Senior Presales Solutions Architect

Location: Clifton

Title:

Senior Solutions Consultant

Location:

Lowry Mill, Lees Street, Manchester, M27 6DB
Working pattern:
Hybrid 3 days per week in the office Salary: £80,000 £ 89,000

Hours:

Full-time, 37.5 hours per week Reporting to:
Head of Technical Services ABOUT DATASPIRE Dataspire partners with schools and multi-academy trusts to build dependable, high-performing technology environments. Our work helps schools operate securely and efficiently, while enabling teachers and students to make the most of technology. We are looking for a Senior Pre-Sales Solutions Architect to lead the discovery, architecture and presentation of complex, strategic and multi-site opportunities.

You will be a senior technical voice in customer meetings, tenders, framework bids and internal solution reviews. You will shape solutions spanning infrastructure, cloud, identity, network, cyber security, safeguarding, endpoint management, backup and operational readiness. This is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in education while working at the intersection of customer strategy, technical architecture, commercial shaping and operational delivery.

THE ROLE As Senior Pre-Sales Solutions Architect, you will own the technical direction of high-value and non-standard opportunities, ensuring solutions are compelling to customers, commercially balanced, deliverable by implementation teams and sustainable for systems operations. You will work closely with Sales, Implementation Services and Systems Operations, and will help improve Data spires architecture standards, reference designs and reusable solution patterns.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Lead complex discovery across multiple schools, sites, stakeholder groups and technical domains Design end-to-end solutions spanning network, cloud, identity, endpoint, security, safeguarding, backup, compliance and operational monitoring Apply Dataspire reference architectures and relevant DfE, NCSC and KCSIE guidance to solution design Lead the technical contribution to strategic bids, tenders, framework opportunities and high-value projects Produce high-quality solution documentation, including high-level designs, diagrams, scopes of work, assumptions, responsibilities, acceptance criteria and migration approaches Present recommendations confidently to senior leadership teams, governors, trust leaders and technical steering groups Adapt technical communication for non-technical decision-makers and technical specialists Work with Sales and Finance to shape commercially viable and competitively positioned solutions Validate delivery effort, dependencies, sequencing, migration plans and cutover feasibility with Implementation Services Work with Systems Operations to ensure every proposal is operationally ready, resilient, secure and supportable Identify design, delivery, operational and commercial risks early, recommending practical mitigations Peer-review solution designs, proposals, scopes and assumptions created by other members of the Solutions team Coach and mentor Pre-Sales Solutions Architects in discovery, design quality, documentation and presentation skills Improve reference architectures, solution standards, templates and the Dataspire solutions catalogue Challenge bespoke approaches where a repeatable, supportable standard solution would deliver a stronger customer outcome TECHNOLOGIES YOU WILL DESIGN WITH Network and connectivity: HPE Aruba, Cisco Meraki and Ubiquiti Security and edge services:
Smoothwall, Securly, Barracuda and Fortinet Servers and virtualisation:
Windows Server, Hyper-V, VMware ESXi, vCenter, Dell EMC and HPE Pro Liant Collaboration and productivity:
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace for Education Identity and access:
Active Directory, Microsoft Entra , Azure AD and IAM Cloud Endpoint and device management:
Autopilot, SCCM, Intune, Google Endpoint Management, JAMF, Lightspeed and MDM platforms Apple management: macOS, iPadOS, iOS and JAMF Storage and backup: SAN, NAS, Storage Spaces Direct and Redstor Remote access and communications: RDS, VPN, 3CX and Microsoft Teams Security, filtering, safeguarding and compliance technology aligned with DfE, NCSC, Cyber Essentials and KCSIE expectations WHAT WERE LOOKING FOR Significant consulting, pre-sales or architecture experience across infrastructure, cloud, network, security or education technology Strong experience working in an MSP or similarly multi-customer technical environment Strong architecture capability, including the ability to apply design principles and reference architectures to end-to-end solutions Broad technical awareness across infrastructure and cloud, with particular depth in at least one key domain: network, cloud, identity, security or endpoint management Experience leading complex discovery and translating ambiguous customer requirements into clear, practical solutions Excellent presentation and stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to influence senior decision-makers Demonstrable experience…