Solution Architect - Cisco & AI Infrastructure (Pre-sales)

Position summary:

This role focuses on scaling presales execution and delivery excellence for Cisco-aligned services. You will support US-based enterprise customers, Cisco sellers, and partners by owning solution design, POCs/POVs, and delivery oversight, while contributing to practice standardization and profitability. This is a hands-on architecture role, well-suited for professionals from system integrators, Cisco partners, or enterprise IT services backgrounds.

Key Responsibilities:

Presales & Solution Architecture

• Lead solution architecture and presales support for Cisco-aligned services and offerings
• Work closely with Cisco sales teams, partners, and US enterprise customers
• Own end-to-end solution design, including requirement gathering, architecture, and technical validation
• Create high-level and low-level designs aligned with customer business and technical needs

Technology Focus Areas

Design and architect solutions across:

• Cisco Data Center Technologies (required)
• Cisco UCS, Nexus switching, VXLAN and AI Topologies (Converged-rail, Rail-optimized, Dragonfly, etc)
• Virtualization and hybrid data center environments

AI Infrastructure (required)

• Cisco + NVIDIA based AI infrastructure
• Secure AI Factory concepts, GPU-based compute, high-performance networking
• Hybrid Cloud & Infrastructure (nice to have)
• On-prem + cloud integration (AWS/Azure/GCP - basic to intermediate level)
• Kubernetes setup and configuration

POCs, POVs & Commercial Support

• Support and guide POCs / POVs for enterprise customers
• Assist in effort estimation, BOM creation, pricing inputs, and SOW preparation
• Provide technical inputs for proposals, RFPs, and customer presentations

Delivery & Practice Contribution

• Partner with delivery engineers to ensure smooth handover and high-quality execution
• Spend ~25% of time on practice build activities, including:
• Solution SKUs and reference architectures
• Playbooks, best practices, and technical documentation
• Inputs for pricing models and standard offerings

Basic Qualifications:

Core Experience

• 8-15 years of experience in Solution Architecture / Presales / Technical Consulting
• Strong hands-on experience with Cisco Data Center technologies
• Experience working with US enterprise customers or global clients
• Background from Cisco partners, system integrators, MSPs, or IT services companies is highly preferred

Technical Skills

Strong understanding of:

• Cisco UCS, Nexus, ACI, VXLAN, EVPN, BGP, OSPF
• AI, Data center networking & compute architectures
• Hybrid cloud integration
• Exposure to AI Infrastructure (Cisco + NVIDIA, GPU workloads, AI clusters) is a strong plus
• Good understanding of enterprise security concepts
• Ability to translate business requirements into scalable technical architectures

Soft Skills

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Comfortable presenting to customers and senior stakeholders
• Strong problem-solving and collaboration mindset
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision

Preferred Qualifications:

Certifications

• Cisco CCIE - Preferred
• Cisco CCNP - Mandatory or strongly preferred
• NVIDIA, Cloud (AWS/Azure), or Security certifications - Nice to have