Sr. Solutions and Services Architect Manager

Lenovo; North Carolina; On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Lenovo is seeking a senior leader to head a high-performance Solution Architect team within Delivery Services. You will drive DWS revenue, improve win rates and customer satisfaction through strategic architecture alignment, effective stakeholder communications and rigorous SOW management.

The role requires 10+ years in business development, managed services and contract management, plus 4+ years of people leadership. Strong strategic thinking and executive presence are essential.

Qualifications

• 10+ years’ combination of Business Development, Managed and Professional Services, Contract Management, Complex Solutioning, SOW Review/Development, Project Management and/or IT Services operations experience.
• 4+ years of team Leadership or people management experience preferred.
• Experience in IT Services Industry focused on Business Development of Managed and Professional Services in an OEM environment.
• Executive presence with strong written and verbal communication across all levels including C-suite.
• Strategic thinking to align Sales, Delivery, Offering and Financial boundaries.
• Ability to understand customer business needs and technical challenges and provide creative cross-functional solutions.
• Ability to write and review SOWs, assess contract changes and perform financial modeling.
• Contract negotiation and partner management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead, manage, coach and mentor a high-performance Solution Architect team to drive revenue, win rates and customer satisfaction in Managed and Professional Services.
• Communicate effectively within the solution architect team and with Lenovo stakeholders, executives, and management.
• Hire, onboard, acclimate and train Solution Architects; manage workloads, KPIs and scorecard metrics.
• Ensure ongoing upskilling on Lenovo Delivery Services offerings and market trends.
• Engage externally with Lenovo customers, service delivery partners and channel providers.
• Analyze market trends and competitive factors to inform strategy and offerings.
• Support opportunity-based proposals with solution development and architecture alignment.
• Review, edit and assess risk in SoWs within contractual frameworks.
• Manage portfolio rollouts and improve solutioning standards and tools.

Skills

Team Leadership

Stakeholder Communications

Solution Architecture

SOW & Contract Review

Financial Modeling

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Portfolio Management

Executive Presence

Education

Bachelor’s degree, MBA or equivalent

Tools

Microsoft Word

PowerPoint

Excel

Job description

We are Lenovo. We do what we say. We own what we do. We WOW our customers.

Lenovo is a US$83 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #153 in the Fortune Global 500, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. Focused on a bold vision to deliver Smarter Technology for All, Lenovo has built on its success as the world’s largest PC company with a full-stack portfolio of AI-enabled, AI-ready, and AI-optimized devices (PCs, workstations, smartphones, tablets), infrastructure (server, storage, edge, high performance computing and software defined infrastructure), software, solutions, and services. Lenovo’s continued investment in world-changing innovation is building a more equitable, trustworthy, and smarter future for everyone, everywhere. Lenovo is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange under Lenovo Group Limited (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY).

This transformation together with Lenovo’s world-changing innovation is building a more inclusive, trustworthy, and smarter future for everyone, everywhere. To find out more visit www.lenovo.com, and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.

Key Responsibilities Include

• Team Leadership – Lead, manage, coach and mentor a high-performance Solution Architect team to drive DWS Revenue, Win Rates and Customer Satisfaction specifically in Managed and Professional Services.
• Team and Stakeholder Communications – ensure effective verbal and written communication within the Pre‑sales Solution Architect team and across internal Lenovo stakeholders, executive, management and individual team members
• New and Team Measurements Reporting- Hire, on-board, acclimation and training of Solution Architects; assignment, tracking workloads and priorities including managing scorecard metrics, KPIs and monitor team performance. Reporting, tracking and providing metric based feedback to the team; people manager role and responsibilities
• Team Competency - ensure team is constantly upskilled to keep current on new and updated Offerings, Portfolio and Market skills training. Alignment and deep understanding of Lenovo Delivery Services.
• External Customer facing – effective and frequent Customer facing engagement with Lenovo Customers, Service Delivery Partners and Channel Providers
• Market Competency – ensure understanding Market and Competitive factors facing Lenovo Services and Offerings, including but not limited to current market trends, competitive landscape and emerging technology.
• Opportunity based proposal support - includes Solution Development, Architecture alignment with Customers environment and mapping Lenovo Solutions to Customers business challenges
• SoW Responsibilities – review, edit and identify key Lenovo and Customer risks within contractual framework
• Portfolio rollouts; enable the teams understanding of current and emerging technology, trends and toolsets in the industry
• Team Processes and Resources - develop structured resource repositories for solutioning and SOW creation; constantly reviewing and improving solutioning standards / tools for Solution Architects for existing and newly‑added solution and services; management level SOW reviews, financial modeling reviews and execution (project allocation) reviews
• Quality Assurance - provide guidance to the team to build quality into all solutions and financial modeling; creating and revisiting process flows to ensure optimal efficiencies; setting standards for discovery, white-boarding and other scoping techniques
• Cross Functional Alignment - align to business priorities; work with the extended internal teams including services sales, hardware account teams, project management team, finance, legal, procurement and others
• Portfolio Management - contribute strategic insight to build up Lenovo Managed Services practice areas including capabilities roadmap

Qualifications

• 10+ years’ combination of Business Development, Managed and Professional Services, Contract Management, Complex Solutioning, SOW Review/Development, Project Management and/or IT Services operations experience
• 4+ years of team Leadership or people management experience preferred
• Preference will be given to candidates with direct experience in IT Services Industry focused on Business Development of Managed and Professional Services focused on OEM environment.
• Excellent team leadership skills and experience and the ability to make pragmatic decisions
• Executive presence - confident, articulate and professional in both oral and written communication and presentation in addressing all levels of audiences including C-level
• Strategic thinking to ensure alignment across Sales, Delivery, Offering and Financial boundaries. Sound business acumen to drive decisioning behaviors
• Skilled in understanding Customer’s business requirements and technical challenges through critical thinking. Provide creative solutioning with the ability to collaborate across functions and geographies;
• Ability to create and write SOW’s, review redlines and make business decisions on requested changes to contracts and a strong understanding/decision making around financial modeling
• Strategic mindset and sound business acumen is required, along with effective decision making, contract negotiation and partner management skills
• Excellent communication, both oral and written, and polished presentation skills
• Solid prioritization skills, attention to detail, commitment to deadlines
• Proficiency in Word, PowerPoint, Excel Dynamics

Required Education

Bachelor’s degree, MBA or equivalent experience required

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any federal, state, or local protected class.