Customer Solutions Cloud Architect (RapidScale)

At RapidScale, exceptional technology is powered by exceptional people. As a growing leader in secure, reliable managed cloud solutions, we help SMBs and enterprises alike simplify IT and unleash innovation. With a broad portfolio spanning AWS, Azure and Google to a full set of Private Cloud and Cybersecurity solutions, RapidScale helps companies turn technology into their biggest competitive advantage. As part of the Cox family of companies, we offer best-in-class benefits, a commitment to work-life balance, and an award-winning workplace experience.
The Customer Solutions Architecture team provides consultative guidance throughout the customer lifecycle at RapidScale, enhancing customer retention, fostering upsell opportunities, and ensuring long-term partnerships. Our approach revolves around two key phases: Build and Maintain .

• Build Phase: Customers collaborate with RapidScale to design technical solutions based on their business needs, modernize legacy systems, or retire outdated infrastructure. This phase supports transformation and growth.
• Maintain Phase: RapidScale works closely with the customer to ensure uptime, security compliance, and to make adjustments based on immediate needs. We maintain operational efficiency and ensure ongoing success.

As a Customer Solutions Architect , you will be responsible for providing technical continuity and consultative support throughout the customer's partnership with RapidScale. You will be assigned specific accounts to track and engage with, ensuring a seamless experience from both a technical and business perspective. This role involves high-level executive discussions, problem-solving with managed service teams, and providing direct feedback to the product team. You will be the customer's voice within RapidScale, advocating for their needs and ensuring they receive the best possible solutions.
Key Responsibilities
Collaboration with Internal Teams:
Account Executives:

• Participate in account planning and the ongoing management of customer roadmaps.
• Engage in presales activities, including onsite visits, proposal creation, and task estimation.
• Identify new opportunities and proactively suggest upsells.

Professional Services:

• Guide delivery teams, ensuring consistency in customer engagement from presales to managed service delivery.
• Identify strategic gaps and influence leadership on potential improvements.
• Lead or contribute to account design review meetings with delivery solution architects.
• Lead or contribute to cloud assessment business cases.
• Attend steering committee activities and support customer engagements.

Managed Services:

• Serve as the architectural point of contact after professional services projects, ensuring smooth transitions to managed services.
• Stay up-to-date on account issues and customer ticket statuses, understanding customer sentiment.
• Attend service delivery manager and customer meetings, providing ongoing technical guidance and backlog management.
• Contribute to and groom the customer's backlog, collaborating in customer-facing backlog grooming sessions.

Product:

• Assist in the optimization of customer environments, focusing on patching, monitoring, and alerting.
• Provide valuable customer feedback to help inform product development.

FinOps:

• Provide context to the financial operations team regarding cost savings and customer-specific financial insights.

Marketing:

• Contribute to blog posts and case studies showcasing your accounts' successes and transformations.

Minimum Qualifications:
Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in a related discipline and 6 years' experience in a related field OR a Master's degree and 4 years' experience OR a Ph.D. and 1 year of experience OR 10 years' experience in a related field.

Customer-Facing Experience:

• Ability to translate business requirements into actionable technology recommendations.
• Knowledgeable in presales and/or post-sales functions, working with key business stakeholders to achieve technical solutions.
• Demonstrated capability in aligning business and technical strategies with customer needs.

Technical Expertise: Requirement: Candidate must have experience in at least 3 of the below areas:

• Solid understanding of Azure's and/or AWS's Well-Architected Framework and cloud-native architecture design.
• Experience with containerization and virtualization technologies (e.g., Kubernetes , VMware ).
• Familiarity with IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS platforms (e.g., EC2 , RDS , S3 ).
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools (e.g., Puppet , Ansible , CloudFormation , Terraform ).
• Knowledge of disaster recovery and data protection principles.
• Experience with cloud governance and cost optimization.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Associate-level certifications in AWS or Azure (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate, AZ-100).
• Knowledge of CI/CD and application lifecycle management.
• Experience with compliance standards (e.g., SOC2 , HIPAA , PCI DSS ).
• Familiarity with project management methodologies (e.g., Waterfall , Scrum ).
• Experience with Microsoft Windows environments (e.g., domain controllers, file shares).
• AWS or Azure professional-level certifications.
• Networking certifications (e.g., CompTIA Network+ , Cisco CCNA , AWS Advanced Networking , Azure Network Engineer Associate ).
• Security certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Security , Microsoft Azure Security Technologies , CompTIA Security+ ).

USD 117,300.00 - 195,500.00 per year
Compensation:
Compensation includes a base salary of $117,300.00 - $195,500.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.
Benefits:
The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, parental leave, and COVID-19 vaccination leave.
Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship.
About Cox Communications
Cox Communications is the largest private telecom company in America, serving six million homes and businesses. That's a lot, but we also proudly serve our employees. Our benefits and our award-winning culture are just two of the things that make Cox a coveted place to work. If you're interested in bringing people closer through broadband, smart home tech and more, join Cox Communications today!
About Cox
Cox empowers employees to build a better future and has been doing so for over 120 years. With exciting investments and innovations across transportation, communications, cleantech and healthcare, our family of businesses - which includes Cox Automotive and Cox Communications - is forging a better future for us all. Ready to make your mark? Join us today!
Benefits of working at Cox may include health care insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement planning (401(k)), and paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO). For more details on what benefits you may be offered, visit our benefits page .
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