Presales Consultant Cloud & Data

Cloud Dubai, UAE Permanent Job Title: Presales Consultant Cloud \& Data

Job Purpose: The Presales Consultant — Cloud, Data \& AI owns the technical and commercial shaping of cloud, unified data, and AI opportunities across UAE/GCC enterprise accounts. This is a broader-than-title role: it combines classical technical presales (solution design, PoCs, RFP/RFI responses) with partner alliance management (Microsoft Solutions Partner program, AWS, OCI), deal-level commercial structuring using OEM funding programs, and hands-on delivery oversight and project management on won engagements. The consultant carries opportunities from qualification through architecture, commercial construction, and technical closure — and then stays accountable through delivery, acting as the continuity point between what was sold and what is delivered.

Qualification: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering

Certification:

• Required: at least one associate-level orhigher hyperscaler certification (e.g., AWS Solutions Architect,Azure Solutions Architect Expert / AI Engineer Associate).
• Preferred: AI-track certification (AWS AIPractitioner, Azure AI Engineer Associate) and Microsoft Fabric ordata-platform credentials.

Experience: 9+ Year

Responsibilities:

Technical Presales \& Solution Design

• Lead end-to-end technical presales for cloud, data, and AI opportunities: discovery, solution design, architecture proposals, effort estimation inputs, and bid defence.
• Own and author responses to RFPs, RFIs, and RFQs — coordinating inputs from delivery, security, and OEM partner teams into a coherent, compliant, and differentiated bid.
• Design and run client proofs of concept (PoCs) across Microsoft Fabric, cloud migration, and AI/analytics workloads to de-risk client decisions and accelerate deal progression.
• Produce Well-Architected reviews, cloud security-posture assessments, and migration/modernization roadmaps as billable or pipeline-generating presales assets.
• Present and defend architectures to client stakeholders from engineering teams up to CIO/CTO level.

Data \& AI Platform Architecture

• Architect Microsoft Fabric unified data platforms (Lakehouse, OneLake, Data Engineering, Power BI), consolidating fragmented client data estates into governed, analytics- and AI-ready foundations.
• Design and position Generative AI solutions on Azure AI / Azure OpenAI / Microsoft Copilot and AWS Bedrock — leading use-case discovery workshops, reference architectures, and AI governance guardrails.
• Embed cybersecurity and zero-trust principles (IAM, CSPM, data governance, landing-zone security) into every proposed architecture.

Partner Alliances \& OEM Program Management

• Own the Microsoft partner relationship operationally: maintain and advance Solutions Partner designations (currently four of six — Infrastructure, Data \& AI, Modern Work, Security) and advanced specializations (Azure Virtual Desktop achieved; Data \& AI specialization in progress), including skilling plans, customer-success evidence, and audit readiness.
• Manage day-to-day engagement with Microsoft, AWS, and OCI partner development managers — co-sell registrations, partner-led opportunity sharing, and quarterly business reviews.
• Identify and secure OEM incentives on live deals: MDF, co-op funds, partner-funded PoCs and assessments, and migration/deployment funding (e.g., Azure Migrate \& Modernize).

Deal Commercials \& Gross-Margin Optimization

• Structure deal-level commercials: solution BoM, licensing constructs (CSP/EA), services pricing inputs, and OEM program overlays that improve competitiveness and lift gross margin.
• Advise sales leadership on win-strategy and pricing posture per opportunity, including where funded propositions can replace discount-led competition.

Delivery Oversight \& Project Management

• Own the presales-to-delivery transition on won engagements: solution handover, scope baselining, statement-of-work alignment, and delivery kick-off — ensuring what was sold is what gets delivered.
• Act as project manager / delivery lead on selected client engagements: project planning, milestone and dependency tracking, RAID (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies) management, and resource coordination across internal delivery, client teams, and OEM/vendor resources.
• Run client-facing project governance: steering-committee updates, status reporting, change-request management, and escalation handling through to acceptance and closure.
• Manage scope and commercial discipline during delivery — protecting deal gross margin against scope creep and converting change requests into commercially governed additions.
• Feed delivery learnings back into presales assets: estimation models, reference architectures, and reusable delivery collateral.

Demand Generation, Events \& Evangelism

• Plan and deliver joint solution events and workshops with OEM partners (Microsoft, AWS) that generate qualified enterprise pipeline.
• Act as a technical evangelist for the practice: speaker-ready content, solution briefs, and first-call decks for the sales organization.
• Enable and mentor sales and inside-sales teams on cloud, data, and AI propositions and qualification criteria.

Mandatory:

• Hands-on solutioning depth on Microsoft Azure plusworking fluency across at least one other hyperscaler (AWS and/orOCI); hybrid and multi-cloud patterns.
• Demonstrated data-platform design experience —Microsoft Fabric (or Synapse/Databricks equivalents) — and practical GenAIpositioning (Azure OpenAI, Copilot, Bedrock).
• Proven RFP/RFI ownership and PoC leadership onenterprise deals; ability to write as well as present.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft partner programmechanics (Solutions Partner designations, specializations, incentives) and OEMfunding programs (MDF, ECIF, migration funding).
• Security-aware architecture practice: zero-trust,IAM, CSPM, landing zones; able to engage credibly with client security teams.
• Demonstrated delivery oversight orproject-management experience on enterprise cloud/data engagements — projectplanning, governance, RAID management, and client-facing status reporting;formal PM credentials (PMP, PRINCE2, Agile/Scrum) an advantage.
• Executive-level communication in English;consultative, non-adversarial engagement style suited to GCC enterpriseculture.