Senior Presales Solution Architect

Senior presales solutions architect responsibilities

The senior presales solutions architect is responsible for leading the technical presales lifecycle for opportunities involving digital solutions, enterprise platforms, microservices, artificial intelligence, data, analytics, business intelligence and telecom solutions.

The role works closely with sales, delivery, product, architecture, finance, partners and customers to understand business needs, define suitable solution approaches, design robust technical architectures, prepare high-quality technical proposals, estimate implementation efforts and present proposed solutions to executive, business and technical stakeholders.

The position requires strong technical architecture capabilities, telecom industry knowledge, proposal development experience, commercial awareness, stakeholder management and customer presentation skills.

Key responsibilities

1. Opportunity qualification and presales planning
   Review customer opportunities, RFPs, RFIs, tenders, statements of work and business requirements.
   Assess opportunities from technical, delivery, resource, commercial and strategic perspectives.
   Participate in Go/No-Go evaluations and provide clear technical recommendations.
   Identify missing information, dependencies, risks, assumptions and clarification questions.
   Develop presales response plans, technical workstreams, responsibilities and submission timelines.
   Coordinate with sales, PMO, delivery, finance, legal, cybersecurity and external partners.
   Evaluate whether each opportunity is aligned with the organization’s capabilities, technologies, resources and strategic direction.
   Identify technical gaps and recommend suitable partners or subcontractors where required.
2. Requirements analysis and solution definition
   Conduct discovery sessions and workshops with customers and internal stakeholders.
   Translate business requirements into functional and non-functional technical requirements.
   Understand customer challenges, existing platforms, integration landscapes, data sources, operational processes and future objectives.
   Define suitable use cases across digital solutions, microservices, AI, data, BI and telecom domains.
   Prioritize use cases based on value, feasibility, cost, implementation complexity and expected outcomes.
   Identify opportunities for automation, process improvement, intelligent services, analytics and customer experience enhancement.
   Ensure requirements are clear, measurable, traceable and aligned with the proposed solution.
   Prepare requirement-traceability and compliance matrices.
   Validate requirements with business, technical, security and operational stakeholders.
3. Digital solution architecture
   Design end-to-end digital solution architectures covering enterprise portals, web applications, mobile applications, content management, workflows, integration, data, security, infrastructure and operations.
   Prepare high-level architecture, logical architecture, system-context diagrams, integration diagrams, deployment views and data-flow diagrams.
   Recommend suitable technologies, frameworks, platforms and architectural patterns.
   Ensure proposed solutions are scalable, secure, resilient, maintainable, observable and cost-effective.
   Design solutions for cloud, on-premises, hybrid and sovereign deployment environments.
   Define availability, performance, scalability, backup and disaster-recovery requirements.
   Ensure technical designs comply with customer architecture standards, security policies and operational requirements.
   Define reusable components and shared technical services.
4. Microservices and integration architecture
   Design microservices-based architectures using domain-driven design, API-first principles and event-driven patterns.
   Define service boundaries, APIs, integration contracts, data ownership and communication mechanisms.
   Design synchronous and asynchronous integrations using REST APIs, API gateways, message brokers, event streaming and enterprise integration platforms.
   Recommend suitable containerization and orchestration approaches using Docker, Kubernetes or equivalent technologies.
   Define requirements for service discovery, centralized configuration, secrets management, monitoring, logging, tracing and fault tolerance.
   Address scalability, availability, performance, security and disaster-recovery requirements.
   Support the modernization of legacy applications and monolithic systems.
   Recommend suitable CI/CD, DevSecOps and automated testing approaches.
   Define API governance, versioning, security and lifecycle-management practices.
5. Artificial intelligence solutions
   Identify and define practical AI and generative AI use cases based on customer requirements.
   Design AI solution architectures covering machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, forecasting, recommendation, classification and intelligent automation.
   Define generative AI solutions using large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, vector databases, knowledge bases, fine-tuning and AI agents.
   Design AI integration approaches with customer systems, databases, APIs, documents and enterprise platforms.
   Define data preparation, model training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring and continuous-improvement approaches.
   Address AI governance, privacy, security, explainability, bias, hallucination control and human approval requirements.
   Evaluate cloud-based, on-premises and hybrid AI deployment options.
   Support AI demonstrations, pilots, prototypes and proof-of-concepts.
   Estimate infrastructure, storage, compute and GPU requirements for AI workloads.
   Define measurable AI success criteria, expected business value and operational outcomes.
6. Data and business intelligence solutions
   Design business intelligence, analytics, reporting and data-visualization solutions.
   Define data integration and processing approaches using ETL, ELT, APIs, streaming and data pipelines.
   Design conceptual architectures for data warehouses, data lakes, lakehouses, operational data stores and analytical platforms.
   Identify data sources, data-quality requirements, metadata, master data and governance considerations.
   Define dashboards, KPIs, executive reports, operational reports and self-service analytics capabilities.
   Recommend suitable BI and analytics platforms based on customer requirements.
   Work with business stakeholders to ensure KPIs and reports support measurable objectives.
   Define requirements for data access, security, lineage, retention, classification and quality monitoring.
   Support analytical use cases such as forecasting, segmentation, trend analysis and performance monitoring.
   Ensure BI solutions provide accurate, timely and trusted information.
7. Telecom solution experience
   Design and support solutions for telecom operators, service providers and communication organizations.
   Understand telecom customer journeys, digital channels, customer care, billing, charging, order management, product catalogues, service fulfilment and service assurance.
   Understand how customer-facing telecom systems integrate with network and operational platforms.
   Support solution design across Business Support Systems and Operations Support Systems.
   Understand common telecom domains, including:
   
