Solutions Architect - Enterprise Networks

Salary: £65,000 - £85,000 /year + Benefits

Location: Brighton (BN1)

Contract: Permanent/ Full Time

Ideal is an inspiring place to work. We are an independent SME, offering a refreshingly different experience to larger IT solutions providers. We select technology vendors that are at the top of their game so that our experts can design the real-world solutions our customers need. We continually invest in our employees' development and training to keep our skills fresh and enable our employees to further their development whether this be technical qualifications, soft skills training or something personal to them. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and aim to offer all our staff the support they need to achieve their career goals.

Our Values

• Pride – We demonstrate commitment to quality, and an ability to anticipate, pre-empt, act and deliver, taking pride in seeing things through to completion.
• Relationships – We strive to be a trusted partner for our customers, working collaboratively and with a ‘one-team' approach. We maintain excellent relationships through showing integrity, recognising achievements and communicating effectively.
• Ambition – We aim high. We constantly develop our skills and expertise for the benefit of our customers, and partner with vendors who share our ambition to be outstanding. We never accept the status quo, but constructively challenge so as to optimise the required business outcomes.

The Job

As one of Ideal's Solutions Architects, you will be responsible for providing technical leadership, design, consultancy and product sales support to our customers and internal technical and sales teams.

You will help shape the onward direction of Solutions at Ideal by ensuring a strong and constantly developing range of profitable and repeatable solutions and be a key contributor to future pipeline growth.

A good fit for this role will

• Have a proven ability in solution development, being able to capture and quantify business requirements, translating these into effective technology solutions
• Accurately gauge the costs and benefits of solutions in line with business practicalities
• Be an expert in the given technologies, being able to match requirements to capabilities
• Show knowledge and experience of architecture and design frameworks
• Have extensive design experience and certification in Vendor and/or industry ratified solutions
• Be able to measure and present benefit realisation effectiveness of chosen solutions
• Show resilience and self-motivation with an ability to drive results
• Use own initiative and have a questioning approach
• Be accurate and detail orientated
• Manage own workload, prioritise and develop own deadlines
• Communicate fluently, orally and in writing, and can present complex information to both a technical and non-technical audience
• Be able to work in a fast-paced environment
• Show a passion for resolving technical issues, and a ‘can-do' attitude.
• Collaboratively work to achieve results within agreed time-frames
• Demonstrate experience of building relationships and working effectively as a team member

What you'll be doing

• Advising customers on the appropriate network architecture, describing current and target operating models and consulting on best migration paths
• Creating and owning high-level design of customer specific solutions
• Providing pre-sales support, development and presentation of proposals
• Providing consultancy to our customers in a pre- and post-sales capacity
• Responsible for a developing a modern networking portfolio. Understanding the strategic importance of networking in a cloud and multi-access world and how automation, security and policy driven networking is increasingly important
• Owning the strategic direction of product sets and solution development
• Identify, research, evaluate, recommend and develop new technologies
• Develop end to end services and solutions based on products within their area of specialisation and cross-architecture
• Develop business and technical analysis in customer engagements
• Provide sales enablement to internal teams at Ideal

Key technologies & Vendors

Core:

• Cisco Switching and Routing
• Network Access Control and Network Security
• In depth knowledge of Cisco Catalyst and Nexus switch platforms
• Solutions Architect - Enterprise Networks
• Solutions Architect – Date Effective Jul 2017
• SD-WAN and SDN/SDA technologies
• Wireless technologies

Desirable:

• Firewall technology (Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, other)
• Other network vendor platforms
• ACI/NSX, Data Centre Networking
• Cloud Networking & platforms
• Scripting/Programming (Python, Ansible, IAC)

What you can expect from Us

• Training: Guaranteed investment in your personal and professional development, including 6 days paid study leave
• Location: Superb, open-plan, modern office, right next to Brighton station
• Work/Life Balance: 25 days annual leave plus flexible working opportunities
• Wellness: free fruit, weekly running club, office yoga, board-games… Plus more!

Next Steps

To apply to our vacancy as a Solutions Architect, please click Apply and submit a copy of your CV and covering letter for consideration.

We look forward to hearing from you.