A Pre Sales Solution Consultant helps customers understand how digital services, technology and specialist capability can solve real business and public service problems. The role combines technical credibility, consulting judgement, commercial awareness and strong communication skills to shape high-quality, deliverable solutions that customers can trust and Kainos can confidently deliver. 

Working across the sales lifecycle, the Pre Sales Technical Consultant partners with Sales, Bid, Delivery, Architecture, Engineering and specialist SMEs to understand customer needs, shape credible propositions, lead solution input into bids and support customer engagement through workshops, demonstrations, presentations and proofs of concept. 

This is a client-facing role for someone who can operate confidently with senior customer stakeholders while knowing when to bring in deeper expertise. The successful candidate will be able to ask the right questions, draw on the right people, challenge assumptions and turn complex ideas into clear, commercially viable and compelling solutions. 

Core purpose of the role 

The core purpose of the Pre Sales Technical Consultant is to shape and communicate credible digital solutions that address customer problems, support successful sales outcomes and create a strong bridge between customer outcomes, commercial proposition and delivery reality. 

Key responsibilities 

Build trusted customer and stakeholder relationships 

• Build trusted relationships with senior customer stakeholders, acting as a credible advisor during early engagement and opportunity development. 

• Communicate complex technical and delivery concepts in clear, accessible language for executive, commercial and technical audiences. 

• Facilitate customer workshops, briefings, presentations, demonstrations and proofs of concept that bring proposed solutions to life. 

• Work collaboratively with Sales and account teams to identify opportunities, strengthen customer engagement and support progression through the sales lifecycle. 

Understand customer problems and shape viable solutions 

• Lead discovery conversations, workshops and early solution shaping activity to understand customer goals, pain points, constraints and success measures. 

• Translate customer needs into practical, credible and commercially viable digital solutions, balancing ambition with delivery feasibility, risk and value. 

• Help customers understand the opportunities, benefits, risks and trade-offs associated with different technology and delivery options. 

Lead technical solutions in bids and proposals 

• Own the technical solution narrative for bids, proposals, frameworks and competitive opportunities, working closely with Bid, Sales and Delivery colleagues. 

• Use expert input to strengthen solution quality, estimation, risk management and customer confidence. 

• Protect delivery credibility by challenging proposals that are unclear, over-extended or not aligned to available capability 

• Develop high-quality written responses that explain the proposed solution, its value, how it will be delivered and why it is credible. 

• Lead or contribute to solution reviews, challenging assumptions and ensuring proposed commitments are realistic, differentiated and deliverable. 

• Coordinate technical, delivery and commercial inputs without over-relying on delivery teams or creating unnecessary pre sales burden. 

• Ensure win themes, customer outcomes and technical differentiators are clearly reflected in bid responses and presentations. 

Develop reusable assets and sales enablement material 

• Create reusable assets to support customer engagement and future sales, e.g. solution patterns, proposal content, case studies, demonstrations, briefing materials and workshop approaches. 

• Contribute to the development of credible propositions that respond to customer demand and reflect market, technology and delivery trends. 

• Turn learning from bids, customer conversations and delivery outcomes into improved content, stronger narratives and more repeatable sales approaches. 

• Work with marketing, sales and capability teams to ensure external messaging is accurate, compelling and grounded in deliverable capability. 

Stay current with technology, market and industry trends 

• Maintain a strong awareness of relevant technology developments and industry trends. 

• Share relevant insight with Sales, Delivery and specialist communities to support better customer engagement and future growth. 

Essential experience and skills 

• Experience in technical pre sales, solution consulting, solution architecture, business development or a closely related client-facing digital services role. 

• Proven ability to understand customer problems and shape practical, commercially viable technology or digital service solutions. 

• Experience contributing to or owning solution input for bids, proposals, tenders, frameworks or complex sales opportunities. 

• Strong written communication skills, with the ability to produce clear, persuasive and well-structured bid responses and customer-facing material. 

• Strong presentation, facilitation and stakeholder engagement skills, including the ability to work credibly with senior customer stakeholders. 

• Broad understanding of digital delivery, technology trends, agile delivery approaches and how presales decisions affect delivery teams, commercials and customer outcomes. 

• Ability to collaborate effectively with architects, engineers, delivery specialists, sales teams and bid teams, drawing on expert input while maintaining a coherent solution narrative. 

• Commercial awareness, including an understanding of value, risk, effort, delivery feasibility and how proposed solutions support business growth. 

• Ability to manage multiple opportunities, deadlines and stakeholder inputs in a high-pressure sales environment. 

Attributes and behaviours 

• Curious and customer-focused, with a strong desire to understand problems before proposing solutions. 

• Technically credible without needing to be the deepest specialist in every area. 

• Confident in challenging constructively where a solution, estimate or commitment may not be credible or deliverable. 

• Collaborative and pragmatic, able to bring people together across sales, delivery and specialist teams. 

• Clear and concise communicator who can adapt style for different audiences. 

• Commercially minded, with the judgement to balance customer value, growth opportunity, delivery realism and risk. 

• Proactive in building reusable material, sharing insight and improving the quality of future presales activity.