Sales Architect

Job Summary: The Sales Architect position provides advanced technical assistance and subject matter expertise to the sales organization, working in close partnership with Sales Engineers and Account Executives to support revenue generation. This role will be customer-facing focusing on complex solution validation, technical discovery, proposal support, and technical engagements, ensuring that customer needs are aligned with solutions supported by Blackfoot Communications. The Sales Engineer 2 participates throughout the technical sales lifecycle, including lead qualification, service availability requests (SARs), opportunity development, proposal creation, presentation support, and installation oversight to project completion. This role requires the ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, internally and externally.

Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities:
• Attend meetings with prospective and existing customers to support technical discovery and solution alignment alongside the sales team.
• Assist in assessing customer network requirements and identifying appropriate solutions within the Blackfoot product and service portfolio.
• Support presentations of solution options and technical alternatives, responding to technology-related customer inquiries.
• Perform proactive and recurring network assessments for enterprise customers and strategic accounts, including service performance reviews, security posture evaluations, QBRs, and identification of upgrade or expansion opportunities.
• Assist with the creation and delivery of technical presentations highlighting Blackfoot's value proposition, competitive differentiation, and relevant industry trends.
• Support responses to technical sections of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and Requests for Information (RFIs).
• Collaborate closely with network engineering, operations, and implementation coordination teams to ensure successful and timely customer deployments.
• Act as a technical liaison between Sales, Engineering, Implementation, and Product teams to ensure clear communication and efficient solution delivery.
• Maintain working relationships with vendor technical contacts and participate in vendor-specific training and certification programs.
• Provide internal feedback related to competitive offerings, customer requirements, and market trends to support product development and go-to-market strategies.

Additional Job Duties and Responsibilities:
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as required to fulfill the job function or as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Knowledge of:
• Company policies, procedures, and supported products and services.
• Telecommunications technologies and industry trends.
• IP telephony and unified communications architectures.
• OSI model and layered network design concepts.
• Complex IP networking, including MPLS, DWDM, and optical transport technologies.
• Wireless technologies (licensed and unlicensed).
• SD-WAN, SASE, MPLS, fiber, and copper Ethernet services.
• SIP trunking, firewall and network security principles, cloud computing.
• Microsoft Office applications and network design tools such as Visio.
• Sales engineering concepts, technical sales support processes, and customer solution design.

Skill to:
• Assess customer technical requirements and recommend appropriate solutions.
• Communicate technical concepts effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Create, edit, and finalize clear technical documentation and presentation materials.
• Design, document, and present technical solutions.
• Gather, analyze, and report technical and numerical data.

Ability to:
• Work independently while effectively collaborating with cross-functional teams.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with customers and internal stakeholders.
• Explain and position technical solutions aligned to customer business needs.
• Think analytically, solve complex technical problems, and manage multiple priorities.
• Communicate clearly and professionally in both written and verbal formats.
• Work accurately under deadlines and time constraints.
• Maintain confidentiality of company information.
• Provide excellent customer service and contribute to a positive, collaborative team environment.
• Obtain and maintain a valid State driver's license and meet company insurance requirements.

Education and Experience:

Any combination of education and experience equivalent to the following would qualify:
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Telecommunications, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 2-5 years of experience in sales engineering, network engineering, telecommunications, or a related technical sales support role.

Any noted minimum or maximum years of experience should not be construed as a requirement for consideration; this information is meant to be used as a suggested guideline.