8. Customer relationship management
9. Product and service catalogues
10. Order management
11. Billing and charging
12. Payments and collections
13. Customer self-service applications
14. Service provisioning and activation
15. Network and service inventory
16. Fault and alarm management
17. Performance monitoring
18. Service assurance
19. Field-service operations
Design integrations between digital channels, customer platforms, billing systems, order-management systems and network-service platforms.
Understand telecom APIs, integration platforms and event-driven architecture.
Apply TM Forum concepts and Open APIs where relevant.
Support telecom use cases involving customer experience, loyalty, churn prediction, personalized recommendations, fraud detection, network analytics and intelligent customer care.
Understand telecom operational KPIs, service-quality indicators and customer-experience measurements.
Address telecom security, regulatory, data-residency and operational requirements.
Prepare architecture designs, technical proposals and demonstrations for telecom customers.
Communicate effectively with telecom business, enterprise architecture, IT, data, cybersecurity and network stakeholders.
20. Technical proposal development
    Lead the preparation of complete technical proposals and tender responses.
    Develop and review proposal sections including:
    
21. Executive summary
22. Understanding of customer requirements
23. Proposed solution
24. Solution architecture
25. Scope of work
26. Deliverables
27. Implementation methodology
28. Project phases and schedule
29. Team structure and responsibilities
30. Assumptions and dependencies
31. Risks and mitigation actions
32. Service-level requirements
33. Security and compliance
34. Support and maintenance
35. Training and knowledge transfer
36. Compliance matrices
37. Bill of quantities
38. Technical appendices
Ensure proposals are accurate, consistent, persuasive, compliant and professionally presented.
Maintain traceability between customer requirements and the proposed solution.
Review contributions from internal teams, vendors, subcontractors and technology partners.
Ensure the final proposal clearly communicates business value, technical feasibility and competitive differentiation.
Manage technical proposal reviews and obtain the required internal approvals.
Ensure all technical commitments, deliverables and schedules are realistic and achievable.
Verify that proposed technologies and products are properly licensed, supported and available.
39. Costing and commercial support
    Develop effort estimates for analysis, architecture, design, development, integration, testing, deployment, support and project management.
    Prepare resource plans, role descriptions, competency requirements and estimated person-days.
    Support the preparation of bills of quantities and technical costing assumptions.
    Work with finance and sales to validate resource costs, infrastructure costs, licensing costs, partner costs, margins and contingencies.
    Identify potential commercial risks, hidden costs and out-of-scope items.
    Support fixed-price, time-and-material, managed-service, staff-augmentation and subscription-based proposals.
    Ensure the proposed scope is commercially achievable and technically deliverable.
    Validate partner and vendor quotations.
    Recommend suitable contingency levels based on technical, delivery and dependency risks.
    Clearly document pricing assumptions, exclusions and dependencies.
    Support value engineering and cost-optimization activities without compromising the required quality.
40. Customer engagement and presentations
    Present proposed solutions to customer executives, business stakeholders, architects, security teams and technical evaluators.
    Lead technical clarification meetings, discovery workshops, demonstrations and solution walkthroughs.
    Explain complex technical concepts in clear business language.
    Respond to customer questions, concerns and objections confidently and accurately.
    Demonstrate the business value, feasibility, scalability and differentiation of the proposed solution.
    Build trusted relationships with customer technical and business stakeholders.
    Support negotiations and technical discussions until contract award.
    Participate in technical evaluation sessions and defend the proposed solution.
    Prepare presentation materials, architecture visuals and technical demonstrations.
    Support customer meetings related to scope, assumptions, dependencies and delivery approach.
41. Proof-of-concept and demonstration management
    Define the scope, success criteria, architecture, timeline and required resources for demonstrations and proof-of-concepts.
    Coordinate with engineering, AI, data, DevOps, product and delivery teams.
    Ensure demonstrations are aligned with customer priorities and evaluation criteria.
