Solution Architect

Lumen Technologies

9d • Remote

About The Position

Lumen connects the world. We are igniting business growth by connecting people, data and applications – quickly, securely, and effortlessly. Together, we are building a culture and company from the people up – committed to teamwork, trust and transparency. People power progress.
We’re looking for top-tier talent and offer the flexibility you need to thrive and deliver lasting impact. Join us as we digitally connect the world and shape the future.
Lumen seeks Solution Architects that can assist customers in designing and implementing large scale backbone networks. In this customer-centric role, you'll partner with Sales & Customer Success Executives, driving innovative discussions to foster enterprise customer growth. You'll design solutions requiring a keen technical and sales aptitude to grasp business needs, devise a sales strategy, and present solutions that meet customer requirements and add value.
As a Solution Architect for the Cloud & Technology Group (CTG) segment, you'll analyze customer needs through strategic discovery, employ technical leadership, discuss best practices, and showcase our products tailored to each customer's business needs. The objective is to become a trusted advisor by demonstrating how our products enable digital strategies.

Requirements

• Work experience: Minimum 5 years of experience with technology focused in pre-sales, engineering, consulting or similar background.
• Education: B.S. Computer Science, Engineering, MIS or equivalent work experience in the private sector or military
• Proven experience in solution engineering, pre-sales, or technical consulting within cloud, data center or SaaS environments, with a progressive track record of increasing levels of solution complexity and responsibility.
• Strong optical networking background with a firm understanding of optical fiber network construction.
• Strong knowledge of hyperscalers, cloud platforms, SaaS environments, data center, and modern infrastructure capacity needs
• Experience designing solutions that support AI/ML use cases, high-performance workloads or data-driven architectures
• Ability to map customer challenges to technical solutions and clearly articulate the business impact
• Ability to lead & engage in complex deal discussions with internal ecosystem, driving solutions & outcomes with sales, customer success, partners.
• Excellent presentation skills as well as the ability to build and present high-quality solutions to both technical and executive audiences.
• Problem Solving: General problem-solving skills and ability to methodically understand and resolve complex issues. Must demonstrate the ability to focus ambiguous customer needs into specific, deliverable requirements. Must demonstrate creative solution development.
• Highly proactive, consultative, creative and positive with a can-do attitude.
• Strong verbal, and written communication.
• Some travel required.

Nice To Haves

• Industry certifications in 1 or more specialized technologies.
• Strong understanding of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
• Strong understanding of fiber optics and fiber optic construction / Outside Plant Engineering
• Strong understanding of colocation design and architecture
• Familiarity with the following systems and applications: 3GIS, ArcGIS, or other Geographic Information System software Network Explorer PRO Latency Tool NetBuild Google Earth Visio
• Strong understanding in Cloud & Architecture design.
• Strong understanding in Layer 3 networks
• Basic understanding in Network Functions Virtualization.
• Basic understanding in Security solutions.

Responsibilities

• Demonstrates advanced discovery and solution selling abilities
• Designs involving high-capacity fiber, wavelength services, data center interconnect, MOFN, IP transit, DIA, NaaS, edge compute, CDN, cloud connectivity, SASE/SD-WAN, and private wireless.
• Prepares and delivers clear, engaging, technical proposals, architectural diagrams, and presentations with the appropriate level of business acumen for the audience.
• Provides actionable feedback to product management, sales, and customer success teams on business value, product capabilities, and service execution
• Customer Solution Development: Assess customer objectives, conduct technical discovery, and architect solutions. Evaluate technology's impact on business and operations. Create custom solutions that highlight Lumen's unique services, asking probing questions to aid the sales team. Capable of complex designs.
• Internal and External Training: Guide customers, sales, and success teams on technical solution aspects, ensuring fit to needs and feature understanding.
• Thought Leadership: Provide product management and leadership teams with customer experience insights, product feedback, and service implementation feedback.
• Customer Advocate: Engage in pre-sales activities, including presentations, architecture discussions, proof-of-concept work, RFP/RFI responses, solution demos, and workshops. Report key issues, propose solutions, and estimate ROI. Aid in technical sales strategy development. Design and present solutions aligned with customer technology roadmaps.
• Lifecycle / Ecosystem Partnership: Assist sales teams with business opportunities, addressing data lifecycle aspects. Work with Client Success, Solution Sales, and Product Management teams to deliver credible solutions and build customer trust.

Benefits

• Lumen offers a comprehensive package featuring a broad range of Health, Life, Voluntary Lifestyle benefits and other perks that enhance your physical, mental, emotional and financial wellbeing.
• Learn more about Lumen's: Benefits Bonus Structure

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees