NETWORK & DATA CENTRE PRESALES ENGINEER
Presales engineer at IT Horizons in Lagos who turns enterprise customer requirements into data centre and network solutions — leading technical discovery, solution architecture, sizing, bills of materials, demos, and proposals across Cisco networking, compute, storage, virtualisation/HCI, backup, and disaster recovery in partnership with sales and OEM partners.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- 9b Akin Ogunmade Davies Close, Gbagada Phase 2, Lagos, Nigeria
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Not specified
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Solutions engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in computer science, engineering, IT, or related discipline
- Substantial presales, solutions architecture, consulting, or engineering experience delivering enterprise networking and data centre solutions
- Demonstrable experience designing complex multi-vendor environments (compute, storage, networking, virtualisation, security, data protection)
- Hands-on experience with technical discovery, capacity planning, solution sizing, architecture documentation, proposals, and customer presentations
- Experience creating bills of materials and configurations using Cisco Commerce Workspace and OEM/distributor portals
- Strong understanding of data centre architecture principles, protocols, interoperability, lifecycle management, and operational best practices
- Working knowledge of commercial concepts: margin, discounting, TCO, ROI, risk, scope management
- Excellent written, verbal, presentation, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills
- Strong analytical judgement, structured problem-solving, attention to detail, and ability to simplify complex technical concepts
- Commercial awareness balancing customer value, technical integrity, delivery practicality, and profitability
- Customer-first mindset, integrity, accountability, curiosity, collaboration, confidence under pressure
- Ability to manage multiple opportunities, prioritise deadlines, and work with geographically dispersed teams and partners
Nice to have
- Professional certifications such as CCNP Data Center, VMware Certified Professional, Nutanix, Dell Technologies, HPE, or NetApp
Full description
Position Overview
We are seeking an accomplished Network & Data Centre Presales Engineer to translate complex customer requirements into secure, scalable, resilient, and commercially viable infrastructure solutions. Working closely with sales, engineering, project delivery, OEM partners, and customers, the role will lead technical discovery, solution architecture, validation, and proposal development across networking, compute, storage, virtualisation, hyperconverged infrastructure, security, cloud integration, automation, backup, and disaster recovery.
The successful candidate will combine deep technical expertise with strong commercial judgement and executive-level communication. They will own the technical quality of opportunities from qualification through handover, build trusted-adviser relationships, reduce solution risk, and help convert data centre transformation opportunities into profitable, deliverable outcomes.
Key Outcomes and Accountabilities
- Develop technically compliant, competitively differentiated, and implementation-ready solutions that address customer business and operational priorities.
- Improve opportunity conversion by delivering compelling architectures, demonstrations, proofs of concept, and value-based proposals.
- Protect solution margin and delivery quality through accurate discovery, sizing, bill of materials development, assumptions, risk management, and scope control.
- Maintain strong relationships with customers, OEMs, distributors, and internal stakeholders throughout the sales lifecycle.
- Ensure a complete and structured handover to delivery teams, including approved designs, dependencies, exclusions, acceptance criteria, and implementation considerations.
Core Presales Capabilities
- Customer discovery, stakeholder interviews, workload profiling, site assessments, and current-state analysis.
- End-to-end architecture covering data centre networking, compute, storage, virtualisation, HCI, security, backup, disaster recovery, and hybrid cloud integration.
- Capacity planning, performance modelling, availability design, migration planning, and workload placement.
- Requirements traceability, options analysis, solution documentation, diagrams, low-level assumptions, and risk registers.
- RFP/RFQ responses, statements of work, bills of materials, pricing configurations, compliance matrices, and commercial input.
- Customer presentations, whiteboarding sessions, demonstrations, proofs of concept, proofs of value, and technical workshops.
- Business-case development, total cost of ownership and return-on-investment modelling, and phased modernisation roadmaps.