Presales Principal Architect - Cloud

Heartland Technology Group

Description : Position Summary :

The Principal Architect is a senior technical leader 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 regional 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 networking 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 unit. Drive the value of HBS through service attachment and adoption. This will occur through the alignment with customers and 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) or market(s) 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.
• Fast and efficient turnaround of bill of materials, scopes, and other sales related documents.
• Project Leadership & Execution :
• Serve as Project Lead Engineer (PLE) on select large-scale and complex projects, contributing technical expertise.
• Provide leadership to Engineering teams during project delivery, ensuring quality, consistency, and efficiency.
• Work closely with Project Management to communicate timelines, resources, and progress to all stakeholders proactively.
• Standards Development & Innovation :
• Develop scalable architectures, presales tools, and repeatable solution designs that drive consistency and efficiency.
• Collaborate with sales, engineering, and vendor teams to maintain technical playbooks and presales enablement materials.
• Contribute to Engineering enablement by developing technical standards, documentation, and tools that promote delivery excellence.
• Communication & Collaboration :
• Work collaboratively within regional and cross-regional practices, maintaining alignment to utilization and growth goals.
• Provide leadership and guidance to Field 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 :
• Minimum of 400 bill hours per fiscal year prorated based on start date. These hours will be aligned to project oversight of solutions you have sold.
• Alignment to regional utilization and growth targets as assigned by the Director of Architecture.
• Drive services revenue targets through assigned region, in partnership with sales.
• Contribute to achieving a 1.6x revenue multiplier for the architecture team across all regions.

Requirements

Competencies :

Builds and maintains effective technical vendor relationships.

Required Experience :

Preferred Experience :

Required 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.

Preferred Skills, Education and / or Certifications :

Equal Opportunity Employer - Including Disabled and Veterans

HBS

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