Senior Solution Architect

Company Overview

We’re building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience. We design and integrate advanced systems that sense, connect, and protect data in environments where fast, informed decision-making is vital. Our mission is to deliver mission advantage to those working to safeguard national security, public safety, and critical infrastructure.

Department: Revenue Operations

Location: Bristol, UK

We are looking for a Senior Solution Architect (Pre-Sales) who will take the lead in developing compelling, creative solutions that meet complex user needs. You’ll be responsible for engaging with customers to understand their requirements—spanning technical, supportability, assurance, and governance—and for developing engineering‑led proposals that turn early ideas into clear, structured delivery models. This means balancing scope, resources, and partnerships to create solutions that are both innovative and achievable within agreed budgets.

You’ll also build trusted, long‑term relationships with stakeholders across government and industry. This is a hands‑on role for engineers and technical consultants who are passionate about problem‑solving and enjoy working directly with customers. You’ll add value throughout the sales cycle and into delivery kick‑off: capturing requirements, iterating on solution designs, running workshops or demos, writing proposals, and developing end‑to‑end solutions frontline operators can depend on in the most demanding environments.

You might be a systems engineer who’s built up experience in pre‑sales and customer engagement. You enjoy the challenge of balancing technical insight with commercial and delivery considerations. You understand risks, assumptions, and barriers to adoption, and use that awareness to shape solutions that are both impactful and achievable. You stay curious about new technologies and competitor approaches, and feed technical insights back into engineering and product roadmaps to help shape future solutions.

• Engaging with customers through workshops and demos to capture and refine requirements, explore problem and solution statements, develop use cases, and iterate on designs in real time.
• Leading the development of solution designs for RFIs and proposals, incorporating diverse technology stacks and engineering approaches to ensure systems are scalable, secure, and efficient.
• Translating complex technical concepts into clear, accessible materials for customers, business stakeholders, and technical teams.
• Assessing costs, risks, and delivery implications of technical decisions, including potential challenges and barriers to adoption. Collaborating with legal, commercial, finance, and delivery teams to ensure solutions are viable and aligned to customer expectations.
• Conducting technical assurance reviews on proposals to ensure they address customer problems.
• Researching the latest developments in core digital technologies (e.g., cloud, sensors, autonomy, software), identifying differentiators to strengthen Rowden’s competitive position, and feeding insights directly into product and service roadmaps.
• Identifying and building partnerships to strengthen solutions and delivery models.
• Supporting smooth handover to delivery, engaging across functions to maintain alignment from contract award to project execution.
• Working closely with product teams to ensure early‑stage products are positioned credibly in customer solutions, shaped by customer requirements and informed by feedback.
• Representing Rowden externally at customer meetings, partner forums, and industry events in the UK, building relationships and raising brand visibility.

• Experience in a pre‑sales, solution development or engineering role, preferably within government, defence national security or other critical industries.
• Broad technical knowledge across cloud, comms, data, and software integration.
• Strong proposal development skills, including technical writing, and cost/scope analysis.
• Excellent communication…