• Own end-to-end solution architecture across client-facing implementations and shared platform capabilities. • Translate business, regulatory (HIPAA), and customer requirements into clear, actionable architecture designs. • Create and maintain architecture artifacts including: - System and component diagrams - Data flows and integration patterns - API contracts - Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) • Define and enforce non-functional requirements (scalability, performance, availability, security, operability, maintainability). • Guide architectural evolution from modular systems toward well-bounded microservices where appropriate. • Define and govern HTTP-based API standards (REST design, versioning, error handling, backward compatibility). • Lead contract-first API development using OpenAPI / Swagger. • Architect and govern Azure API Management (APIM): - Authentication & authorization - Rate limiting, caching, and monitoring • Design secure and reliable SFTP integrations, including encryption, validation, reconciliation, and failure recovery. • Ensure integration patterns are resilient, observable, and auditable. • Assess current architecture and identify scalability, reliability, and compliance gaps. • Partner with engineering leadership to reduce technical debt without halting delivery. • Establish architectural guardrails and reference implementations that enable teams to move fast safely. • Balance pragmatism with long-term platform health. • Serve as the architectural discipline lead across product and client delivery teams. • Facilitate architecture reviews and guide technical decision-making. • Represent architecture in CAB, release planning, and executive discussions, clearly communicating tradeoffs and implications. • Contribute directly through: - Prototyping - Complex problem solving - Performance tuning - Architectural validation

• Collaborating with the Account Executive to thoroughly understand the prospect's technical environment, Cloud Data Platform cost challenges, cost optimization goals, and key business objectives through in-depth technical discovery sessions. • Owning and driving the technical validation and Proof of Value (POV) exercises for SELECT. This includes meticulous POC preparation, proactive management, and ensuring successful technical outcomes, demonstrating clear value and alignment with prospect requirements. • Tailoring and delivering compelling SELECT platform demonstrations to prospects, effectively showcasing its capabilities and addressing their specific use cases and concerns. • Leveraging your analytical skills and deep understanding of Cloud Data Platform to develop compelling business cases and robust ROI analyses that clearly articulate the tangible value, cost savings, and performance improvements achievable with SELECT. • Becoming the go-to expert within the company for SELECT, ensuring prospects achieve optimal results and a seamless implementation experience. • Taking full ownership of the technical win for SELECT engagements, guiding prospects through the technical evaluation process, addressing all technical requirements, and building technical confidence in the solution. • Representing DoiT and SELECT at company events and industry conferences, delivering engaging presentations and demonstrations to a wider audience, showcasing our Snowflake/Databricks (and soon BigQuery) optimization expertise as well as platform capabilities. • Translate customer pain points and feature gaps into structured, technically credible input for R&D teams. Represent the voice of the technical customer in roadmap discussions. • Ensure timely entry of data into internal business support solutions. Contribute to systems and tools to provide key business information and metrics to highlight performance and effectiveness.

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation. At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD. We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived. We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD. The AHEAD Senior Specialty Solutions Engineer-Network will be focused on the core tenets of Network and Network Security related solutions for AHEAD prospects and customers including a broad range of technologies. As a member of our Specialty Solutions Engineering team, you will be considered an organizational thought leader for this marketplace. You will work in partnership with multiple sales representatives to help build a cohesive account strategy for each existing and prospective client. As part of this strategy, you will help sales representatives identify potential technologies and vendors to partner within a given account and assist in driving this strategy throughout a given campaign. Time management and prioritization are essential attributes to being successful. Your goal is to evolve into the technical thought leader for each of your clients. In this capacity, you will work to define strategy, compare alternative approaches, and build key relationships, as well as size and configure products. Positioning and leveraging subject matter experts and inside consultants is a necessity to scale your effectiveness within accounts. AHEAD is actively recruiting for this role and is looking for candidates who consider themselves as a “Next Generation Network Architect.” A core tenet and base requirement for this position is deep understanding of Campus wired and wireless technologies. Understanding and mastery of other areas like Datacenter and cloud networking technologies are a plus. Outside of this core tenet, our expectation is to attract, recruit and attain resources who have a desire to focus not only on traditional on-premise solutions, but also to be looking to career, technology and skill advancement by being actively willing to demonstrate skills and ability to learn new technologies including multiple SDN solutions, network security, load balancing, edge / acceleration, and cloud technologies. Experience or eagerness to learn about and with network and system / access design with Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure or other cloud services is a key requirement. Roles & Responsibilities: - Participation, Leadership and Coordination of the AHEAD virtual team for Network Infrastructure - You will also be responsible for working with the AHEAD partner management team and directly with selected vendors to maintain vendor technical and sales relationships - As a Network Specialist you are a thought leader within the Engineering organization, responsible for designing, architecting, and, at times, consulting for Ahead clients - Your goal as a Network Lead should be to build skills, relationships, and industry credibility across many segments to drive product, services and consulting sales - Support the sales teams during engagements by providing advice and solutions or proposals optimized to meet customer technical and business requirements - Develops relationships with the account managers, partners and customers in support of sales team objectives and engages and leverages team specialist resources as appropriate - Strategizes and executes technical sales calls - Completes required pre-sales documentation (configurations, pricing, services, presentations, justifications etc.) quickly and accurately - Qualifies sales opportunities in terms of customer technical requirements, decision making process and funding - Presents and markets the design and value of proposed Ahead solutions and business justification to customers, prospects and Ahead management - Participates in mentorship of entry-level team members - Possesses strong, detailed product / technology / industry knowledge. Knowledge of job associated software and applications Base Skills: - Network Infrastructure Experience - Strong wireless skills (certifications highly looked upon) - Wireless principles/site survey/Ekahau knowledge) - Strong Campus/LAN skills (Cisco and other OEM vendors) - Cisco certifications are highly recommended - Cisco Nexus Technologies - IP Routing Protocols - Cisco Core Datacenter Technologies - Network Management - Network Security (Palo Alto/Fortinet) tenants along with SASE knowledge Other Skills: - VMware / VMware NSX - Arista - Automation skillset - F5 / NetScaler - Amazon AWS, Azure, Cloud connectivity and network fundamentals Education & Experience: - Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or equivalent - Pre Sales and Data Center experience is required - Professional communication, presentation, analytical, and problem-solving skills. - Experience working as a technical lead in a pre-sale’s sales campaign - Ability to work under critical conditions and influence others to achieve results - Strong interpersonal skills with excellent presentation skills - Must be independent, self-motivated, a self-starter and possess a good working attitude - Able to work well within a team and partner environment - Customer focused and results driven $185,000 - $250,000 a year The compensation range indicated in this posting reflects the On-Target Earnings (“OTE”) for this role, which includes a base salary and any applicable target bonus amount. This OTE range may vary based on the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications, and geographic location. Why AHEAD: Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between. We fuel growth by stacking our office with top-notch technologies in a multi-million-dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning. USA Employment Benefits include: - Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance - 401(k) - Paid company holidays - Paid time off - Paid parental and caregiver leave - Plus more! See benefits https://www.aheadbenefits.com/ for additional details.

