Pre-Sales Solutions Architecture Lead

Purpose & Mission

To establish global pre-sales architecture standards and processes, the early-stage design and validation of client solutions that enable confident, fast, and high-quality pre-sales.
The goal is to make pre-sales architecture a shared responsibility across senior technical staff and a recognised growth path for consultants.

To create a structured, collaborative, and scalable approach to pre-architecture that:

• Improves how we engage with clients in early solution design

• Develops repeatable methods, processes, and reusable assets (so pre-sales is repeatable, lower effort, more accurate)

• Connects pre-sales architects across all regions into one active group.

Core difference vs the current model

• Pre-sales architecture is part of seniority, not a favour
  Starting at Lead Consultant, contributing to pre-sales architecture and client pre-sales work is an expected element of seniority. Establish that participation in pre-architecture is a requirement for progression from Lead to higher levels.

• Pre-sales architecture is structured and measurable
  Logged in Ruddr, planned, and visible to leadership — not ad-hoc extra effort. Always with a code.

• Consistency
  Standardisation of diagramming, notation, and architectural patterns ensures every pre-sales engagement looks and feels professional, similar, regardless of region.

• Group
  The pre-sales architecture group connects experts globally, sharing learnings, reusable content, and proven approaches.

Key Responsibilities of the Pre-Sales Architecture Lead1. Build, Lead, and Coordinate the Global Pre-Sales Architecture group

• Bring together architects from the Americas, EMEA, and the UK under one shared working model

• Run recurring syncs to review new opportunities, lessons learned, and reusable patterns

• Engage consultants across levels to contribute to pre-sales activities

• Define how to enforce the structure and have people engaged (so everyone is participating, not necessarily one person doing all the pre-sales work)

  • ie, each pre-sales architect can step out from the billable engagement to do pre-sales work. To be coordinated with some advance with the PM/Delivery lead

2. Define and Roll Out a Standard Pre-Sales Architecture Process

(Primary objective for the first 3 months)

• Design and document a standard pre-sales architecture process covering

  • Opportunity qualification, scoping, and estimation

  • Client discovery and validation steps

  • Deliverable standards and handoffs to Sales or Delivery

• Create standard templates for proposals, discovery notes, and architecture outlines.

• Pilot the process with selected sales teams and refine based on outcomes

• Define and enforce common diagramming and notation standards ( ie, standardised visual style, icons, and layer structure for solution diagrams)

• Build and maintain a registry of common architecture patterns — covering reference architectures, reusable blocks (e.g., streaming pipeline, AI model deployment), and best practices

• Maintain a registry of projects and make the pre-sales group aware of all we've built

• Ensure that every pre-sales architecture engagement contributes back to this registry for future reuse

• Provide lightweight training and guidance for consistent visual communication across teams and proposals.

• Process of handovers to other pre-sales architects so they can resume the conversations with clients

4. Engagement Management

• Coordinate and assign pre-sales architecture support across the group (trackable via Ruddr codes).

• Provide transparency between Sales, Delivery, and Architecture on who is involved in each opportunity.

5. Training

• Organises internal enablement sessions on:

  • Leading a pre-sales discovery

  • Translating technical concepts into business value

  • Creating clear, standardised solution diagrams and visuals

6. Recognition and Incentives

• Build a recognition mechanism (ie, Pre-Sales Architecture Kudos or community leaderboard).

• Collaborate with HR and leadership to ensure pre-sales architecture work is visible in performance reviews.

• Highlight standout contributions to the architecture registry or key deal wins.

7. Provide quarterly updates to leadership

• Number of opportunities supported and regions covered,

• Adoption of standard templates and diagramming styles,

• Registry growth (number of reusable assets and patterns),

• Wins and lessons learned

• Identify blockers (e.g., lack of available time or unclear process) and propose mitigations.

8. Identify projects that overrun

• Find the reasons for the overrun, and if connected to pre-sales, improve the process

Time Allocation for the Pre-sales Architecture Lead

• 70–80% billable

• 20–30% non-billable to allow Leadership work (Initially 50% and then lower after it is established)

Expected Outcomes (6–12 Months)

• A fully operational pre-sales architecture group spanning all regions

• A standardized pre-sales architecture process and registry of templates, patterns, and diagram conventions

• Clear visibility of pre-sales architecture work through Ruddr codes

• min 50% of Lead Consultants engaged in pre-sales activity

• Noticeable improvement in proposal turnaround time, win rates, and internal collaboration (baseline needs to be created first)

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