Senior Network Administrator - Technical Pre-Sales

Position Summary

We are seeking a customer-focused Senior Network Administrator - Technical Pre-Sales to join our System Integration business. The role blends senior network engineering with pre-sales and solution architecture, acting as the key technical interface between customers, vendors, and internal teams across the full pre-sales lifecycle. Strong hands-on networking expertise combined with confident customer engagement is essential.

Key Responsibilities

• Network Engineering & Administration Design, configure, and troubleshoot enterprise LAN/WAN/WLAN/SD-WAN/VPN and security environments. Manage routing (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP), VLANs, STP, LACP, QoS, ACLs, NAT, DHCP/DNS, IPv4/IPv6. Monitor performance, lead root-cause analysis, support migrations/upgrades, and provide L2/L3 support.
• Technical Pre-Sales & Solution Design Qualify opportunities and gather requirements through customer meetings and workshops. Prepare HLDs, LLDs, architecture diagrams, BOMs, proposals, SOWs, and compliance matrices. Respond to RFPs/RFQs/RFIs, present solutions, run demos and PoCs, and support negotiations.
• Vendor & Partner Management Engage vendors (Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Aruba/HPE, Juniper, VMware, Microsoft, AWS, Azure) for validation, sizing, and specifications. Track product roadmaps/certifications and build strong partner relationships.
• Tender & Proposal Management Lead technical components of tenders and major proposals, including compliance responses and risk flagging. Coordinate internal and vendor input and support bid reviews and approvals.
• Project & Delivery Handover Hand over requirements, architecture, scope, BOM, and risks to Project Managers. Support implementation teams with technical clarification and design reviews.
• Group-Level Collaboration Collaborate with Group companies and IT/cybersecurity/cloud teams on cross-business opportunities. Identify cross-sell opportunities across Group entities.

Required Technical Skills

• Networking: LAN/WAN, routing & switching (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP), VLANs, STP/RSTP/MSTP, LACP, QoS, IPv4/IPv6, DHCP/DNS, NAT, subnetting.
• Security: NGFW, IPS/IDS, site-to-site & remote VPN, IPsec/SSL VPN, segmentation, ACLs, NAC.
• Enterprise Tech: SD-WAN, enterprise Wi-Fi, network monitoring, HA/redundancy, load balancing, data center & cloud networking.
• Cloud: Azure/AWS networking, hybrid connectivity, network automation, SDN concepts (advantage).

Technical Pre-Sales Competencies

• Conduct technical discovery and develop solution architectures.
• Produce professional HLD/LLD, BOMs, proposals, and tender responses.
• Present and demo solutions; explain complex technology in business terms.

Education & Certifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications, or related field. Preferred certifications: Cisco CCNP/CCNA, Fortinet FCP, Palo Alto, Aruba/HPE, Juniper, Microsoft Azure, AWS, or ITIL.

Experience Requirements

6-10+ years in network engineering, administration, infrastructure, or technical pre-sales.2-4 years of customer-facing pre-sales/solution design experience preferred. Background with a System Integrator, MSP, IT services company, or technology vendor is highly desirable.

Behavioral & Soft Skills

Excellent communication, presentation, and negotiation skills. Strong analytical, documentation, and problem-solving ability. Commercially aware, solution-oriented, and able to manage multiple priorities independently. Collaborative across Sales, Projects, Operations, Finance, and Group functions; willing to travel.

Key Performance Indicators

Proposal quality and technical win rate; quality of HLD/LLD/BOM documentation. Successful PoCs and demos; customer satisfaction; accuracy of sizing and scope. Smooth pre-sales-to-delivery handover; vendor/partner engagement. Contribution to new solutions and strategic Group opportunities.

Ideal Candidate Profile

A Senior Network Engineer/Administrator who has evolved into a customer-facing Solutions Engineer or Technical Pre-Sales professional - equally comfortable troubleshooting a complex network, designing a solution, preparing the BOM and proposal, presenting to customers, and handing over to delivery. Ideal for someone progressing toward a Solutions Architect or Head of Solutions career path.