Pre-Sales Lead (Airport Solutions)

Job Title

Pre-Sales Lead (Airport Solutions)

✈️ Pre-Sales Lead (Airport Solutions) – Sales Engineer (Network, Infrastructure & Cloud Hosting Architecture)

📍 Location: Bangalore

🔹 Role Summary

Main responsibilities: Provide product and technical expertise for Airport IT bids. Prepare technical responses, solution designs, estimates, demos and POCs. The Sales Engineer define the network, infrastructure and cloud hosting design and high-level architecture (Azure and AWS) for airport solutions, including hosting model options, sizing, resilience and security. This covers Passenger Processing Systems (self-service, border and common-use systems), Airport Management Systems and the airport infrastructure layer (other airport subsystem services).
Day-to-day: Review technical requirements in the Airport IT RFPs/RFIs. In specific, prepare bid inputs and responses such as Design network topologies, connectivity and hosting options (on-premises, hybrid and public cloud), prepare architecture diagrams and infrastructure sizing, and review customer IT, network, security and cloud requirements. Perform requirements analysis, technically evaluate RFP responses, develop Technical Evaluation Reports and conduct design reviews for assigned systems. Prepare effort sizing and costing for the technical solution, and work with partners and vendors as needed to prepare the SOW.
Skills / Technical skills: Airport and/or Airline operations knowledge, technical solutioning, RFP/RFI responses, demos and POCs. Network design and architecture, infrastructure design, in-depth knowledge of Azure and AWS hosting models, cloud security, high availability / disaster recovery design, and commercial knowledge of effort sizing and costing models for technical solutions in Airport IT RFPs/RFIs.
Ideal candidate / Must-have: Experience in aviation, airport or airline operations with strong technical interest. Exact Amadeus product experience is not required, but the candidate should understand how airport or airline systems and hardware work together. The candidate must have in-depth, hands-on knowledge of network and infrastructure design and of Azure and AWS hosting models for mission-critical, 24x7 operational solutions such as passenger processing and airport management systems and should understand how these connect to the wider airport infrastructure layer.
Top competencies: Airport Domain knowledge, Technical expertise, Network and cloud architecture expertise, Problem Solving, Commercial Awareness, Security and compliance mindset, Systems thinking and Customer focus

👥 Team

Summary: The Airport IT Pre-Sales team includes Solution Consultants and Sales Engineers. The Sales Engineer provides technical and product expertise for qualified opportunities.
· Key collaborators: Sales, Solution Consulting, Cybersecurity, Engineering, Product Management, Delivery and customers. Cloud Hosting and Operations teams, customer network and IT infrastructure teams, cloud partners (Microsoft Azure, AWS), partners and vendors for SOW preparation, and the BISO/CISO organisation for security and compliance requirements in RFPs and RFIs.

🎯 Role Purpose

The Sales Engineer is the technical specialist in Airport & Border Authority (A&BA) Pre-Sales for network design, network architecture, infrastructure design and cloud hosting. Aligned with an assigned Business Line portfolio (for example Seamless Journey, Unified Operations and Border Management), they own the technical response to airport and airline bids across APAC. They focus on how passenger processing systems (self-service, border and common-use systems) and airport management systems are connected, hosted and secured, whether on-premises, in a hybrid model, or in the public cloud on Microsoft Azure and AWS.

The Sales Engineer leads deep-dive technical discovery, scoping and solution design with customer IT, network and security teams. They show customers how the proposed architecture meets their operational, performance and security objectives. In RFIs and RFPs, they support the Solution Consultant, who acts as Bid Manager, by owning the technical response for their portfolio.

The Sales Engineer also contributes to the regional business development for their portfolio, targeting customers where the relevant products and capabilities have not yet been introduced, and brings regional priorities to the Business Line.

This is a Manager-level individual contributor role with no direct reports. It includes guiding junior colleagues and sharing knowledge across the APAC region.

Success is measured by the ACV of the solutions supported.

🔹 What You’ll Do

🌐 Domain & Industry Expertise

▪ Maintain strong functional and technical knowledge across relevant Airport & Border Management domains.
▪ Understand customer markets, business needs and the competitive landscape.
▪ Develop and share technical expertise and competitive insights.
▪ Support functional requirements, sizing and commercial proposals.
▪ Maintain working knowledge of passenger processing systems (self-service kiosks and bag drops, border and e-gate solutions, common-use systems such as CUPPS and CUSS) and airport management systems (such as AODB, resource management and A-CDM), including how they integrate with airline, airport and government systems.
▪ Understand the airport infrastructure layer, including other airport subsystem services (for example flight information, baggage handling and airport inter-connected systems), and how they interface with passenger processing and airport management systems.

