ensure all solutions align with corporate design principles and long-term supportability requirements.

RFI/RFP & Proposal Management

• Build the technical response to RFIs/RFPs, completing customer compliance and technical requirement questionnaires.
• Validate the non-recurring costs (NRC) of each offer in collaboration with internal stakeholders, providing sales team with the inputs needed to finalize pricing.
• Write and structure clear, customer-facing technical proposals.
• Support sales team in negotiating major or highly specific contracts, including validation of technical drawings and rack layouts.
• Negotiate the technical clauses of contracts and SLAs with customers, in coordination with the sales and legal teams, ensuring commitments remain deliverable and supportable.

Customer Engagement

• Partner with sales team to lead presales activities, focusing on hyperscale cloud providers, neoclouds, and enterprise customers.
• Lead technical site tours and deliver presentations showcasing the company's colocation offering.
• Support customer workshops, solution definition sessions, and technical evaluations throughout the sales cycle.
• Conduct technical reviews and deep-dive sessions with customer SMEs to align on requirements, validate designs, and resolve technical questions.
• Act as the technical voice in key customer presentations, advocating for the company's solutions.
• Provide post-sales technical support and follow-up as needed and help customers adopt company tools and services (e.g., the customer portal).
• Build strong relationships with customers and internal stakeholders, resolving issues proactively.

Sales Enablement & Internal Contribution

• Help develop and launch new services in the Service Catalog: documentation, pricing, Technical Sales training, and associated procedures.
• Maintain up-to-date sales documentation for standard products, covering service descriptions, pricing, contracts, and SLAs.
• Stay current on data center technology trends (cooling, power, density, AI workload requirements) to advise customers credibly and position the company's offering effectively.
• Develop technical arguments and sales materials that reinforce the company's value proposition
• Share market and customer insights with the Design team to help shape the service portfolio.
• Manage and prioritize workload to meet agreed OLAs, and support pipeline visibility and demand forecasting with sales teams.

RESPONSIBILITES IN TERMS OF IMS CERTIFICATIONS

Respect and enforce certification policies in terms of:

H&S:Respect and enforce health and safety rules.

Environment:Respect and enforce environmental policies.

Information security:Respect and enforce information security policies

Energy: Respect and enforce the policy of reducing energy consumption.

REQUIREMENTS

Education and experience

• Master's or Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering (or related field).
• 3-5+ years of experience in pre-sales, sales engineering, or solution design - ideally in data center, colocation, telecom, or critical infrastructure environments.

Technical skills

• Strong technical knowledge of data center infrastructure (power and cooling systems), with an active interest in emerging technologies and industry trends.
• Knowledge of AI compute requirements, GPU clusters, and high-performance networking.
• Ability to build or contribute to cost models and assess technical and commercial risk.
• Experience responding to RFIs/RFPs and structuring customer-facing technical proposals.
• Proficiency with AutoCAD and Visio.

Soft skills

• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in French and English.
• Strong presentation skills for customer-facing engagements and site tours.
• Strategic thinker with strong problem-solving skills, able to manage competing priorities and move between detail and big picture.
• Active listener, able to respond accurately and credibly to customer questions.
• Strong team player with a collaborative, cross-functional working style.
• Genuine motivation to find the best possible solution for the customer while staying within company standards, ensuring long-term supportability.