Product Specialist – (Cloud and Hosting) at Berekkah Consulting Limited

Our client, a Pan African cloud-based digital service provider with points of contacts in 16 African cities, seeks to hire a Product Specialist – (Cloud and Hosting)

Reporting to: Snr. Manager Product Portfolio
Purpose statement

Overall responsibility for the development and management of the Cloud product set.

Principal Accountabilities/Objectives

• Work with Stakeholders to define/scope and develop world-class Cloud, SaaS, Backup and DR offerings
• Oversee, support and champion initiatives across various teams to translate product and service delivery strategies into successful business outcomes
• Develop and present compelling business cases and product positioning in the marketplace  
• Define product definitions, pricing strategies, product features as well as all service and support aspects of the overall Cloud Services product offerings.
• Identify and work with vendor partners to establish thought leadership in their various markets and work with them to reach their customer base.
• Manage cross-functional collaboration with Marketing, Operations, Engineering, Solution Architecture, and Sales to help define and shape the go-to-market strategy for your products.
• Own the product lifecycle and have a point of view on change management in all aspects of new product introduction and sustaining efforts.
• Evangelize our current solutions internally and externally via blogs, conferences, workshops and customer meet-ups.
• Work directly with the Executive Team as necessary to fulfill the vision and strategy of the corporate efforts that are executed inside your portfolio.
• Provide the Sales Organisation business consultative support required to sell the Cloud product. The Product Specialist shall function as the in-house product subject matter expert and a reference point for the Sales and Solutions Architecture team
• Provide pricing support to the Solutions Architecture team for pre-sales solution formulation including bid preparation
• Have a good understanding of customer and market dynamics.

Communication and Work Relationships

The Product Specialist shall;

• Maintain professional internal and external relationships that meet company’s core values
• Work closely with members of the Sales, Solution Architecture, Project Management and members of other teams as required from time to time.
• Build trust, value others, and communicate effectively and politely with mutual respect

Knowledge, Skills, Experience and Competency requirements

Skills

• Deep understanding of the Cloud IaaS and Enterprise Virtualization markets, with a heavy focus on VMWare and its eco-system, public cloud systems like AWS, Azure and GSuite.
• Strong technical competence with keen business acumen to ensure credibility with various stakeholders in the organization.
• Ability to take complex technical concepts and communicate them simply and effectively to non-technical audience.
• A desire to expand knowledge of sales, marketing and general business management
• Ability to develop good relationships across all levels of the organization
• Strong customer facing and evangelistic capabilities
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to work both independently and on cross-functional teams
• Ability to function well in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with competing priorities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Knowledge and Experience

• Minimum of 3-5 years’ experience in Product Management or related role.
• Undergraduate degree in Business or Technology
• Pronounced communication skill set to drive technical team as well as executive level conversations
• Cloud product experience (of any type) is required, IaaS or Hosting is greatly preferred.

Education

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited
• 5 – 10 years’ experience in product development/management, preferably in the telecommunications industry