Solution Expert Architect (Data & AI)

Orange Business continues to grow in the APAC region and Orange Business’s Digital & Communications Services - Cloud is growing over 25% YoY. To fulfill the market demand, DCS - Cloud is expanding its team and is currently looking for a Cloud Solution Architect – Data & AI Expert to join the team in APAC. The role will have a focus on growing the DCS - Cloud business, with specific reference to the Cloud and Data/AI portfolio. The role will be supporting countries in APAC.

Orange Business aspires to help our customers achieve their own digital transformation, demonstrating the power of Cloud solutions and services. We are looking for a Cloud Solution Architect for Data & AI to drive high priority customer initiatives on the Cloud Platform in collaboration with customers and the Cloud field. This is a customer facing role, responsible for providing end-to-end technical guidance and expertise.

The ideal candidate will possess strong customer facing and pre-sales experience in architecting Data & AI on with public cloud solutions such as Azure, AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud and GCP. The Solutions Architect will work as part of the regional cloud team, to meet with customers, and act as a subject-matter expert for this portfolio, and be responsible and accountable to propose, design and implement the best solution for the Customer.

Key Accountabilities

• Provide technical expertise to assess the customers’ requirements, architect the most suitable techno-commercial solutions, and assisting the Sales/Pre-sales consultants with the development of proposals, quotations, and presentations.
• Accountable for technical validation of solution(s) proposed to customers, including liaising with Orange Business back-end Engineering, Implementation and Operations teams.
• Responsible for high-level and low-level design activities, including best practice recommendations on technologies and vendors.
• Work with the wider APAC team to assist on opportunities which fall outside primary responsibilities where required.
• Technical responsibilities include product/platform selection and sizing, solution design, multi-vendor integration and to facilitate product demonstrations and customer proof of concept engagements.
• To build and develop relationships with account management teams in the APAC region to identify, define, and qualify cloud opportunities from the Target Market List (TML) and to ensure growth in target accounts.
• Be responsible for supporting the accounts for the sale of Orange DCS-Cloud portfolio in the region. The portfolio will include Data & AI service, Consulting, Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, and others in the future.
• To support account management teams in defining the scope of solutions and creating compelling customer-specific propositions by creatively bundling our services capability and those available through third-party vendors along with other capabilities of Orange (Connectivity, Cybersecurity etc) where possible. Lead the development of the cloud technical solution and commercial proposals and be able to comprehensively present it to the Customers.
• To work closely with Commercial Management to make sure all costs are captured correctly. Ensure the profitability of each submission and follow established processes for obtaining approvals prior to submission to the customer.
• In support of Account Managers, proactively drive innovation and value-creation discussions/ engagements with customers by leveraging your industry knowledge and consultative selling skills to demonstrate the true business value of the Solution to the Customer.
• Develop a strong relationship with the Global DCS-Cloud Business Units (Marketing, Product Development, etc.). Provide relevant input/feedback based on customer requirements. Engage the wider DCS-Cloud teams to help a generation of complex proposals.
• Stay abreast of market developments, trends, competitors’ landscape, the market-based price for the Cloud Market in APAC.
• Work with the DCS-Cloud Team to develop the Customer Value Propositions for the Cloud portfolio
• Develop partnerships and work with our partner’s local sales team to identify new opportunities (AWS, Azure, GCP, Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, etc.). Manage pipeline with partners through regular business/pipeline review.
• Identify and manage third parties within proposed solutions; position Orange as the solution integrator.
• Implementation of pricing models that optimize value to the customer and profitability to Orange.
• Maintain a high degree of knowledge for Orange Business products, services, and solutions sets that have integration/alignment with the area of expertise

Responsibilities

• Work closely with Partners to create win-themes and solutions
• Support sales team to achieve sales targets
• Data & AI Leads Generation
• Develop and implement go-to market plans
• Negotiate partner and vendor pricing, better rebates, more incentives, and business development funds from vendors
• Develop a pricing strategy with appropriate margins based on the solution
• Work closely with the sales team to develop sales pitches, prepare proposals and qualify prospects
• Be able to articulate the business outcomes and benefits with each solution
• Increase visibility and awareness of DCS-Cloud Portfolio through partnerships with Hyperscalers and vendors (AWS, Microsoft, Google, Equinix, Huawei, Ali-Cloud)
• Conduct partner and vendor collaboration activities
• Able to sell and upsell Portfolio products
• Understanding of prospect win theme, pricing, and discount strategies to complete sales conversion.
• Support prospecting activities such as events, webinars, and meet-ups
• Find prospects and provide solution quotations

Required Skills & Experience

• More than 6 years of Cloud Solution Architect Experience
• More than 3 years of Data & AI Experience
• Have strong presentation and communication skills
• Comfortable selling Cloud and Managed Services to C level executives
• Self-motivated and driven to achieve goals
• Strong verbal and written communications skills are essential
• Excellent negotiation and influential skills to close opportunities
• A track record of achieving assigned targets in a cloud business development role with a demonstrable strong technical background in the APAC region
• Ability to work in conjunction with the Sales and Pre-Sales organizations.
• Ability to manage different partners.
• Experience in engagement with the Indirect channels would be a plus.
• Knowledge of smart solutions and consultative selling.
• Strong commitment to meeting deadlines & completing assigned duties (result oriented)
• Demonstrated flexibility & willingness to learn new technologies, commercial models and initiatives.
• Languages: English; Chinese will be a plus

Education, Qualifications, and Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering or a related field.
• Prior technical experience in the following products would be advantageous:

ü Cloud Migrations

ü Application Modernization

ü Amazon Web Services (Associate or Professional)

ü Microsoft Azure (Azure Solution Architect Expert)

ü Google Cloud Platform (Professional)

ü Alibaba Cloud (ACP)

ü Huawei Cloud (HCP)

ü VMWare vSphere (preferably VCP certified)

ü Network and Security (preferably CCNA certified)

ü Microsoft Technologies (Windows Server and 365)

ü Opensource knowledge includes OpenStack, chef, Ansible

ü DevOps and Infrastructure as Code

• Breadth of technical experience and knowledge in foundational Data, foundational AI, architecture design, with depth / Subject Matter Expertise in one or more of the following
• Deep domain expertise in one of the Data-specific areas, such as Azure SQL Data (IaaS/PaaS), deployments and migrations to the cloud, Open-source database deployments and migrations, Cloud Scale Analytics, Data Governance, etc. OR hands-on experience working with the respective products at the expert level
• Experience creating Data & Analytics Proof of Concepts (PoC), Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) for customers that lead to production deployments
• Competitive Landscape: Knowledge of key Data & Analytics platforms such as AWS, GCP, Snowflake, etc
• Software development practices like DevOps and CI/CD tool chains (i.e., Jenkins, Azure Developer Services, GitHub) and container orchestration systems (i.e., Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud Foundry, Azure Kubernetes Service, GitHub)