Technical Solutions Architect

YOUR ROLE

The Technical Solutions Architect is the technical backbone of Kion's customer engagements — from the first proof-of-concept through successful adoption. This is a role for someone who gets an itch when a hard problem is in front of them and doesn't stop until they've figured it out.

The role sits at the intersection of pre-sales and post-sales, with a heavier lean toward pre-sales. In practice that looks like a 60/40 or 70/30 split — POVs, custom demos, deployment support, and technical discovery on the front end; onboarding, complex configurations, and support on the back end. As the post-sales side of the team matures and scales, the emphasis on pre-sales deepens.

You'll work alongside Solutions Engineers during evaluations, owning the technical workstream - configuring real environments, building integrations that stretch what customers think is possible, and solving the infrastructure challenges that stand between a prospect saying "interesting" and "let's do this."

But the most important thing you'll do isn't technical. It's leaving every call with the customer feeling taken care of — even when the problem isn't solved yet. People buy from people they trust, and a great SA can compensate for a lot through presence, follow-through, and genuine care for the customer's outcome.

Why this role matters: You're the person who makes Kion feel inevitable to a prospect. Not by pitching, but by showing up technically prepared, solving problems live, and building confidence through action.

YOUR DAY-TO-DAY:

At Kion, everyone shows up for what's needed. That's part of what makes the team effective and the growth real! Expect meaningful context switching between internal and external work, pre-sales and post-sales, strategic and tactical. If you thrive when no two days look the same, this is the right seat.

• Partner with Solutions Engineers during evaluations to own the technical workstream — validating architectures, resolving blockers, and demonstrating real-world configurations in customer environments.
• Sit in the customer's seat: understand their pre-existing environment (networking rules, SCPs, IAM policies, compliance constraints) and figure out how to make Kion work within it — not around it.
• Build and maintain custom demos, proof-of-concepts, and integrations that stretch what customers think is possible with Kion.
• Script and automate Kion OU structures, in-app configurations, and cloud account setups to accelerate both evaluations and onboardings.
• Install and configure Kion across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud environments — including complex, restricted, or air-gapped deployments.
• Troubleshoot environment, network, and configuration issues under pressure and communicate clearly with customers while doing it.
• Translate customer feedback into actionable product insight in close collaboration with Engineering and Product teams.
• Build reusable workflows, documentation, and tooling that make every future engagement faster and smoother.

WHAT WE ARE EXPECTING FROM YOU (I.E., THE QUALIFICATIONS YOU MUST HAVE):

• 3–5 years of hands-on experience in cloud engineering, systems integration, or technical delivery roles.
• Strong working knowledge of AWS and/or Azure — IAM, policies, permissions, resource configuration, and the real-world gotchas that only come from actual deployments.
• Working familiarity with networking concepts: VPCs, VPNs, routing, firewalls — enough to roll up your sleeves and troubleshoot when something isn't connecting, not just enough to describe how they work.
• Comfort with authentication frameworks including SAML, LDAP, Active Directory, and RBAC.
• Scripting ability in at least one of: Bash, Python, or PowerShell — and genuine comfort with the Linux command line.
• Familiarity with IaC tooling (Terraform, CloudFormation, Helm, or similar) and REST APIs.
• Calm under pressure. When something breaks live in front of a customer, you slow down, diagnose clearly, and keep the room's confidence intact.
• Comfortable using AI as a working tool, not a shortcut — whether that's navigating the nuances of a cloud service, writing or modifying a quick script, or building against an API on the fly. This is part of the job, not a bonus skill.
• You show up with humility and honesty — especially when you don't have the answer. Customers and teammates trust you because you're straight with them, not because you always have a solution on the spot.

Strong Signal:

• You've worked at a small company serving enterprise clients, consulting firm, MSP, or VAR and have dealt with the messy reality of deploying into customer environments you don't control.
• You build things to figure them out — side projects, integrations, automation scripts — not because someone asked you to.
• You've been the technical person in a customer conversation and found that you actually liked it.
• You're energized, not exhausted, by context switching and wearing multiple hats.

GROWTH PATHS

This role has real trajectory. Depending on where your strengths and interests take you, natural paths forward include deepening on the technical/architecture side, evolving toward a more traditional Solutions Engineer role with a greater pre-sales focus, or moving into a Technical Account Manager function. There's a lot of motion across the team and intentional investment in where people grow.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE:

• Sales and Solutions Engineers actively want you on their calls — not just because you're technical, but because you're a genuine thought partner who makes the whole room sharper.
• Customers leave every interaction feeling heard and in good hands, even when the answer isn't ready yet.
• Evaluations convert at a higher rate because customers consistently leave with more confidence than they came in with.
• You've built a library of demo environments, automation scripts, and integration samples the whole team relies on.
• Onboardings move faster because the work you did in pre-sales translated cleanly into production.