Solutions Architect Director

Req ID: 120024 
Remote Position: Yes 
Region: Americas 
Country: USA 

Summary

The Solution Architect will work with customers and sales leads in the Service Provider [Cloud and Connectivity] market to understand specific customer needs and pain-points in a consultative manner.  They will architect and develop innovative solutions to meet or exceed customer needs for complex and strategic business opportunities, and will develop the scope of the project and create the supporting high level work-plans.  They will build strong, knowledge based, in-depth relationships with our customer decision makers, and act as a subject matter expert on integrated solutions across the full lifecycle of offerings in Celestica Service Provider [Cloud and Connectivity] business.

Detailed Description

The Solutions Architect will lead, manage and coordinate:

• the development and preparation of unsolicited value propositions aligned with the go-to-market strategy
• the solution development process through to award of business 
• the supporting team; identify and create teams of subject matter experts to develop and optimize solution across all service offerings across the product life-cycle
• subject matter experts to ensure processes are developed to integrate solution to customer organization
• the creation of compelling proposal content and customer presentations, and participate in Customer and internal Celestica executive reviews
• The development of customer and internal communication plans and keeping stakeholders updated

 

The Solutions Architect will work closely with the: 

• Finance architect / analyst to ensure understanding of financial implications of solution for Celestica and the customer and prepare associated business cases
• Global Quote teams to ensure the timely and accurate preparation of financials 
• Sales team to validate and quality opportunities as required, and participate in opportunity generation workshops
• Market team to support the development of our Go-To-Market strategies, and support contract negotiation as required
• Market research team to increase the understanding of the market and competitive landscape, and support market-led offering development
• Functional executives, including operations, to ensure proper resourcing is in place when needed for the overall proposal execution and resolve resourcing issues in a timely manner.

Knowledge/Skills/Competencies

Person should be a strong leader, professional, hard-charging, detail-oriented, reliable, calm under fire, creative, with a can-do attitude. Individuals should have the following:

• Creative ability to link abstract concepts and articulate in a clear, concise and constructive manner
• Strong financial acumen to analyze and characterize financial picture to capture value to customer and Celestica
• Business savvy to understand overall business environment and create/adapt strategy as required
• Cultural sensitivity to effectively deal on a Global Scale with Customers and Celestica Locations
• Deep Operational understanding
• Demonstrated understanding of the integrated services and solutions that leverage Celestica’s core businesses including; design, NPI, commodity management, product assurance, engineering solutions, order management, manufacturing (PCBA, enclosures), fulfilment and after-market services.
• In depth understanding of at least one of Celestica’s core services offerings.
• High level of relevant business and technology industry knowledge.
• Skilled as a consultant, facilitator, communicator, project manager and ‘bridge builder’ to deepen and strengthen the customer relationship.
• Ability to establish credibility and win the trust of stakeholders and maintain this through the length of the engagement 
• Strong management network internally in Celestica to gain support as required for deal closure

Physical Demands

• Duties of this position are performed in a normal office environment.
• Duties may require extended periods of sitting and sustained visual concentration on a computer monitor or on numbers and other detailed data.
• Repetitive manual movements (e.g., data entry, using a computer mouse, etc.) are frequently required.
• Frequent overnight travel may be required
• Duties of this position may require working very long hours for months at a time.

Typical Experience

• Fifteen plus years of applicable experience, including a minimum of:
  • 5 years direct customer solutions background
  • 5 years relevant market experience 
  • 5 plus years of team and business management experience
• P&L ownership experience and corporate finance working