🔍 Discovery & Solution Design

▪ Lead deep-dive discovery and technical scoping workshops.
▪ Understand customer requirements, processes and challenges.
▪ Design solutions and identify functional or technical gaps.
▪ Map integrations and interfaces and contribute to effort estimation.
▪ Partner with Product, Delivery and R&D on feasibility, roadmaps, integration and scalability.

☁️ Network, Infrastructure & Cloud Hosting Architecture

▪ Design the end-to-end network architecture for airport solutions, including LAN/WAN, airport-wide connectivity, Wi-Fi, segmentation, bandwidth, latency and cabling requirements for touchpoints such as kiosks, bag drops, gates and e-gates.
▪ Define the infrastructure design: servers, virtualisation, edge or local hosting, peripherals, and the on-premises versus cloud split for each solution.
▪ Design the network and hosting for passenger processing systems (self-service, border and common-use platforms), covering check-in, boarding, bag drop, e-gate and biometric touchpoints, with the performance, availability and local fallback needed for peak operations.
▪ Design the network and hosting for airport management systems (such as AODB, resource management and A-CDM), including secure integration with airline, airport, baggage, border and government systems.
▪ Define how the solution fits into the airport infrastructure layer, including connectivity, interfaces and dependencies with other airport subsystem services (for example flight information, baggage handling and terminal systems).
▪ Propose and compare hosting models (on-premises, private, hybrid, public cloud on Microsoft Azure and AWS, and local or sovereign hosting), including benefits, risks and cost implications.
▪ Design cloud reference architectures covering landing zones, VNet/VPC design, connectivity to the airport (VPN, ExpressRoute, Direct Connect), identity, load balancing, containers, storage and monitoring.
▪ Address high availability, disaster recovery, RTO/RPO, scalability, performance and service-level targets for 24x7 airport operations.
▪ Work with Cybersecurity, Cloud Hosting Operations and Engineering on network security, zero-trust principles, data residency, privacy and compliance requirements.
▪ Lead technical deep-dives with customer IT, network, security and cloud teams, and respond to their infrastructure and security questionnaires.
▪ Prepare infrastructure bills of materials, sizing, and hosting or cloud consumption estimates to support the commercial proposal.
▪ Identify network, hosting and third-party dependencies early (telco links, cabling, local hosting, hardware lead times, customer infrastructure) and flag them as delivery and support risks.

▪ Apply foundational network device principles in every architecture: the role and placement of routers, Layer 2/Layer 3 switches, firewalls, load balancers, wireless controllers and access points; OSI/TCP-IP fundamentals; VLANs and network segmentation; routing (static, OSPF, BGP) and spanning tree; redundancy and resilience (HSRP/VRRP, link aggregation, dual-homing, no single point of failure); QoS, PoE, NAT, DNS/DHCP; and secure management, monitoring and change control of network devices.
▪ Maintain working knowledge of leading network and security vendor platforms such as Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet and be able to select, size and position the right devices (switches, routers, next-generation firewalls, SD-WAN, load balancers, wireless) in the bill of materials and design for each airport solution.

📑 Technical Bids

▪ Own the technical sections of RFI and RFP responses for the assigned portfolio.
▪ Prepare solution descriptions, architecture, compliance statements and gap analysis.
▪ Ensure technical accuracy and highlight potential feasibility or service-level risks.
▪ Review the compliance matrix for every airport RFI and RFP, including requirements for passenger processing systems (self-service, border and common-use) and airport management systems. Assess each requirement (compliant, partially compliant, roadmap or non-compliant), identify gaps and clarifications, and flag risks early to the Solution Consultant and Sales.
▪ Perform requirements analysis on airport RFPs and RFIs, including requirements for the airport infrastructure layer and other airport subsystem services, to confirm scope, interfaces, assumptions and dependencies.
▪ Technically evaluate RFP responses and develop the Technical Evaluation Report, covering requirement fit, gaps, risks and recommendations.
▪ Conduct design reviews for the assigned systems with Product, Engineering and Delivery to confirm the proposed design is feasible, scalable and supportable.
▪ Engage the respective technical teams (Product, Engineering, Cloud Hosting and Operations, Delivery and Support) to validate each response, confirm feasibility and obtain agreed commitments before submission.
▪ Coordinate with the BISO/CISO and Cybersecurity teams on all security-related requirements in RFPs and RFIs, such as information security, data protection, certifications, penetration testing, incident response and security questionnaires. Ensure responses are accurate, consistent with policy and approved before submission.
▪ Work with partners and vendors as needed to obtain inputs, quotes and technical commitments, and prepare the Statement of Work (SOW) with clear scope, deliverables, assumptions and responsibilities.
▪ Maintain a library of approved technical and security responses, and track open items, assumptions and deviations through to bid submission.