    Document proof-of-concept results, limitations, dependencies and recommendations.
    Convert successful proof-of-concepts into realistic implementation plans.
    Ensure reusable demonstration assets are documented and maintained.
    Define the required data, environments, integrations and access for each demonstration.
    Manage customer expectations regarding proof-of-concept scope, limitations and outcomes.
    Present proof-of-concept findings and recommendations to customer stakeholders.
42. Partner and vendor management
    Engage technology vendors, cloud providers, product companies and implementation partners.
    Request technical inputs, quotations, licensing details, architecture guidance and compliance documentation.
    Evaluate partner capabilities, proposed resources, delivery models and technical solutions.
    Ensure partner contributions align with the overall architecture and proposal.
    Identify technical, delivery and commercial gaps in third-party proposals.
    Maintain accountability for the completeness and quality of the final integrated solution.
    Coordinate joint solution development and proposal preparation.
    Validate that partner commitments, schedules and deliverables are clearly documented.
    Escalate partner delays or quality issues that may affect proposal submission or delivery feasibility.
43. Security, governance and compliance
    Ensure proposed solutions address security, privacy and regulatory requirements.
    Define identity and access management, encryption, audit logging, data protection and API-security requirements.
    Work with cybersecurity teams to address security controls and customer compliance requirements.
    Consider applicable Saudi regulations, cybersecurity controls and data-hosting requirements.
    Ensure AI and data solutions follow appropriate governance principles.
    Identify security-related assumptions, risks and dependencies.
    Support the completion of security and compliance questionnaires.
    Ensure secure architecture principles are incorporated from the proposal stage.
    Address data classification, residency, retention and sovereignty requirements.
44. Presales-to-delivery handover
    Conduct a structured handover from presales to delivery after contract award.
    Explain the agreed scope, assumptions, deliverables, architecture, schedule, risks, resource plan and contractual commitments.
    Ensure delivery teams understand all technical and commercial boundaries.
    Participate in project kickoff and early-stage architecture validation.
    Support delivery teams in resolving significant gaps between the proposal and implementation requirements.
    Document lessons learned and improvement actions for future opportunities.
    Ensure all proposal documents, estimates and customer clarifications are transferred to the delivery team.
    Maintain continuity between the proposed solution and the delivered solution.
    Ensure changes identified after award are managed through the appropriate change-control process.
45. Presales assets and continuous improvement
    Develop reusable proposal templates, architecture patterns, solution accelerators, estimations and compliance responses.
    Maintain a knowledge repository for technologies, products, telecom use cases and previous proposals.
    Monitor market developments and emerging technologies related to digital solutions, microservices, AI, data, BI and telecom.
    Share knowledge and best practices with presales, sales, architecture and delivery teams.
    Support internal capability development and technical enablement.
    Improve proposal quality, estimation accuracy and response efficiency.
    Contribute to the organization’s service offerings and solution portfolio.
    Maintain reusable architecture diagrams, case studies, references and demonstration materials.

Requirements

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, information systems, data science, artificial intelligence or a related field.
• A master’s degree is preferred.
• Minimum of eight years of experience in software engineering, solution architecture, digital solutions, enterprise applications, AI, data or business intelligence.
• Minimum of four years of experience in technical presales, solution consulting, enterprise architecture or proposal management.
• Minimum of three years of experience working with telecom operators, telecom projects or telecom-related solutions.
• Proven experience responding to enterprise, government and telecom RFPs, RFIs and tenders.
• Demonstrated experience designing and presenting complex enterprise and telecom solutions.
• Experience working with technology vendors, system integrators, implementation partners and multidisciplinary delivery teams.
• Experience in customer-facing technical roles and executive-level presentations.