About the role The PreSales Solutions Consultant is responsible for presenting Blackbaud’s Education, Tuition, Fundraising and Financial solutions in a compelling and value-based approach to prospects and customers as a part of the sales process. To accomplish this, the Solutions Consultant must have a strong desire to leverage their technical and sales skills, including the ability to discover business requirements, prescribe comprehensive solutions, and demonstrate the technology that will address these requirements. The Solutions Consultant supports our K12 customers and prospects across the US and Canada. What you’ll do - Drive bookings and revenue - Serve as the business, industry, and technical expert on assigned vertical, solutions and key plays - Catalyze new opportunities in the market for Blackbaud with internal and external partners - Qualify opportunities through discovery to uncover reasons for pain and prove solution fit - Coach sales process and opportunity strategy - Develop business cases for value and return on investment that realize customer outcomes - Enable buyers to act more quickly by providing tools, content, and demonstrations to help them effectively qualify our solutions for their needs and themselves as buyers of Blackbaud solutions - Enable Account Executives with the knowledge and tools to sell with higher sales velocity - Serve as the critical link between Sales, Marketing, and Products - Provide input and content to Sales and Marketing on campaigns, cadences, and events - Nurture the feedback loop between Products and buyers and sellers on the frontlines - Interface with Co-Sell Prioritize, Managed and Marketplace Partners to expand solution and go-to-market options - Lead discovery and initial requirements gathering sessions with Commercial and Enterprise customers and prospects, translating key pain points into solution opportunities and confident in qualifying customers and prospects “in/out” for a solution - Lead a customer or prospect through a light end user demo, typically 20-30 minutes or weaving demo snippets into a discovery conversation - Lead a customer or prospect, including C-Level audiences, through a comprehensive and technical demo touching on all personas as required - Serve as a customer-facing industry/vertical expert for all related software and service offerings from Blackbaud including Partner ecosystems and competitors - Create and deliver customer facing content to be used in demo and sales automation tools as well as, but not limited to webinars, blogs, conferences, both live and recorded content - Create and deliver sales enablement sessions designed to enable AE’s and Sales Managers to create, cultivate and close qualified business opportunities. Including sales cadences used in sales automation tools - Where applicable, complete Blackbaud Certification for solutions you support - Provide recommendations for sales of implementation packages and other related services - Provide functional and technical responses to customer RFP’s, RFI’s and other direct requests - Upon closing an opportunity, document key observations and insights for the implementation team, including demo notes, documents received from customer, etc. - Assist in the training of new sales personnel though onboarding process - Coach/Feedback to Account Executives as needed on sales process, product positioning, deal presentation What you'll have - Private K-12 School Education Management, Nonprofit fundraising, financial and or operational experience required - Prior knowledge or experience working with Blackbaud products is required, specifically Education Management Suite of products – Core, Enrollment, Learning Management, Student Information, Tuition Management, and Financial Aid. Additionally required Raiser’s Edge NXT and Financial Edge NXT. Preferred but not required; Billing and School Website. - Ability to persuade others through presentations, storytelling, demonstrations, and written communication - Experience developing and delivering presentations both to executive-level and working-level audiences - Ability to translate technical features into business benefits - Ability to recommend strategic workflows and policies as it relates to product solutions - Analytical and a knack for problem solving, with high attention to detail - Willingness to travel occasionally in support of sales pursuits and Marketing events Stay up to date on everything Blackbaud, follow us on Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube ​ Blackbaud powers social impact through purpose‑driven technology and responsible AI. Guided by our Intelligence for Good® vision, we’re building a culture where innovation, trust, and human expertise come together to help organizations make a greater difference in the world. Blackbaud is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive work environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, or veteran status or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law. The starting base salary and annual proposed commission is $120,500.00 to $155,500.00. Blackbaud may pay more or less based on employee qualifications, market value, sales quota, Company finances, and other operational considerations. Benefits Include: - Medical, dental, and vision insurance - Remote-flexible workforce - Wellness Programs - 401(k) program with employer match - Flexible paid time off - Generous Parental Leave - Donations for Doers - Pet insurance, legal and identity protection - Tuition reimbursement program