Pre-Sales Solutions Architect - Azure

Pre-Sales Solutions Architect – Azure

This role is eligible for full-time remote employment within the US or can be hybrid in our Durham, NC office 2-3 days/week. Please note that we unfortunately cannot sponsor H1B visas at this time. Arpio participates in the US Government's eVerify Program.

About the Role

As enterprises continue moving mission-critical workloads to Azure, resilience has become a board-level priority. As our Pre-Sales Solutions Architect focused on Azure, you'll play a pivotal role on our Go-to-Market team, serving as the technical bridge between prospects, our Microsoft partnership, and our internal teams. This role blends deep Azure technical expertise with sales acumen, engaging in both pre-sales and post-sales processes to convert opportunities into success stories.

You'll lead Proof of Concept (POC) engagements through the entire sales cycle, helping prospects understand not just what Arpio does, but why it's the right answer for their specific Azure environment. You'll also work hand-in-hand with our Account Executives and Channel & Alliance Partner Manager to strengthen Arpio's position as Microsoft's preferred cloud resilience and disaster recovery partner.

What You'll Do

Pre-Sales & Deal Execution

• Create prospect-specific, quantifiable value statements, translating RTO/RPO gaps, downtime costs, and ransomware exposure into business cases that resonate with both technical and economic buyers.
• Consult and present technical solutions to stakeholders at all levels, including C-suite, infrastructure leads, security teams, procurement, and finance.
• Lead product demonstrations and POC engagements end-to-end, tailored to each prospect's Azure environment and resilience requirements.
• Respond to RFPs, security questionnaires, and enterprise procurement documentation with accuracy and speed.
• Articulate Arpio's differentiated value against native Microsoft tools like Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup, positioning Arpio as an upgrade rather than a redundant purchase.
• Contribute to Sales, POC, and GTM strategy alongside the Account Executive team.
• Build and maintain relationships with Microsoft's field organization, including Azure Account Executives, Cloud Solution Architects (CSAs), Customer Success Managers (CSMs), Partner Development Managers (PDMs), Technical Specialists, and Marketplace teams, to support co-sell motions, joint account planning, Marketplace private offers, including MACC (Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment) burn-down conversations, that accelerate Azure consumption and create measurable business value for customers.

Internal Collaboration & Enablement

• Help build the Pre-Sales Solutions Architect playbook from the ground up; your patterns become the foundation for future SE hires.
• Provide reliable coverage and support to customers and peers when needed.
• Proactively feed technical insights, product gaps, and competitive intelligence back to product and engineering to shape our roadmap.

Travel as required.

What We're Looking For

• Min. 5 years in a pre-sales, solutions engineering, or technical sales role in B2B SaaS.
• Hands-on experience with Azure disaster recovery architecture, including Azure Site Recovery, Azure Backup, geo-redundant storage (GRS/RA-GRS), paired regions, Azure Traffic Manager or Front Door for failover routing, and database failover options such as Azure SQL failover groups. Comfortable discussing RTO/RPO trade-offs and multi-region resilience patterns with customers.
• Experience designing or discussing failover architecture using Azure networking components (ExpressRoute, VNet peering, Azure Firewall, Front Door).
• Familiarity with Azure security and compliance tooling (Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure Policy, Sentinel) is a plus, particularly for framing ransomware recovery conversations with security stakeholders.
• Strong technical depth in one or more of: cloud infrastructure, disaster recovery, backup and recovery, cybersecurity, data protection, or ransomware resilience.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical evaluations and POCs from scoping through completion in enterprise or upper mid-market accounts, including RFPs, security questionnaires, and procurement documentation.
• Experience with Azure co-sell programs and partner ecosystems, ideally including direct work with Azure Account Executives, CSAs, CSMs, or PDMs.
• Experience with Azure Marketplace transact listings, private offers, and Microsoft's ISV Success (Co-sell IP) program.
• Experience selling into regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, life sciences, retail, or manufacturing.
• Passion for staying current with cloud infrastructure and DR trends and a commitment to continuous learning.

Nice to Have

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104), or Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500).
• Prior experience helping build a pre-sales function at a high-growth or early-stage company is a plus.

How We Work

At Arpio, we care about the outcome as much as the effort it took to get there. We take initiative, follow through, and report back on what we learned along the way. That same instinct shows up in how we treat customers and each other: we respond quickly, speak honestly and openly, and trust our teammates to take direct feedback as a chance to grow. We move like a startup because we are one, spending wisely and treating every dollar and every customer like they matter, because they do. If that's how you like to work, you'll fit in well here. For this role, that looks like:

• Listen first: Understand the customer's problem deeply before proposing a solution, and communicate proactively throughout every evaluation.
• Move with urgency and ownership: Take initiative, follow through, and treat every customer relationship as worth protecting.
• Speak honestly and openly: Trust teammates, provide direct feedback as a chance to grow, and report back on what worked and what didn't.
• Operate like a startup: Spend wisely, treat every dollar and customer with care, and thrive in ambiguity.

Salary and Benefits

• Competitive salary + Equity
• Arpio will cover 100% of your personal medical premiums, 100% of your life insurance premium, and 75% of your personal premiums for vision and dental (because the insurance companies won't let us pay 100%). For your dependents, Arpio will cover 75% of medical, dental, and vision premiums. No life insurance is included.
• For fully remote employees, a $125 home office stipend or $250 company-subsidized co-working membership
• Unlimited PTO
• Small, collaborative team environment
• Opportunity to work on the cutting edge of cloud technology

Arpio is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse team and an inclusive workplace, and we welcome applicants of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities; if you need an accommodation during the application or interview process, let us know.