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About the Role

The Solution Sales organisation at CDW collaborates with sales to deliver high-value outcomes and experiences to customers across technology growth pillars. This Senior Solution Architect role focuses on supporting financial metrics through technical and services engagements, owning solutions, and creating documentation based on technical designs to meet customer business needs, targets, and KPIs. The primary purpose is to act as an overlay support function with high-performance computing (HPC) and accelerated compute specialist knowledge to lead business outcome engagements from start to finish.

Responsibilities

Act as CDW UK's lead technical authority for HPC and accelerated compute across simulation, modelling, research computing and AI training.
Bring a deep understanding of how HPC is architected, operated, governed and used in research and education, life sciences, and the private sector, including sovereign compute.
Shape solutions around each sector's user communities, funding cycles and operating models.
Profile customer applications to understand whether each is limited by compute, memory, input/output or interconnect speed, and how it scales.
Combine that with the job mix, user numbers and growth plans to set the sizing and architecture logic that underpins pricing.
Direct and validate designs and bills of materials from vendor architects and CDW's wider architect teams, so compute, network fabric, storage, software and facilities work together end to end.
Take account of supply, allocation and lead-time constraints, and propose alternatives where availability puts the outcome at risk.
Assess and design for power, cooling, floor loading and space, including high-density racks, direct liquid cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, heat reuse and energy efficiency.
Work with facilities, colocation and specialist cooling partners to confirm the site is ready.
Advise on on-premises, colocation, sovereign, neocloud and hybrid options, including cloud bursting and GPU-as-a-service.
Match capital (CapEx), subscription (OpEx) and grant-funded models to the customer's funding, security and sovereignty requirements.
Shape solutions for sensitive and regulated workloads, including Trusted Research Environments, data residency, and public sector and sovereign assurance requirements.
Work with Security architects, who own the security controls.
Scope and run benchmarks, proofs of concept and vendor test drives using the customer's own workloads, with measurable success criteria for performance, efficiency and time to results.
Build total cost of ownership models covering energy, cooling, utilisation, licensing, sustainability and refresh over the full system life.
Lead the technical response to research and public sector tenders and frameworks, including compliance matrices and clarifications.
Act as a solution owner and key contributor, providing business and technical expertise to support broader solution efforts.
Build trust and clarity by translating customer needs into actionable technical insights.
Be an experienced and confident presenter to groups of decision makers, ensuring technical and commercial experience is exacted to the customer.
Specialize in multiple technologies that sit within a domain and have broad knowledge across vendors and product categories to assess compatibility and recommend optimal solutions in line with desired business outcomes.
Utilize vendor-specific tools, training certifications and resources to support credibility, solution design and validation.
Have a strong understanding of technologies eco-system that sit within your aligned Go-To-Market/s, with the ability to articulate where required their importance to the project.
Lead the process of advising the customer on best technologies and vendors to support their needs based on their desired outcome, including those that may sit outside your teams Go-To-Market/s.
Suggest and provide quotes and outcome benefits for product add-ons that enhance existing customer environments without requiring major redesigns.
Focus on incremental improvements that deliver value and align with the customer need and CDW’s portfolio.
Conduct structured discovery to capture customers technical requirements, ensuring completeness and clarity.
Validate business requirements by gathering full comprehension of the desired outcome of this and other linked customer projects.
Document findings in line with CDW’s standards to inform design and delivery planning.
Support the creation of proposals using the latest version of the proposal template, while working with other aligned members of the Solution Sales team.
Produce technical high-level design documents to an exemplary standard in line with the customer requirements.
Be a significant contributor to the creation of defined bid outcomes, providing support throughout the engagement.
Promote relevant CDW services in line with the technical design and if required align relevant internal support from Solutions Sales teams.
Provide accurate PS costings where relevant, following the internal processes in place.
Ensure opportunities meet the commercial element of the business outcome through architecture-driven pricing and sizing.
Take a strategic approach considering relevant options, considering potential commercial risks to both CDW and the customer.

