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Job Summary

The Principal Solutions Architect is a senior technical leadership role within the EMEA Solutions Engineering team, focused on strategic customers and complex opportunities across the Financial Services & Insurance (FSI) vertical.

Working in partnership with Account Executives and technical teams across Equinix, the role leads technical discovery, qualification and solution architecture for major customer engagements. The Principal Solutions Architect develops highly customised architectures spanning Equinix data center, interconnection and digital services, customer environments and partner ecosystems.

Operating as a trusted technical advisor, the role influences senior customer stakeholders, including CIO and CTO-level executives, helping customers align infrastructure decisions with long-term technology strategies and transformation programmes.

The role contributes directly to sell-to bookings and quota attainment through the technical leadership of strategic opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Architecture & Solutioning

• Own the end-to-end technical strategy for complex strategic customers and opportunities.

• Lead technical discovery, qualification, architecture development and technical win strategy.

• Create global, highly customised architectures combining Equinix capabilities, customer environments and partner ecosystems at scale.

• Align solutions with customers' long-term technology strategies and multi-year transformation journeys.

• Lead major engagements spanning multiple services, technologies, regions and stakeholders.

• Deliver high-quality customer architecture, design recommendations and technical documentation.

Platform & Interconnection Value

• Position the differentiated value of Platform Equinix across data center, interconnection, digital services and relevant managed services.

• Articulate the strategic value of Equinix Fabric, physical interconnection and ecosystem connectivity.

• Develop architectures addressing networking, hybrid and multicloud, data adjacency and infrastructure modernisation use cases.

• Translate complex technical capabilities into clear customer and business outcomes.

• Leverage partner and industry ecosystems to extend customer solutions and unlock additional value.

Strategic & Executive Advisory

• Act as a trusted technical advisor to senior customer stakeholders, including CIO, CTO and senior architecture, infrastructure, network and cloud leaders.

• Influence strategic customer architecture decisions and technology roadmaps with credibility and authority.

• Lead architecture workshops and executive-level technical discussions.

• Provide objective advice on architecture options, dependencies, risks and trade-offs.

• Help customers connect immediate infrastructure decisions with longer-term strategic objectives.

Technical Leadership & Orchestration

• Lead cross-functional and global technical teams for strategic opportunities and complex customer requirements.

• Lead technical "tiger teams" where requirements span multiple products, partners, regions or technical domains.

• Orchestrate distributed Equinix, partner and customer teams around a common architecture and technical strategy.

• Provide leadership where requirements are ambiguous or no established solution pattern exists.

• Mentor Solutions Engineers and Architects and contribute to the development of technical best practices and reusable architecture patterns.

FSI Industry, Market & Product Influence

• Maintain strong knowledge of the EMEA Financial Services & Insurance technology landscape and apply this context to customer architecture engagements.

• Identify repeatable FSI infrastructure, interconnection and ecosystem use cases.

• Capture emerging customer requirements, architecture trends and capability gaps.

• Provide strategic customer feedback to Product and Engineering teams to help influence future capabilities and services.

• Contribute thought leadership and knowledge across the wider Solutions Engineering organisation.

Qualifications & Experience

• 10+ years' relevant experience in Solutions Architecture, Solutions Engineering, technical presales or enterprise infrastructure architecture.

• Demonstrated experience leading complex, strategically important enterprise customer engagements.

• Strong technical background across data center infrastructure, networking, interconnection and hybrid/multicloud architecture.

• Experience developing architectures spanning multiple technology domains, locations, providers and partner capabilities.

• Proven ability to lead regional or global technical engagements and distributed teams.

• Experience influencing senior technical and executive stakeholders.

• Strong understanding of complex solution selling and the relationship between technical strategy and commercial outcomes.

• Financial Services & Insurance industry experience is strongly desirable.

• Familiarity with the Equinix portfolio and global platform is advantageous.

Skills & Attributes

• Exceptional strategic architecture and technical problem-solving capability.

• Ability to create complex, global architectures combining multiple services, technologies and partner ecosystems.

• Trusted-advisor presence and credibility with senior and executive customer stakeholders.

• Ability to lead and influence complex cross-functional teams without direct authority.

• Strong technical storytelling, presentation and written communication skills.

• Ability to simplify complex technical concepts and connect them to customer outcomes.

• Strong collaboration, stakeholder management and execution skills.

• Demonstrated ability to mentor others, share knowledge and raise technical standards.

• Continuous-learning, customer-focused and innovation-oriented mindset.

• Proven ability to shape high-impact architecture engagements that influence significant customer and sales outcomes.

Principal-Level Expectations

A Principal Solutions Architect is expected to have an impact beyond individual solutions and opportunities by:

• Architecting at scale across services, technologies, partners and geographies.

• Advising at executive level and influencing strategic customer roadmaps.

• Orchestrating complex global teams across Equinix, customers and partners.

• Shaping multi-year customer strategies, not just individual transactions.

• Influencing significant commercial outcomes through technical leadership.

• Scaling expertise by mentoring colleagues and developing reusable best practices.

• Influencing Equinix strategy and capabilities through insight from strategic customer engagements.

Equinix is committed to ensuring that our employment process is open to all individuals, including those with a disability.  If you are a qualified candidate and need assistance or an accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.

Equinix is an Equal Employment Opportunity and, in the U.S., an Affirmative Action employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to unlawful consideration of race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, place of birth, citizenship, sex, pregnancy / childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic partnership status, age, veteran or military status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, political / organizational affiliation, status as a victim or family member of a victim of crime or abuse, or any other status protected by applicable law. 

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