Strategic Sales & Solutions SME
Reports To: Office of the CTO / Executive Leadership
Role Type: Senior advisory and technical overlay — this is not a quota-carrying sales role
About Assured Data Protection
Assured Data Protection is a global leader in cyber resilience, disaster recovery, and managed data protection services. As the leading managed services partner for Rubrik, we help organizations strengthen their ability to withstand and recover from cyberattacks, operational disruptions, and unexpected business events. Our team delivers expert support around the clock and provides solutions that help customers reduce risk, accelerate recovery, and maintain critical operations. As cyber threats continue to evolve, Assured remains focused on helping customers navigate change with confidence and clarity.
The Opportunity
We are seeking a senior technology executive who is also a hands-on subject matter expert across the full Assured Data Protection portfolio. This role sits at the intersection of technology, business strategy, risk management, and customer engagement — operating as both a trusted executive advisor to customers and the senior technical overlay on our largest, most complex enterprise opportunities.
As an executive advisor, you will help customers align cyber resilience, recovery, and data protection strategies with broader business objectives, engaging boards and C-level leaders on the outcomes that matter most. As a technical overlay, you will be brought into key deals to ask the difficult questions, challenge assumptions, validate technical fit, and de-risk solution designs — ensuring that what we promise can be delivered in the real world. You will also serve as the voice of the market within Assured, shaping the future direction of our services and solutions.
Key Responsibilities
Executive Advisory Leadership
- Serve as a trusted advisor to CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, Boards of Directors, and executive leadership teams on cyber resilience and recovery strategies.
- Lead executive workshops, planning sessions, and strategic discussions focused on operational risk, business continuity, and organizational readiness.
- Provide guidance on governance, recovery planning, resilience investments, and risk mitigation initiatives.
- Help customers understand the business impact of cyber threats, regulatory requirements, and emerging technology trends.
- Deliver executive-level recommendations that align technology investments with measurable business outcomes.
Strategic Deal Engagement & Technical Validation
- Act as the go-to subject matter expert for the full Assured Data Protection portfolio on large, complex enterprise opportunities.
- Join high-value customer meetings to lead deep technical discovery and solution validation.
- Ask probing, challenging questions — internally and with customers — to uncover risk and complexity.
- Make quick, authoritative decisions on which customer requirements Assured can or cannot support when they fall outside current services.
- Assess technical viability, scalability, and risk to ensure that what is promised can be delivered.
- Partner with Strategic Account Executives, Sales Engineers, Product, and Customer Success on solution design.
- Assist customers in developing business cases and investment strategies for resilience and recovery initiatives and provide executive credibility on complex opportunities.
- Build trusted relationships throughout the customer lifecycle and serve as a strategic resource during critical initiatives.
Product Strategy & Innovation
- Act as the voice of the customer and the market by identifying emerging requirements, challenges, and opportunities.
- Translate field insights and customer feedback into recommendations that shape product roadmap, positioning, and enterprise sales plays.
- Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Executive Leadership teams to influence future service capabilities and offerings.
- Partner with strategic technology vendors to align roadmaps and improve customer outcomes.
- Contribute to the evolution of Assured's cyber resilience, disaster recovery, and business continuity portfolio.
Industry & Partner Leadership
- Represent Assured at executive briefings, industry events, advisory councils, and strategic partner engagements.
- Develop executive relationships across key technology alliances and channel partners.
- Participate in go-to-market initiatives and joint customer engagements with strategic partners.
- Contribute to thought leadership through speaking engagements, executive content, and customer-facing initiatives.
Required Skills and Experience
- 15+ years across enterprise infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud, disaster recovery, business continuity, data protection, backup & recovery, virtualization, or storage — in technical pre-sales, solutions architect, specialist, and/or executive leadership capacities.
- Hands-on experience supporting large, complex enterprise deals as a technical expert or overlay.
- Hands-on delivery expertise, either as part of a professional services team or from real-world experience on the customer side.
- Demonstrated success engaging CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, Boards of Directors, and senior business leaders.
- Deep knowledge of cyber resilience, ransomware recovery, disaster recovery, and business continuity strategies, with a strong understanding of enterprise architectures (on-prem, cloud, hybrid), RPO/RTO, and security/compliance.
- Strong understanding of technical risk and the ability to balance technical needs with commercial solutions.
- Willingness and ability to ask hard questions and push back constructively when needed.
- Ability to translate complex technical concepts into executive-level recommendations and business value.
- Excellent communication, presentation, facilitation, and relationship-building skills with both technical and business audiences.
- Comfortable working cross-functionally in a matrixed environment; willing to travel as required.
Preferred Experience
- Former CIO, CTO, CISO, VP Infrastructure, VP IT Operations, Field CTO, or similar executive leadership experience.
- Experience with Rubrik, Nutanix, Cohesity, Commvault, Pure Storage, VMware, cloud platforms, and related technologies.
- Experience with managed services or "as-a-service" offerings in data protection.
- Experience supporting highly regulated industries, including healthcare, financial services, and public sector organizations.
- Experience advising organizations during cyber incidents, ransomware events, and major recovery initiatives.
- Established industry relationships and a history of thought leadership.
- Relevant industry or vendor certifications.
Benefits
At Assured Data Protection, we recognize that exceptional people drive exceptional outcomes. We are committed to providing an environment where leaders can make a meaningful impact while continuing to grow professionally.
- Competitive compensation package including performance-based incentives.
- Comprehensive healthcare, retirement, and wellness benefits.
- Flexible remote work environment with national customer engagement opportunities.
- Professional development, leadership growth, and industry certification support.
- Opportunity to influence company strategy, innovation, and market leadership.
At Assured Data Protection we value diversity and inclusivity. We offer perks such as flex holidays, robust 401k plan, and flexible working practices to allow our employees to show up as their whole selves. We are an equal-opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please do not hesitate to let us know.