Required technical knowledge

• Digital solutions
  Enterprise portals and web applications
  Mobile applications
  Content management systems
  Workflow and business-process management
  Customer-experience platforms
  Omnichannel solutions
  Identity and access management
  API and integration platforms
  Enterprise search and document management
• Microservices and cloud-native architecture
  Microservices architecture
  Domain-driven design
  REST APIs and event-driven architecture
  API gateways and service mesh
  Kafka or similar event-streaming platforms
  Docker and Kubernetes
  CI/CD and DevSecOps
  Observability, logging, monitoring and tracing
  High availability and disaster recovery
  Cloud, on-premises and hybrid architectures
• Artificial intelligence
  Machine learning and deep learning concepts
  Generative AI and large language models
  Retrieval-augmented generation
  Vector databases and embeddings
  AI agents and tool integration
  Natural language processing
  Computer vision
  Recommendation and forecasting
  Model deployment and monitoring
  Responsible AI and AI governance
• Data and business intelligence
  Data integration and ETL/ELT
  Data warehouses, data lakes and lakehouses
  Data modelling
  Data quality and governance
  Dashboards and data visualization
  KPIs and analytical reporting
  Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, Looker or equivalent platforms
  SQL and relational databases
  Big-data and streaming concepts
  Metadata, lineage and master-data management
• Telecom
  Telecom customer journeys and digital channels
  Business Support Systems and Operations Support Systems
  Customer relationship management
  Product and service catalogues
  Order management
  Billing and charging
  Service provisioning and activation
  Service and network inventory
  Service assurance and fault management
  Telecom APIs and integration platforms
  TM Forum concepts and Open APIs
  Telecom analytics and operational KPIs
  Customer-experience, loyalty and churn use cases
• Security and compliance
  Application and API security
  Identity and access management
  Encryption and secrets management
  Secure software-development practices
  Data privacy and classification
  Cybersecurity requirements
  Auditability and compliance
  Saudi and regional regulatory requirements

Required presales skills

• Strong technical proposal-writing skills.
• Ability to interpret complex RFP and tender requirements.
• Strong architecture and solution-design capabilities.
• Ability to estimate effort, resources, infrastructure and licensing.
• Strong presentation, demonstration and storytelling skills.
• Ability to connect technical capabilities with measurable business value.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to manage multiple opportunities and tight deadlines.
• Strong stakeholder, vendor and partner coordination skills.
• Commercial awareness and understanding of proposal profitability.
• Ability to challenge unrealistic scope, timelines or assumptions professionally.
• Strong English communication and technical-writing skills.
• Arabic communication skills are preferred for customer-facing roles in Saudi Arabia.

Behavioral competencies

• Customer-focused and business-oriented.
• Accountable and results-driven.
• Structured and detail-oriented.
• Proactive in identifying risks and gaps.
• Confident when communicating with senior stakeholders.
• Collaborative across sales, technical, delivery and commercial teams.
• Able to work effectively under pressure.
• Capable of making decisions with incomplete information.
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills.
• Committed to quality, accuracy and continuous improvement.
• Able to take ownership of opportunities from qualification through delivery handover.

Key performance indicators

• Technical proposal quality and compliance.
• Percentage of proposals submitted on time.
• Opportunity technical-qualification accuracy.
• Opportunity win rate.
• Accuracy of effort and cost estimates.
• Number of proposal clarifications caused by technical gaps.
• Customer satisfaction with presentations and demonstrations.
• Effectiveness of presales-to-delivery handover.
• Number of reusable solution assets and proposal templates developed.
• Contribution to the qualified sales pipeline and awarded opportunities.
• Alignment between proposed and delivered scope.
• Identification and prevention of technical and commercial risks.
• Collaboration effectiveness with sales, delivery, finance and partners.
• Quality of telecom solution designs and proposal responses.

Preferred certifications

• TOGAF or equivalent architecture certification
• AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud or Oracle Cloud architecture certification
• Kubernetes or cloud-native certification
• AI, machine-learning or generative-AI certification
• Microsoft Power BI or another BI-platform certification
• TM Forum certification
• ITIL, COBIT or project-management certification
• Security architecture or cybersecurity certification

Mandatory experience statement

Telecom industry experience is mandatory. The candidate must demonstrate practical involvement in telecom presales, solution architecture, enterprise-solution delivery or technical proposal development for telecom operators or communication-service providers.