Requirements

HPC architecture: CPU and GPU compute (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and Arm-based platforms), high-performance interconnects (InfiniBand and high-performance Ethernet, including RoCE), and parallel storage (for example Lustre, WEKA, VAST Data or DDN).
HPC software: workload schedulers (Slurm, PBS Pro or LSF), cluster management, MPI-based applications, containers (Apptainer, and Kubernetes for AI), and scientific software environments.
Workload behaviour: how applications are limited by compute, memory, input/output or interconnect speed, and how they scale.
How AI training and inference differ from simulation, and how AI Factory reference architectures work.
Data centre facilities: power density, liquid and hybrid cooling, floor loading, energy efficiency (power usage effectiveness), heat reuse and site readiness.
Sector context: how the target sectors fund, procure and govern HPC, including UK national compute programmes and services.
Secure and sovereign compute: Trusted Research Environments, the Five Safes framework, data residency, and public sector assurance requirements.
Hosting and funding models: colocation, sovereign, neocloud, cloud HPC and GPU-as-a-service, alongside capital (CapEx), subscription (OpEx) and grant-funded models.
HPC competitive landscape: specialist HPC integrators, vendors selling direct, hyperscalers and neoclouds, and how CDW stands apart from each.
Supply chain: GPU allocation, component constraints (for example memory) and lead times, and the alternatives available when supply puts a deal at risk.
Knowledge of a structured sales process.
An understanding of the competitive landscape and the ability to apply that to differentiate CDW against its competition.
Challenging vendor designs: interpret, question and validate vendor designs and bills of materials, so they work together end to end.
Translating research needs: turn scientific and engineering requirements into architecture and engage credibly with researchers and research software engineers.
HPC cost modelling: build total cost of ownership models covering energy, utilisation, licensing and refresh over the full system life.
Benchmarking: scope benchmarks and interpret the results objectively.
Tender writing: write technical responses to research and public sector tenders, including compliance matrices and clarification responses.
Ability to work collaboratively with sales, delivery teams, and Business Development Managers to support bids and customer engagements.
Applies expertise to ensure relevance and accuracy of documentation and engagement to meet the customers required outcome.
Maintains role-aligned certifications and accreditations and actively pursues ongoing learning.
Typically 3+ years in HPC, research computing or accelerated compute architecture.
A track record of shaping HPC solutions from workload requirements, with clear examples of your own recommendations and the trade-offs behind them.
Experience in at least one target sector, with working knowledge of the others.
Experience of research or public sector procurement, including tenders and frameworks.
Experience working with facilities or colocation partners on high-density deployments.
Minimum of 5 years in a technical consulting, solution architecture, or pre-sales engineering role, ideally within a customer-facing environment.
Experience in building positive working relationships with internal and external customer.
Familiarity of relevant vendor platforms and tools, with the ability to navigate and integrate across ecosystems.
Demonstrable experience of being business outcome lead during customer engagements.
Demonstrated success in engaging with customers both remotely and face to face—capturing requirements, presenting solutions, and supporting procurement validation.
Track record of maintaining relevant technical certifications and participating in role-aligned training programs to stay current.

Skills

HPC architecture
Accelerated compute architecture
High-performance computing
Simulation
Modelling
Research computing
AI training
NVIDIA
AMD
Intel
Arm-based platforms
InfiniBand
High-performance Ethernet
RoCE
Lustre
WEKA
VAST Data
DDN
Slurm
PBS Pro
LSF
MPI
Apptainer
Kubernetes
Workload characterisation
Sizing
Design assurance
Vendor orchestration
Facilities assessment
Data centre readiness
Power density
Liquid cooling
Hybrid cooling
Energy efficiency
Power usage effectiveness
Heat reuse
Hosting options
Sovereign compute
Neocloud
Cloud bursting
GPU-as-a-service
CapEx
OpEx
Grant-funded models
Trusted Research Environments
Data residency
Public sector assurance
Benchmarking
Proofs of value
Lifecycle cost modelling
Energy cost modelling
Research procurement
Public sector tenders
Frameworks
Solution ownership
Business expertise
Technical expertise
Customer needs translation
Presentation skills
Multi-vendor expertise
Technology ecosystem understanding
Go-To-Market strategy
Technology recommendations
Requirements capture
Structured discovery
Business requirements validation
Documentation
Proposal creation
Technical high-level design
Bid support
Services promotion
PS costings
Architecture-driven pricing
Sizing
Commercial risk assessment
Challenging vendor designs
Translating research needs
HPC cost modelling
Benchmarking interpretation
Tender writing
Collaboration
Sales support
Delivery team support
Business Development Manager support
Documentation accuracy
Engagement relevance
Certification maintenance
Accreditation maintenance
Ongoing learning
Customer relationship building
Remote engagement
Face-to-face engagement
Requirement capture
Solution presentation
Procurement validation
Technical certifications
Role-aligned training
AI-fluent
Curiosity
Learner's mindset
AI adoption
Experimentation
AI integration

Location

Work Type

Full-time

Experience Level

Senior
3+ years in HPC, research computing or accelerated compute architecture
Minimum of 5 years in a technical consulting, solution architecture, or pre-sales engineering role

Education Level

A degree or postgraduate qualification in a scientific, engineering or computing discipline. Equivalent experience is equally valued.

About the Company

CDW is a Fortune 500 technology solutions provider that helps businesses, government, education, and healthcare organizations achieve what’s possible through technology.
At CDW we act as one—building trust, speaking candidly, and working together to achieve more.
We play to win—focusing on what matters most and delivering for our customers.
We think forward—staying curious, moving fast, and continuously learning.
We believe meaningful work happens when people feel supported, heard, and empowered to contribute.
We think of ourselves as coworkers, not just employees—working together to solve complex challenges and deliver real impact for our customers and communities.
As a full‑stack, full‑lifecycle technology partner, CDW brings deep expertise, strong relationships, and broad industry knowledge to help turn ideas into outcomes.
When you join CDW, you become part of a collaborative environment where your work matters, your growth is supported, and your contributions help shape what’s next.
Together, we deliver the full promise of what technology can do.
Together, we Make Amazing Happen.

Equal Opportunity

CDW is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other basis prohibited by state and local law.