Job DescriptionThe Presales Cybersecurity Senior Solutions Engineer - Federal serves as an integral part of the sales cycle, owning the technical aspects required to achieve a successful technical outcome for the customer. This role partners closely with sales, customers, and OEM partners to design and position complex cybersecurity solutions aligned to customer mission needs and modern security architectures.
This is a remote position with expected travel of approximately 20-30%
Responsibilities
- Attending and supporting sales meetings with Federal Customers, account teams, and OEM partners
- Leading technical discovery and consultative solution discussions
- Translating customer mission objectives, risks drivers, compliance requirements, and operatings constraints into actionable technical strategies
- Designing and positioning cybersecurity solutions aligned to Zero Trust, Federal modernization priorities, and customer-specific architectures
- Discussing modern cybersecurity strategies with executive, mission, acquisition, and deeply technical customer audiences
- Performing technology demonstrations, solution walkthroughs, whiteboarding sessions, and technical presentations
- Supporting account teams in shaping technical strategy prior to RFI, RFP, or acquisition release
- Coordinating with OEM partners to build joint technical strategies, demonstrations, and customer-specific value propositions
- Supporting customer workshops, technical roadmaps, proof-of-concept planning, and solution validation activities
- Attaining and maintaining applicable technical certifications
This requisition is intended to support candidates with a strong presales cybersecurity foundation who can also serve as either an Identity Subject Matter Expert or an AI Security / AI Enablement Subject Matter Expert. Candidates do not need to meet both specialization areas but should bring deep expertise in at least one.
Basic Qualifications- US Citizen
- Willingness to permit a Background Check
- Bachelor's Degree or equivalent professional experience
- Demonstrated pre-sales experience owning technical discovery, solution design, and customer-facing technical engagements
- Expert-level understanding of Zero Trust architecture, including the ability to design and articulate security strategies across Identity, Device, Network, Application/Workload, and Data pillars
- Strong experience translating customer mission requirements, security risks, and operational constraints into actionable technical solutions
- Excellent presentation, written, and verbal communication skills, including the ability to engage executive and deeply technical audiences
- Strong time management skills with the ability to manage multiple active opportunities
- Desire and ability to rapidly learn and apply new commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies
- Ability to articulate advanced security concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- 10+ years of combined experience across cybersecurity, IT operations, networking, or sales engineering roles
- Passion to hustle, collaborate, and operate as a trusted technical advisor
- A reasonable sense of humor
Additional Qualifications- Prior experience supporting Federal government customers, including Federal civilian, DoD, or IC environments
- Strong working knowledge of identity and access management (IAM/ICAM) concepts and technologies
- Experience shaping technical scope and strategy prior to RFP release
- Experience coordinating with OEM partners to develop joint technical strategies and demonstrations
- Hands-on experience with one or more technologies on Blackwood's partner line card
- Moderate experience across technologies such as Splunk, Gigamon, Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, CyberArk, or Okta
- Experience designing or delivering customer-specific technical demonstrations or lab-based proof of concepts
- Some network or systems administration background
- Programming or scripting experience (e.g., Python, Perl, etc.)
- Contributions to technical thought leadership such as blogs, whitepapers, technical talks, webinars, or industry events
