Senior Solutions Architect, Applications

Job Description

We are looking for an experienced, customer-facing Solution Architect who has already done this work at a VAR, MSP, or IT services firm — and wants to do it somewhere with fewer constraints and more impact. This is a senior individual contributor role with the authority to lead design sessions, scope full projects, build managed services proposals, and shape how our cybersecurity and infrastructure practice evolves. You will work alongside our sales team as their primary technical partner on strategic accounts, driving outcomes that matter: securing environments, modernizing networks, migrating to cloud, and building recurring managed services relationships. Your success is measured not just by technical quality but by revenue contribution, client retention, and the trust you build as an advisor.

Serve as the senior technical lead on strategic pre-sales engagements, orchestrating discovery, solution design, and presentation across all technology domains.
Lead customer-facing design workshops and architecture sessions with both technical (network/security engineers, architects) and executive (CIO, CISO, VP IT) stakeholders.
Own the technical win strategy for complex, multi-tower opportunities involving networking, cybersecurity, SASE, Zero Trust, cloud, and managed services.
Architect comprehensive solutions across cybersecurity (Next-Gen Firewall, SASE, ZTA, endpoint, SIEM/SOC), enterprise networking, SD-WAN, cloud connectivity, and compute infrastructure.
Produce high-quality network architecture diagrams, logical and physical designs, and solution overview documents suitable for C-level and technical audiences.
Build detailed Bills of Materials with full line-item accuracy, licensing structures, professional services hours, and margin integrity.
Author Statements of Work (SOWs) and project scopes that set clear expectations and protect our delivery team.

Position and sell our managed services portfolio — including managed SASE, managed firewall, MDR/SOC services, NOC monitoring, and cloud management — as the preferred operational model for clients.
Build outcome-based business cases for recurring and managed services engagements, demonstrating ROI, risk reduction, and operational efficiency against DIY alternatives.
Structure multi-year managed services agreements with appropriate SLAs, pricing models, and renewal incentives.
Maintain deep working relationships with our key vendor partners including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Zscaler, CrowdStrike, Microsoft, AWS, Aruba/HPE, and others.
Stay current on the SASE and Zero Trust product landscapes including Zscaler, Prisma Access, Fortinet SASE, Cato Networks, and Cisco Umbrella/SD-WAN.
Represent us at vendor partner summits, technology briefings, and customer-facing events.

Mentor junior and associate SAs, sharing design patterns, BOM best practices, and client engagement techniques.
Identify gaps and emerging opportunities in our portfolio and recommend new vendor partnerships or service offerings.

7+ years of overall IT experience, including 3+ years in a customer-facing pre-sales Solution Architect, Consulting Architect, or Senior Systems Engineer role at a VAR, MSP, or IT services firm.
~ Demonstrated experience leading technical discovery, architecture design, and pre-sales engagements for complex networking and cybersecurity solutions.
~ Deep technical expertise in cybersecurity — including Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), endpoint detection and response (EDR/XDR), SIEM, and identity-based security.
~ Strong working knowledge of enterprise networking: routing and switching, SD-WAN, LAN/WAN design, wireless (802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6), and network segmentation.
~ Experience architecting hybrid and multi-cloud solutions (AWS, Azure, GCP) including cloud networking, security controls, and governance.
~ Experience authoring technical documentation including solution designs, BOMs, SOWs, and RFP responses at a professional quality standard.
~ Experience with SASE platforms: Zscaler (ZIA/ZPA), Palo Alto Prisma Access, Fortinet SASE, Cato Networks, Cisco Umbrella, or Cloudflare One.
Hands-on familiarity with Zero Trust frameworks (NIST SP 800-207, Gartner ZTA) and their practical implementation in enterprise environments.
Fortinet NSE 6/7 or Zscaler ZCCA-IA / ZCCP-IA

CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)
AWS Solutions Architect – Professional or Azure Solutions Expert