Federal Principal FSA

Description

At CDW, we make it happen, together. Trust, connection, and commitment are at the heart of how we work together to deliver for our customers. It's why we're coworkers, not just employees. Coworkers who genuinely believe in supporting our customers and one another. We collectively forge our path forward with a level of commitment that speaks to who we are and where we're headed. We're proud to share our story and Make Amazing Happen at CDW.

Summary

The Principal Field Solution Architect (FSA) role focuses on pre-sales solution design with a specialized emphasis on cybersecurity solutions for the Federal Government. This role is responsible for working with internal and external sales teams to plan and organize sales strategies tailored to federal agencies. The incumbent analyzes the sales environment including customer expectations, competitive environment as well as the customer's technical environment-particularly in cybersecurity, cloud architecture, and zero-trust networks-and define actions to be performed in the sales cycle timeframe. The Principal FSA is a field-based technical presales role. They are expected to spend most of their time onsite at CDW customer locations in their local markets, including federal sites. The Principal FSA develops and maintains strategic relationships with Sales Management of the teams they support and are seen as a trusted advisor to grow business. The Principal FSA is expected to be subject matter expert in multiple families of solutions, with deep expertise in federal cybersecurity. The Principal FSA is responsible for driving a variety of initiatives and projects, coaches and/or mentors other FSAs; and strategically works with sales, partners and customers to uncover and increase emerging business opportunities. The Principal FSA takes a lead role in defining, developing, and supporting solutions and new technologies; prepares the team to be successful through proactive training, sharing knowledge, and communicating best practices. The incumbent in this role operates independently using standard approaches, existing tools, templates, and resources; sharing knowledge and information that may benefit the team.

Key Areas of Responsibility

Technology Leadership:

• Acquires deep technical depth in their role; Is the "Go To" person for the solution, both technically and strategically; is on the forefront of their solution(s) and the implications for CDW offerings.
• Performs a lead role in executing the "Go-to-Market" for new offerings.
• Is a passionate learner who demonstrates continuous learning by proactively expanding technical depth in products, solutions, and services, including cybersecurity, cloud architecture, and zero-trust networks. If pertinent, achieves certifications in advanced technologies for CDW's Partner Certification Requirements.
• Designs technical solutions not only considering the customer's infrastructure but also the business limitations and opportunities; operates comfortably beyond standard approaches to satisfy the needs of all the stakeholders; analyzes, interprets, and presents assessment results, with a focus on federal cybersecurity compliance.
• Reviews peer's designs for quality and accuracy.
• Determines and defines services that complement and/or round out proposed hardware and software engagements, estimates required engineer effort.
• Operates beyond a 'self' focus for the benefit of the team and the practice to better CDW's technology leadership, execution, and overall relevance to our customers; develops standardized templates of deliverables, including the SOW framework, tools, demo lab and scripts, and services calculation (Calc); provides leadership to equip CDW to deliver the solution at a high level of quality.
• Uses team tools, templates, resources, and processes for maximum efficiency, productivity, consistency, and high-quality execution.
• Communicates and trains the team on changes in technologies, procedures, solution implementations and approaches.
• Provides feedback to technology leaders where opportunities exist to improve offerings, design, and delivery execution.
• Develops training materials for team members to use with CDW audiences.
• Conducts technology/solutions training for CDW audiences (e.g., Sales, Inside Solution Architects), using developed material.
• Promotes a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration by organizing knowledge bases, contributing regularly, and encouraging team members to contribute.
• Contributes to the team's knowledge base and readily shares knowledge with other FSAs, Inside Solution Architects, and Sales.
• Coaches and mentors team members to improve their technical, consulting, and sales skills.
• Acts as a resource to FSAs for advice and recommendations on technical design issues and product choices.
• Assists new team members by answering questions and sharing expertise on the tools of the job.
• Conducts technical assessment and expertise evaluations during the candidate selection process.
• Assist managers with new hire FSAs', leads shadow assignments; proactively provides assistance and guidance to new hires to accelerate productivity.
• Assists new hires by answering questions and sharing information.

Sales:

Follows up on implemented solutions and identifies new opportunities that complement the work that was completed.

Advises team members and sales prior to customer calls and/or sales strategy sessions.

Researches and reviews customer profile information; applies knowledge of the vertical to develop customer intimacy prior to sales calls and/or strategy sessions, especially within federal agencies.

Assists customer in understanding their equipment maintenance contracts, upgrade needs, and renewals; analyzes the most cost-effective approach for the customer (e.g., renew the contract or purchase new equipment and contract).

