Presales Solutions Architect (Networking)

Cloud People; Ballarat; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Cloud People is seeking a Presales Solutions Architect (Networking) to work in a hybrid model, including occasional Midlands office visits. The role focuses on translating customer problems into cataloged services, ensuring deliverability, and protecting margin across deals.

You will own the technical narrative in the sales cycle, interact with Sales Director and customers, and collaborate with engineers and account teams to drive profitable opportunities.

Qualifications

• Presales experience in networking solutions for SMBs and enterprises.
• Ability to map customer requirements to standard product catalogue and ensure deliverability.
• Strong communication skills; comfortable presenting to technical and senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Qualify opportunities with Sales to align technical requirements to standard LAN/WAN products.
• Produce High Level Designs, Scopes of Work, and supporting schematics.
• Support new business opportunities and renewals with Account Management and Service Delivery.
• Lead technical conversations with customers and guide solution design.
• Protect profitability by optimizing designs rather than over-engineering.
• Contribute to account development plans and track activity in CRM.
• Deliver technical presentations and enablement sessions for sales teams and customers.

Skills

Presales

Solution Architecture

Networking

Customer facing

Deal support

Technical storytelling

Presentation to stakeholders

Tools

Cisco

Meraki

Fortinet

Extreme

Job description

Presales Solutions Architect (Networking)

Hybrid - One day a week in the Midlands office if you are within reach of the Midlands, or a minimum of two days a month if you are based further afield

Company & role

This opportunity sits with a long established managed network services provider that has spent two decades designing, building and running LAN, WAN and Wi‑Fi environments for SME and corporate customers. They are a product led business, with a defined menu of standardised services and self serve tooling they have built and own, rather than a reseller bolting together whatever the customer last read about.

Presales sits right at the centre of that model. The Solution Architects are the people who translate a customer's business problem into the right service from the menu, make sure what gets sold can actually be delivered, and protect the margin on the way through. You will support both new business and renewals, working alongside the Sales Director, the wider sales team and the other Solution Architects.

Why This Role Stands Out

• This is genuinely a presales role, not a network architect job with a sales label on it. The work is customer facing, commercial, and tied to deals rather than build queues.
• A productised service catalogue means you spend your time applying proven designs well, not firefighting bespoke one offs that nobody can support later
• You own the technical narrative in the sales cycle, including the moments where the customer wants to drift off menu and someone has to steer them back with credibility rather than a flat no
• Direct line of sight to gross margin, with your design decisions visibly shaping the profitability of major opportunities
• Senior exposure as standard, working directly with the Sales Director and presenting to customer stakeholders at a high level
• Flexible on vendor background. Cisco, Meraki, Fortinet and Extreme are the core stack, but they will look at strong presales people from other network vendor environments who are willing to learn theirs
• Flexible on where you work from, with one day a week in the office for those local to the Midlands and only two days a month for anyone further out, so no daily commute built into the deal

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with Sales to qualify opportunities, interpret requirements technically, and map them to the standard LAN and WAN product set
• Produce the documentation that underpins the sale, including High Level Designs, Scopes of Works, schematics and supporting design detail
• Support both new business opportunities and renewals, working with Account Management and Service Delivery to keep designs deliverable
• Lead technical conversations with customers, educating them and the sales team on how the service set solves the business problem
• Guide profitability on major opportunities by optimising solution design rather than over engineering it
• Contribute technically to account development plans and keep opportunity activity tracked in the CRM
• Create and deliver technical presentations and enablement sessions for internal sales teams and customers

Ideal Experience

• Several years in a presales or solution architect role within a managed LAN and WAN service provider, connectivity provider or similar, working directly with customers through the sales cycle
• Strong track record producing High Level Designs and detailed Scopes of Works
• Solid LAN background across data centre, core, aggregation and access layers
• WAN experience across leased lines, Carrier Ethernet, EFM and xDSL
• Sound Wi‑Fi knowledge including 802.1X, WPA, CAPWAP, controllers and mesh
• Current awareness of SD WAN, SDN, NFV and network virtualisation
• Vendor experience across Cisco, Meraki, Fortinet or Extreme is ideal, though other network vendor backgrounds will be considered where there is genuine appetite to learn this stack
• Comfortable mapping business objectives to technical solutions and presenting them confidently to technical and senior stakeholders