Job Summary
The Senior Datacentre Solutions Architect is responsible for the end-to-end architectural ownership, technical design authority, and governance of complex datacentre and hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions across compute, storage, data protection, networking, and resilience.
Operating as a senior technical authority and trusted adviser, this role works with enterprise customers to define strategy, lead complex solution sales engagements, and deliver architectures that align business outcomes, technology maturity, and operational excellence. The Senior Solutions Architect also plays a key role in mentoring others, shaping standards, and influencing practice direction.
Role Purpose
The role of a Senior Solutions Architect is to:
- Provide customers with impartial, industry-leading architectural guidance, helping them define and execute datacentre and hybrid cloud strategies that deliver measurable business outcomes.
- Act as a technical leader and escalation point for complex or high‑risk opportunities.
- Partner with Sales to open and expand high‑value, strategic accounts, demonstrating credibility through depth of expertise and strength of architectural opinion.
- Lead solution engagements from inception through values‑based design, governance, and handover into delivery.
Key Responsibilities
Includes, but is not limited to:
Customer & Commercial Engagement
- Work closely with customers, Account Managers, and Business Development Managers to qualify, shape, and lead complex opportunities, translating business requirements into robust technical architectures.
- Maintain accurate opportunity data within SHI’s CRM to support forecasting, reporting, and pipeline governance.
- Identify and drive expansion and upsell opportunities, coordinating specialist resources from across SHI where required.
Architecture Ownership & Design Authority
- Act as design authority for datacentre and hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions, ensuring alignment with customer objectives, operational capability, and architectural best practice.
- Own architectural decisions across multi‑vendor environments and challenge designs where necessary to protect quality, resilience, and long‑term value.
- Ensure solutions align with enterprise standards, security principles, and lifecycle considerations.
VMware & Cloud Foundation Leadership
- Lead the architecture and design of VMware‑based platforms, with strong emphasis on VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) as a strategic foundation for private, hybrid, and multi‑cloud environments.
- Design and govern solutions incorporating vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and SDDC Manager, including integration with backup, DR, and operational tooling.
- Advise customers on VCF adoption strategies, migration paths, operating models, and roadmap alignment.
Sizing, Modelling & Financial Awareness
- Perform detailed sizing, capacity planning, and performance modelling to ensure solutions meet functional, non‑functional, and budgetary requirements.
- Produce TCO, ROI, and business case models, articulating the cost and value implications of architectural decisions across Capex and Opex.
Documentation & Assurance
- Produce and assure high‑quality technical and commercial documentation, including
- RFP responses
- High‑Level Designs (HLDs)
- Statements of Work (SoWs)
- TCO models and business cases
- Ensure documentation quality reflects senior‑level ownership and attention to detail.
Delivery Handover & Lifecycle Support
- Own the handover of designs into Professional Services, ensuring clarity, completeness, and alignment.
- Act as an architectural escalation point during delivery and transition into service where required.
Internal Leadership & Collaboration
- Build strong working relationships across Sales, Professional Services, Partners, and the wider Solutions & Specialist Architect (SSA) community.
- Contribute to the definition, documentation, and adoption of architectural standards, patterns, and best practices.
- Mentor and support less‑experienced architects and engineers within the practice.
Partner & Vendor Engagement
- Maintain strong relationships with key technology partners (including VMware, Dell, HPE, Pure Storage, NetApp).
- Stay current with product roadmaps, reference architectures, and market trends, acting as a technically agnostic adviser to customers.
Qualifications, Skills & Experience
Essential Experience
- 7+ years in datacentre, infrastructure, or hybrid cloud architecture roles.
- Proven experience acting as senior solution design authority on complex, enterprise‑scale engagements.
- Strong multi‑vendor experience across Dell, HPE, Pure Storage, NetApp, and VMware ecosystems.
- Demonstrable experience designing and governing VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)-based platforms.
Core Technical Skills
- Enterprise compute and virtualisation platforms (VMware‑centric, including VCF).
- VMware technologies: vSphere, vSAN, NSX, SDDC Manager.
- Storage architectures: SAN, NAS, object storage.
- Data protection, backup, and disaster recovery design.
- Resilient, scalable datacentre and hybrid cloud architectures.
Essential Attributes
- Self‑driven, highly motivated, and comfortable operating with minimal supervision.
- Strong analytical and structured problem‑solving skills.
- Ability to communicate complex architectural concepts to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders, including senior leadership.
- Confidence to challenge, influence, and guide customers and internal teams.
- Commercially astute with strong awareness of financial and business impact of design choices.
- Strategic mindset with meticulous attention to detail.
- Passion for technology and its ability to deliver meaningful business outcomes.
Desirable Qualifications & Certifications
- VMware certifications (VCF / VCP / VCAP highly desirable).
- Dell, HPE ASE (Compute & Storage), Pure Storage FlashArray / FlashBlade, NetApp certifications.
- Cloud, automation, or operational tooling certifications considered advantageous.
The compensation for this position is dependent on job‑related knowledge, skills, experience, and market location and, therefore, will vary from individual to individual.
Equal Employment Opportunity – M/F/Disability/Protected Veteran Status
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