Key Responsibilities
Customer Engagement & Strategy
- Opportunity Qualification: Partner with Account Executives to technically qualify sales leads, ensuring alignment between client budgets, timelines, and our delivery capabilities.
- Requirement Gathering & Analysis: Lead deep-dive discovery sessions to uncover clients current security posture, pain points, regulatory compliance gaps, and business objectives.
- Customer Workshops & Assessments: Design and execute technical workshops and high-level maturity assessments to identify vulnerabilities and position relevant security frameworks.
Solution Architecture & Proposal Development
- Solution Architecture & Design: Architect robust, end-to-end cybersecurity solutions that integrate seamlessly into diverse client environments (on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud).
- RFI/RFP/RFQ Response Preparation: Own the technical response strategy for complex tenders, ensuring comprehensive compliance, competitive differentiation, and timely submission.
- Bill of Material (BoM) Creation: Engineer accurate, cost-optimized multi-vendor BoMs, leveraging vendor frameworks and discount structures to maximize profitability.
- Statement of Work (SoW) Preparation: Author highly detailed SoWs that define the exact project scope, technical deliverables, assumptions, milestones, and out-of-scope boundaries to mitigate delivery risk.
Technical Validation & Sales Enablement
- Technical Presentations & Demonstrations: Deliver high-impact technical presentations and tailored product demonstrations that clearly articulate the business value and ROI of the proposed architecture.
- Proof of Concept (PoC) Management: Define success criteria, scope, and execute PoCs and Proof of Values (PoVs) to technically validate solutions and overcome buyer hesitations.
- Vendor Coordination: Maintain strong relationships with strategic security vendors to stay ahead of product roadmaps, secure specialized deal pricing, and co-architect complex solutions.
- Project Handover to Delivery Teams: Lead comprehensive post-sale handover sessions with implementation and delivery teams to ensure flawless execution.
- Sales Enablement: Conduct internal training sessions for the broader sales team on new security technologies, vendor programs, and competitive displacement strategies.
Technical Competencies
The ideal candidate must demonstrate mid-to-senior level architectural and conceptual expertise across the following domains:
- Network & Edge Security: Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Forward/Reverse Proxy Solutions, Web Application Firewall (WAF), and DDoS Protection.
- Content & Endpoint Security: Next-Generation Endpoint Security, Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR), Extended Detection & Response (XDR), and Email Security ecosystems.
- Security Operations & Automation: Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR), Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) integration, and Vulnerability Management life cycles.
- Identity & Access Governance: Privileged Access Management (PAM), Identity and Access Management (IAM), and Directory Services.
- Modern Security Architectures: Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) design, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), and Security Service Edge (SSE).
- Cloud & Data Security: Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), Cloud Workload Protection (CWPP), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and data encryption/masking strategies.
Preferred Vendor Knowledge
While platform-agnostic architectural skills are essential, practical presales or implementation experience with a combination of the following vendor ecosystems is highly valued:
- Next-Gen Firewall & SASE: Palo Alto Networks (Strata/Prisma), Fortinet (FortiGate/FortiSASE)
- Endpoint & XDR: Paloalto, Trend Micro, CrowdStrike
- Network Visibility & NDR: ExtraHop, Darktrace, Vectra AI, Trellix
- Application & Edge Delivery: F5 (BIG-IP, Distributed Cloud), Cloudflare
- Email Security: Proofpoint, Fortinet, Trellix
- Identity & Privileged Access: Delinea, Xage, BeyondTrust
- Cloud Security & SSE: Zscaler, Netskope
- Vulnerability Management: Tenable, Trellix
Qualifications & Certifications
Academic Background
- Required: Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in Computer Science, Cyber Security, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, or a closely related technical field.
Professional Certifications
Candidates are expected to hold, or be actively pursuing, certifications that validate both broad security knowledge and vendor-specific expertise:
- Core Security Knowledge: CISSP (preferred), CISM, or CCSP.
- Technical Foundations: CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) or CompTIA Security+.
- Vendor-Specific Tracks: Fortinet NSE (Level 4 or higher), Palo Alto Networks PCNSE, or Cisco Security Certifications (CCNP Security).
Experience Requirements
- Presales Expertise: At least 3–5 years dedicated to a customer-facing Cyber Security Presales role, driving technical wins within a System Integrator or Value-Added Reseller (VAR).
- Consulting & Design: Proven track record of conducting security consultations and building defense-in-depth enterprise architectures.
- Tendering Proficiency: Demonstrable experience independently managing, writing, and winning high-value RFP/RFI responses for both commercial enterprises and public sector/government entities.
- Sector Exposure: Significant experience navigating the distinct procurement processes, compliance requirements, and stakeholder landscapes of enterprise corporations and government agencies.
Soft Skills & Leadership Attributes
- Executive Presentation Skills: Ability to command a room, articulating highly technical, granular security risks into clear, business-driven outcomes for C-level executives.
- Communication & Relationship Management: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills; a natural ability to build rapport and establish long-term technical credibility with clients.
- Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving: Methodical approach to deconstructing chaotic, poorly defined client environments into structured, secure, and compliant architectures.
- Collaboration & Time Management: Ability to self-manage tight tender deadlines, multi-task across concurrent sales opportunities, and collaborate seamlessly across cross-functional teams (Sales, Delivery, Finance, Vendors).
- Leadership Potential: Drive to mentor junior presales engineers, take ownership of specific technology practices, and champion internal process improvements.
