Presales Principal Architect

Description

Position Summary:

The Principal Architect is a senior technical contributor responsible for defining and driving architectural strategy that aligns technical solutions with customer outcomes across HBS’s diverse customer base. This role balances presales leadership, technical enablement, and project delivery oversight to create scalable, customer outcomes, with a sales driven focus.

As a technical overlay, the Principal Architect partners closely with sales teams to develop tailored solution designs and proposals, enabling growth through strategic customer engagement and vendor alignment. They also provide leadership to Engineering teams by mentoring engineers, closing skill gaps, and ensuring consistent delivery excellence on complex projects where they may serve as the Project Lead Engineer (PLE).

In addition, the Principal Architect contributes to the development and maintenance of company-wide architectures, technical standards, and presales tools, fostering consistency, innovation, and operational efficiency across all business units. This position requires strong collaboration across sales, engineering, and vendor teams to deliver world-class solutions that span multiple disciplines and industries, from on-premises environments to the cloud.

The Principal Architect will collaborate with customers and internal teams to design innovative technology solutions tailored to customer business needs, focusing on delivering measurable customer outcomes. This role requires translating technical capabilities into strategic solutions that drive value and support long-term success.

The ultimate goal is to align with regional engineering and sales leadership to drive service revenue for their respective regions across all business units. Drive the value of HBS through service attachment and adoption. This will occur through the alignment with customers and in partnership with the primary engineers aligned to those accounts.

Roles and Responsibilities/ Essential Functions:

Customer Engagement & Presales:

• Lead all presales efforts across assigned region(s), market(s), or technologies as a technical overlay, aligning with regional targets.
• Collaborate with sales teams to create solution designs, technical roadmaps, and proposals aligned to customer needs.
• Deliver technical presentations, demos, and workshops as the technical face of the organization in presales engagements.
• Mentor account teams on technical strategy and assist sales leadership with presales enablement initiatives.
• Partner with preferred and supported vendors to drive solution adoption and support vendor-specific goals.
• Ensure timely, high-quality turnaround of bills of materials, scopes of work, and other sales-related deliverables in alignment with established SLAs.

Project Leadership & Execution:

• Serve as Project Lead Engineer (PLE) on select large-scale and complex engagements, providing technical leadership and architectural oversight.
• Guide Engineering teams during delivery to ensure architectural integrity, quality standards, and alignment to the sold solution.
• Partner with Project Management as needed to support technical planning, risk identification, and solution clarification, without assuming project management or status reporting responsibilities.

Standards Development & Reference Architectures:

• Define, maintain, and evolve reference architectures that standardize solution design, enable repeatable presales execution, and support scalable delivery across regions.
• Partner with sales, engineering, and vendor teams to align reference architectures with supported technologies, customer use cases, and go-to-market priorities.
• Translate reference architectures into presales enablement assets, technical playbooks, and delivery guidance that promote consistency, efficiency, and quality outcomes.

Communication & Collaboration:

• Work collaboratively within regional and cross-regional practices, maintaining alignment to utilization and growth goals.
• Provide leadership and guidance to Engineering teams to ensure effective project delivery and customer outcomes.

Professional Development & Expertise:

• Maintain current industry and vendor-specific certifications and stay informed on emerging solutions for both presales and delivery impact.
• Pursue continuous growth in alignment with the Engineering skills matrix, enhancing expertise in project leadership, certifications, and technical capabilities.
• Grow your sales acumen through continued education focused on specific sales trainings and strategies.

Other Duties and Responsibilities:

• Mentor and develop engineers through our accelerated mentorship program to strengthen regional presales and delivery capabilities.
• Assist with vendor relation requirements for preferred and supported vendors.
• Deliver presales enablement workshops and engineering training on emerging technologies.
• Work with Engineering leadership to identify and close skills gaps impacting presales and project success.
• Collaborate with Sales leadership on technical strategy alignment and presales training programs.
• Complete overview training of each business unit to ensure cross-functional technical awareness.

Time Allocation & Accountability:

• Alignment to regional utilization and growth targets as assigned by the Director of Presales Engineering.
• Drive services revenue targets through assigned region, in partnership with sales.
• Contribute to regional and company-wide sales growth by driving strong services attachment, solution adoption, and expansion opportunities across all regions.

