Service Provider Architect (Splunk Centric Role)

Splunk Platform and AI Architecture

About the role

We are seeking an experienced Service Provider Architect to help shape how telecommunications and service provider organisations use data, AI, observability, security, and automation to transform network and business operations. You will combine deep service provider industry knowledge with practical experience using the Splunk data platform to build and demonstrate customer use cases. You will help customers move from data and operational challenges to working solutions across network operations, service assurance, security, observability, automation, fraud and customer experience.

This is an advisory and thought-leadership role. It is not a traditional product specialist, presales engineering, or delivery position. You will help customers connect business outcomes to the collection, management, analysis, and operationalisation of data across complex service provider environments.

What You'll Do

• Engage service provider executives and senior technical stakeholders to understand strategic priorities, operational challenges, and transformation goals.
• Shape data and AI strategies for network operations, service assurance, customer experience, automation, security, and business operations.
• Design and communicate solution architectures spanning telemetry, observability, security data, network data, enterprise data platforms, analytics, and AI.
• Translate complex service provider challenges into practical platform strategies, investment roadmaps, and adoption plans.
• Demonstrate how data platforms such as Splunk can help organisations improve visibility, reduce operational complexity, accelerate incident response, and enable data-driven decisions.
• Work closely with account teams, sales specialists, solution engineers, customer success, professional services, partners, and product teams.
• Enable field teams and customers through workshops, executive briefings, architecture sessions, demonstrations, and industry engagements.
• Identify repeatable patterns and differentiated use cases across 5G, cloud, OSS/BSS, network automation, observability, cybersecurity, and customer experience.
• Contribute to thought leadership through customer presentations, white papers, industry forums, and events such as TM Forum and Mobile World Congress.
• Bring external market, technology, and customer insights back into business strategy, solution development, and field enablement.

What You'll Bring

• Significant experience in the telecommunications or service provider industry, with strong credibility across network, cloud, operations, assurance, automation, security, or customer experience domains.
• The ability to communicate effectively with service provider executives, enterprise architects, network architects, NOC/SOC leaders, operations teams, and engineering organisations.
• Experience developing or influencing complex solution architectures in large-scale, multi-domain environments.
• A strong understanding of data platforms, data architecture, telemetry, observability, analytics, AI, or security data solutions.
• The ability to connect business outcomes and operational challenges to platform capabilities and architecture decisions.
• Strong executive presence, consulting skills, storytelling ability, and confidence leading strategic customer conversations.
• Experience working across sales, presales, product, engineering, delivery, and customer success teams.
• A curious, collaborative, and commercially minded approach, with the ability to operate across both strategic and technical conversations.
• Willingness to represent the organisation externally and stay current with service provider industry trends, standards, and emerging technologies.

Desirable Experience

• Experience with Splunk or other enterprise data, observability, analytics, cloud, or security platforms.
• Knowledge of Cisco technologies and service provider architectures.
• Experience with 5G, network functions virtualisation, cloud-native networking, OSS/BSS, network automation, or service assurance.
• Familiarity with TM Forum frameworks, Open APIs, industry standards, or service provider transformation programmes.
• Experience advising customers on platform adoption, operating models, data governance, or transformation roadmaps.
• Background in enterprise architecture, consulting, technical sales, solution architecture, or senior customer advisory roles.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role will be demonstrated by:

• Establishing trusted relationships with senior service provider stakeholders.
• Creating differentiated data and AI architecture strategies that address real operational and business priorities.
• Influencing customer adoption of modern data platform capabilities.
• Enabling account teams and partners to have stronger, more strategic customer conversations.
• Building repeatable service provider use cases and architecture patterns.
• Strengthening the organisation’s position as a thought leader in service provider data-driven transformation.

The ideal candidate can move comfortably from a product discussion, to an industry conversation, to an enterprise data and transformation strategy and when time comes should be able to build prototypes.

Why Cisco? 

At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere. 

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.