The Director of Solution Sales COE for Multi-Cloud Transformation (COEMC) works independently with little or no direct supervision under the guidance of the Solution Sales Executive Leader/VP Centers of Excellence utilizing independent judgment and discretion in selection, development and coordination of methods within a broad framework of general policies. As a key leader within the Solutions and Services Sales Organization (SSSO), the COE Director's primary objective is to drive sales growth of advanced technology solutions and services for all Connection’s business units, including Business Solutions Group, Public Sector Group, and Enterprise Solutions Group. As a COE leader for an assigned technology solution domain, the COE Director has a responsibility to provide thought leadership and strategic direction in support of the COEs’ solution development function. The COE Director provides oversight for teams of Field Solution Architects (FSAs) and Inside Solution Architects (ISAs) and other subject matter experts (SME) that provide pre-sales strategy and support for complex solutions. The COE Director manages staff according to their operational pre-sales roles.

COE Leaders drive the following within their own COE and with other COEs within the broader SSSO:

• Go-to-market strategy and thought leadership
• Pre-sales for complex solutions
• Solutions & Services development aligned with go-to-market strategy
• Emerging technologies & onboarding in concert with partner management
• Strategic partner and vendor alignment and co-strategy

The COE Director maintains a pulse on the information technology industry and makes recommendations to senior leadership for ways to capitalize on market opportunities, adopt new and emerging technologies, and to create competitive, market-aligned, saleable solution sets as well as differentiated solution and services offerings.

Depending on experience, this role can either be a Director or a Senior Director level role.

• Presales & Customer Engagement: Creates and implements technical solution strategies to drive growth of advanced technology solutions and services. Supports targeting sales into new accounts and expanding penetration in existing accounts.
  • Works collaboratively with Solution Sales Executive Leader/VP Centers of Excellence and with peer COE Directors and Delivery Team Directors to drive complex, multi-COE solution sales opportunities in an effort to most efficiently deliver holistic, unified solution sets that result in positive customer experience (CX) and overall customer satisfaction.
• Team Leadership and Management: Manages COE Solution Architects and other subject matter experts in terms of objectives, assignments and organizational alignment. Provides oversight of the selling motion, and provides guidance, coaching, and mentoring as needed to continuously improve pre-sales processes and Solution Architects’ consistent execution of the SSSO solution design methodology.
• Strategy Development and Execution of Strategic Initiatives: Develops and executes strategic initiatives in support of organizational, solution and business development. Converts visionary and strategic direction from the Solution Sales Executive Leader (VP) and the VP of GTM Solutions Strategy & Portfolio Development into actionable plans and manages strategic development projects to successful outcomes.
• Vendor and Product Management Engagement: Works with peers and resources in the vendor community as well as Product Management to ensure COE staff alignment with vendor programs and strategy. In concert with Product Management, helps to identify, evaluate, and onboard new vendor partners and product lines.
  • Works closely and collaboratively with Product Management to help ensure vendor program compliance from a certification perspective and vendor resource allocation to the SA group, including vendor training funds, equipment, and conference attendance.

• Experience developing/leading previous COE, MultiCloud.
• Strategic Mindset and experience.
• Relevant working knowledge and understanding of advanced technology solutions including but not limited to Multi-Cloud Management Frameworks, Cloud Service Providers & Services (Native AWS, Azure and GCP, VMware on AWS/Azure/GCP), SASE and Cloud Networking, SaaS-based Productivity Applications (M365, Amazon/GCP Workspace/s), Modern Applications (Containers and Microservices with Service Mesh), CMPs and FinOps, DevOps and Automation Frameworks (Salt, Ansible, Terraform), SDDC Concepts, Tools and Services for Cloud Adoption, Optimization, and Migration, Hosted AI/ML Platforms & Services, Directory Services and IAM, Cloud-native Governance and Compliance, and Collaboration/UCaaS solutions.
• Experience leading presales support and leading a design effort around Multi-Cloud Solutions.
• Innovator with ability to improve existing systems/procedures.
• Understanding inside sales strategies and upselling for upgrades and other add on products.
• Leadership skills with ability to manage and develop a team.
• Solves a wide range of highly complex, multi-disciplinary problems which must consider long-term company-wide planning.
• Strategic reasoning skills with ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems.
• Strong trend analysis skills with proven ability to develop short- and long-term business plans.
• Adaptable with ability to switch tasks based on shifting priorities.
• Analytical with ability to draw conclusions from data, systematic and rational.
• Excellent verbal communication skills with ability to present professional demonstrations.
• Conceptual with ability to conceive mentally, formulate ideas, use imagination to achieve results.
• Inquisitive information seeker with ability to ask probing questions to uncover root causes of problems.
• Intuitive with ability to perceive others' feelings and motives quickly from subtle signals.
• Supportive mentor with ability to guide and develop team members.
• Reasoning ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems.
• Master innovator of ideas and solutions of potentially great significance to the company's future.