Incorporates financing (through manufacturer or third party) as part of the sales proposal and discussion; looks beyond the current infrastructure/problem toward a three to five year roadmap.

Uses various tools to calculate the Total Cost of Ownership and/or Return on Investment and explains to customers and Sales the business value of a solution and its benefits.

Articulates to customers the ITS Practice (Integrated Technology Solutions) value proposition to customers, account managers, and partners and uses it to generate additional revenue opportunities to CDW.

Guides (compares and contrasts) customers in their decision making within all tiers of CDW technologies (e.g., Cisco vs. McAfee/Juniper) as well as with external competing technologies/solutions (e.g. Dell vs. NetApp/EMC); influences, guides and partners with customers to develop their IT strategy, with emphasis on federal cybersecurity needs.

Initiates new event ideas; collaborates with Partners and Sales to design events that can be replicated by other FSAs; secures funding to support CDW customer events; drives attendance to sponsored events, including federal industry conferences.

Delivers presentations and conducts sales conversations with confidence and credibility to C-level clients, both in small meeting and large group formats.

Leads business-focused technology solution presentations at CDW, Customer, and Partner events and meetings in your territory.

Develops presentation content for the team.

Uses technology assessments and demos as a sales tool for furthering sales opportunities; identifies cross sell-and/or up-sell opportunities for an engagement, equips/assists FSAs and Sales to pursue it.

Develops assessments improvements and demos for FSAs to use as sales tools, identifies new ideas for cross-sell opportunities, teaches FSAs in Sales on how to use these tools.

Collaborates with Partners, Inside Solution Architects (ISA) and Account Executives (AE) to drive mapped opportunities; fine tunes strategies and approaches to achieve greater sales results.

Operates in a regular cadence with multiple partners to educate, plan, and execute on joint strategies in collaboration with multiple stakeholders (ISA, AE, Sales Managers, Field Sales); understands partner alignment in geography and leads customer opportunity mapping exercises; coordinates on-site partner visits.

Develops a detailed and ambitious Territory Plan in collaboration with Partners, AEs, and ISAs and uses it to manage their business.

Understands profit margin and how to increase profitability; works cooperatively with field sales to ensure healthy profitability. Leverages and maximizes partner pricing, partner registration programs, incentive programs, and special pricing, to win business and ensure healthy profitability, provides input on pricing to Account Managers, Field Sales, FSAs, and Partners to increase margin and deal size and position CDW for future opportunities; negotiates pricing with Partners.

Produces marketing-type documents and materials (e.g., presentation) to customer in territory.

Responds to questions about partner registrations, associated registration issues, and customer engagement history.

Prioritizes time spent on opportunities based on potential return on investment.

Produces Bills of Materials, including product maintenance; writes Statements of Work (including work estimates), RFPs, RFIs, and proposal content.

Maintains pre-sales pipeline data, develops plans, and takes actions to move opportunities to closure.

Develop comprehensive pre-sales security strategies tailored to the Federal Government's needs.

Build and maintain relationships with key government stakeholders to understand their security needs and propose appropriate solutions.

Collaborate with the sales team to provide technical expertise and security solutions during the pre-sales process.

Position security audits and assessments to help customers identify risks and formulate multi-year maturity strategies.

Provide strategic advice on security best practices and potential security enhancements.

Leverage broad IT knowledge to ensure cybersecurity solutions integrate effectively with existing infrastructure and applications.

Identify opportunities for business development within the federal cybersecurity sector.

Attend industry events and conferences to promote our cybersecurity solutions.

Stay updated on the latest commercial and Federal industry trends, threats, and security technologies.

Sales Support:

Responds to questions about partner registrations, associated registration issues, and customer engagement history.

- Prioritizes time spent on opportunities based on potential return on investment.

- Produces Bills of Materials, including product maintenance; writes Statements of Work (including work estimates), RFPs, RFIs, and proposal content.

- Maintains pre-sales pipeline data, develops plans, and takes actions to move opportunities to closure.

- Develop comprehensive pre-sales security strategies tailored to the Federal Government's needs.

- Build and maintain relationships with key government stakeholders to understand their security needs and propose appropriate solutions.

- Collaborate with the sales team to provide technical expertise and security solutions during the pre-sales process.

- Position security audits and assessments to help customers identify risks and formulate multi-year maturity strategies.

We make technology work so people can do great things.

CDW is a leading multi-brand provider of information technology solutions to business, government, education and healthcare customers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. A Fortune 500 company and member of the S&P 500 Index, CDW helps its customers to navigate an increasingly complex IT market and maximize return on their technology investments. Together, we unite. Together, we win. Together, we thrive.

CDW is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other basis prohibited by state and local law.