Requirements

Competencies:

• Accountability - Demonstrates ownership and responsibility for actions, decisions, and outcomes.
• Adaptability - Thrives in a dynamic and evolving environment, effectively adjusting to change.
• Ambition - Exhibits drive, initiative, and a commitment to personal and professional growth.
• Business Acumen - Understands complex business concepts, challenges, and opportunities, applying insights to make informed decisions and support organizational goals.
• Decision Making - Identifies effective courses of action while managing resources, risks, and costs effectively.
• Detail-Oriented - Pays meticulous attention to every aspect of tasks or situations, ensuring accuracy and thoroughness.
• Ethical - Adheres to the organization’s principles of moral and ethical conduct, acting with integrity.
• Honesty/Integrity - Acts transparently, fairly, and justly, fostering trust and respect in all interactions.
• Innovative - Demonstrates creativity and openness to unconventional approaches, encouraging new ideas and solutions.
• Leadership - Motivates and guides teams to achieve goals, fostering a supportive and inclusive environment while developing and retaining talent.
• Mentorship & Enablement - Supports skill development and technical growth of Engineering teams.
• Organized - Employs structured, methodical work habits to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines effectively.
• Persistence - Maintains focus and determination, overcoming obstacles to achieve objectives.
• Technical Aptitude - Demonstrates expertise in specialized technical areas, applying knowledge effectively to solve complex problems and innovate.
• Vendor Relationship Management - Builds and maintains effective technical vendor relationships.

Required Experience:

• 5+ years in a technical related field

Preferred Experience:

• 8+ years in a technical related field
• 6+ years’ experience working as a consultant
• 4+ years of developing customer solutions aligned to business goals and outcomes

Required Skills, Education and/ or Certifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience
• Possess at least one expert-level certification, or the ability to obtain it within 12 months. If the manufacturer does not offer an expert-level certification, an alternative requirement is three professional-level certifications.
• Certifications must be from a Preferred or Supported Vendor.
• Experience designing, architecting and implementing complicated technology solutions
• Experience developing and implementing best practice guidelines and solutions across multiple technologies
• Possess at least one professional-level and one associate level certification in two different cloud solutions, or the ability to obtain it within 12 months.
• Certifications must be from Azure, AWS, or GCP

Preferred Skills, Education and/ or Certifications:

Candidates are not expected to have experience in every area listed below but should demonstrate a strong combination of skills relevant to networking, systems, software, or cloud practices.

Certifications and/or Experience

• Expert-level certifications or equivalent advanced expertise in relevant technologies.
• Comprehensive experience across various domains, with a focus on designing, architecting, and implementing solutions in areas such as networking, systems, software, and cloud practices.

Networking:

• Proficient in configuring and supporting enterprise-class network switching and routing technologies.
• Deep understanding of operating systems for networking devices, including design and implementation best practices.
• Expertise in advanced networking concepts, including:
• Routing protocols (e.g., OSPF, BGP) and L2/L3 architecture and design.
• Multicast, Quality of Service (QoS), and VPN solutions such as IPsec, SSLVPN, SSE
• Familiarity with software-defined networking (SDN) solutions for LAN and WAN environments.
• Proficiency in designing and deploying high-density wireless solutions, including site surveys with tools like Ekahau or similar software.

Security:

• Experience implementing and managing network security appliances, including next-generation firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and secure web gateways.
• Understanding of zero-trust architectures and identity-based network security.

Data Center & Core Technologies:

• Expertise in data center and core network architecture design and implementation.
• Hands-on experience with technologies supporting virtualization, advanced networking fabrics, and high-availability systems.
• Knowledge of hyper-converged infrastructure solutions and their integration with existing systems.

Cloud Architecture:

• Experience designing and supporting public, private, and hybrid cloud environments.
• Familiarity with cloud-native solutions, containerization, and microservices.
• Hands-on experience with leading cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.

Systems & Storage:

• Proficiency in designing, implementing, and maintaining enterprise-grade servers and storage solutions.
• Familiarity with SAN, NAS, and flash-based storage architectures.
• Experience with hyper-converged and hybrid infrastructures.

Enterprise Software & Applications:

• Strong background in deploying and managing enterprise software, including directory services, collaboration platforms, and messaging systems.
• Experience with identity and access management (IAM) platforms and strategies.
• Experience in designing, developing, and deploying custom applications using Microsoft technologies.
• Experience with Microsoft SQL Server for database design, development, and optimization.
• Familiarity with Azure services, including Azure App Services, Azure Storage, Azure Active Directory, and Azure DevOps for CI/CD pipelines.
• Knowledge of integrating custom applications with Microsoft 365 services (e.g., SharePoint, Exchange, Teams) and leveraging their APIs for business solutions.

Tools and Ecosystem Familiarity:

• Knowledge of monitoring, automation, and orchestration tools. Examples include Splunk, SolarWinds, NetBrain, or similar solutions.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices and tools, including CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code (IaC).
• Proficiency in scripting or programming for automation and operational efficiencies (e.g., Python, PowerShell).

Equal Opportunity Employer - Including Disabled and Veterans