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About the Role

The Field Solutions Architect - Pre Sales is an independent, customer-centric problem solver and storyteller who owns the pre-sales technical strategy for complex opportunities across the United States. As a key member of the Sales organization, you will combine deep technical expertise with consultative selling skills to understand customer challenges, design tailored solutions, and articulate business value that compels customers to choose SolarWinds. 

This is a US-based field role with a strong customer-facing presence and up to 50% travel. You will engage directly with enterprise customers, channel partners, and strategic accounts, often working side-by-side with customer teams to understand real operational constraints, validate assumptions quickly, and deliver practical technical outcomes. The ideal candidate brings strong hands-on scripting skills, a passion for AI-driven innovation, and the ability to translate emerging technologies into production-minded solutions that create measurable customer value. 

This role is intentionally forward-deployed in nature: you will move fluidly between customer environments and internal teams, helping shape solution direction in the field while also influencing product thinking, technical best practices, and repeatable approaches based on what you learn firsthand. 

Key Responsibilities

Technical Sales Leadership 

• Own the end-to-end technical sales strategy for strategic customer engagements, from discovery and solution design through demonstrations, validation, and follow-through. 

• Partner with Sales, channel partners, and customer stakeholders to reduce technical uncertainty, prove value quickly, and help advance high-value opportunities. 

Customer Discovery, Design, and Validation 

• Engage directly with customers to understand business priorities, technical requirements, operational challenges, and transformation goals. 

• Architect practical solutions that improve visibility, resilience, automation, and operational efficiency, while defining scope, success criteria, and evaluation plans. 

• Design and execute complex Proof of Concept and Proof of Value engagements, validating technical fit, business value, integrations, and readiness for adoption. 

AI and Automation Focus 

• Position SolarWinds solutions in the context of AI, automation, and modern IT operations. 

• Demonstrate practical use cases for AI-assisted workflows, intelligent operations, and data-driven decision support. 

• Use scripting and automation to create prototypes, integrations, technical validations, and lightweight production-oriented workflows that help customers understand real-world value. 

Technical Execution and Customer Advocacy 

• Build trust through hands-on engagement, moving from whiteboarding and prototyping to troubleshooting, configuration, and solution delivery in customer environments. 

• Serve as a trusted technical advisor throughout the sales cycle, helping customers and internal teams navigate complexity, remove blockers, and maintain momentum. 

• Capture and share customer feedback, field insights, and repeatable best practices to influence product direction, enablement, and broader organizational success. 

Enablement, Presence, and Continuity 

• Maintain deep technical expertise across the SolarWinds portfolio, especially in observability, hybrid IT operations, automation, and AI-related capabilities, while mentoring peers and enabling partners and sales teams. 

• Represent SolarWinds in customer meetings, partner events, trade shows, and industry conferences, with travel up to 50% across the United States. 

• Support smooth transition to Customer Success, Services, and Renewals teams, and stay engaged as needed to help ensure early deployment success and long-term customer outcomes. 

Required Skills and Experience 

• 4+ years of experience in technical pre-sales, solutions engineering, solutions architecture, technology consulting, software engineering, or a related role, or an equivalent combination of education and experience 

• 3+ years in a dedicated customer-facing technical pre-sales, solutions engineering, solutions architecture, forward-deployed, or technical consulting role, ideally within a software vendor, cloud, cybersecurity, infrastructure, observability, or systems integrator environment 

• Proven experience owning the technical strategy for complex sales opportunities from discovery through validation and close support 

• Strong hands-on scripting and automation experience using one or more of Python, PowerShell, Bash, or API-based integrations 

• Strong understanding of observability, IT operations, infrastructure monitoring, hybrid IT, automation, incident response, or related operational technologies 

• Working knowledge of AI-focused technology trends and the ability to translate them into practical use cases for IT operations, observability, automation, or customer workflows 

• Demonstrated ability to work directly with customers in ambiguous environments, moving from problem discovery to prototype, validation, and solution refinement 

• Strong blend of technical depth, sales acumen, and customer engagement skills, with the ability to lead both executive-level conversations and detailed technical workshops 

• Strong oral and written communication and presentation skills, with the ability to explain complex technical topics in clear business and technical terms 

• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS and Azure, including IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and hybrid or distributed architectures 

• Strong analytical, reasoning, and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to navigate complex customer environments and technical challenges 

• Self-starter with a curious mindset, capable of learning complex technologies quickly and independently managing a portfolio of strategic engagements 

• Demonstrated ability to build credibility across customer teams, sales teams, and internal product or engineering stakeholders 

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience supporting enterprise or strategic customers across the US market 

• Experience in observability, infrastructure monitoring, network monitoring, cloud operations, ITSM, automation, or incident response platforms 

• Experience responding to RFI, RFP, and RFx processes 

• Familiarity with competitive solutions in observability, IT operations, automation, AI-enabled operations, or IT management 

• Experience working in roles that bridge customer engagement, technical implementation, and product feedback loops 

• Experience with modern automation, orchestration, infrastructure-as-code, or workflow tooling 

• Relevant certifications such as AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, networking, security, automation, or SolarWinds certifications 

• Experience mentoring or coaching technical peers, sellers, or partners 

Role Scope and Working Model 

• US-based field role supporting strategic and enterprise customer opportunities 

• Up to 50% travel across the United States based on customer and business needs 

• Primarily pre-sales in ownership, with close coordination into post-sale teams for continuity and successful transition