💡 Demos & Proofs of Concept

▪ Prepare and deliver customer-focused presentations and product demonstrations.
▪ Translate technical features into clear business benefits.
▪ Create and validate proofs of concept with customers and prospects.
▪ Define and validate the network and hosting setup for POCs and trials (on-premises or cloud-hosted on Azure or AWS), including connectivity, security and performance checks.
▪ Demonstrate passenger processing journeys (self-service, border and common-use) and airport management system scenarios on the proposed network and hosting architecture.

📈 Regional Business Development

▪ Identify and support opportunities across the assigned portfolio.
▪ Monitor the opportunity pipeline.
▪ Bring regional customer and market requirements to Product Management and Product Marketing.
▪ Share insights on competitor offerings and market developments.

🤝 Commercial Support

▪ Partner with Sales, Account Executives and Solution Consultants during commercial and contractual discussions.
▪ Help align proposed solutions with customer requirements and clarify technical or functional topics.
▪ Apply commercial knowledge of effort sizing and costing models for the technical solution in Airport IT RFPs and RFIs, covering engineering, implementation, hosting, hardware, third-party and support effort.

🌱 Enablement & Knowledge Sharing

▪ Develop pre-sales materials such as discovery questions, demo scripts and reference architectures.
▪ Enable Solution Consultants and the wider commercial team.
▪ Guide junior colleagues and share knowledge across the region.
▪ Continue building technical, product and soft skills.

✅ What We’re Looking For

▪ 8+ years of experience in pre-sales engineering, solution architecture or technical consulting, ideally within airport, border or travel technology. At least 5 years should be in network, infrastructure or cloud architecture for mission-critical environments.
▪ Strong technical expertise in one or more Airport & Border Authority domains.
▪ Experience in systems integration, solution design and architecture.
▪ In-depth experience in network design and architecture (LAN/WAN, routing and switching, firewalls, VPN/SD-WAN, load balancing, segmentation, DNS) and infrastructure design.
▪ In-depth understanding of cloud hosting models for airport solutions on both Microsoft Azure and AWS, including compute, networking, storage, identity, security, monitoring, high availability, disaster recovery and cost optimisation.
▪ Ability to produce architecture diagrams, sizing and bills of materials, and to defend hosting and network designs with customer IT and security teams.
▪ Proven experience in requirements analysis, technical evaluation of RFP responses, developing Technical Evaluation Reports and conducting design reviews for assigned systems.
▪ Proven experience reviewing RFI and RFP compliance matrices, assessing requirement fit and gaps, and validating responses with Product, Engineering and Cloud Hosting teams.
▪ Commercial knowledge of effort sizing and costing models for technical solutions in Airport IT RFPs and RFIs.
▪ Experience working with partners and vendors to prepare Statements of Work (SOW).
▪ Ability to work with the BISO/CISO and Cybersecurity teams to address security questionnaires and security-related RFP and RFI requirements
▪ Ability to understand end-to-end customer processes and IT landscapes at Airport(s)
▪ Critical thinking, problem-solving and analytical capability.
▪ Strong communication and presentation skills.
▪ Understanding of the sales cycle and customer engagement in a bid management perspective
▪ Ability to collaborate and influence effectively in a matrix organization.
▪ Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science or a related field.
▪ Fluent English; additional APAC languages are a plus.
▪ Willingness to travel across APAC.

⭐ Experience That Would Be a Plus

Experience in one or more of the following would be valuable:

▪ Passenger processing and self-service, including CUPPS, CUSS and self bag drop
▪ Biometrics, digital identity and seamless passenger journeys
▪ Border management, immigration and e-gates
▪ Airport operational systems such as AODB, resource management, A-CDM and baggage
▪ Amadeus A&BA portfolio or comparable airport technology solutions
▪ Cloud certifications such as Azure Solutions Architect Expert or AWS Solutions Architect Professional, and network certifications such as CCNP or CCIE
▪ Experience hosting or migrating mission-critical, 24x7 operational systems (airport, airline, aviation or transport) to Azure or AWS
▪ Experience designing airport or large-site networks, including local hosting, edge deployments and connectivity to third-party systems
▪ Familiarity with ITIL, managed services and support models for hosted solutions

🎯 Key Competencies

▪ Accountability
▪ Business Acumen
▪ Technical Excellence
▪ External Focus
▪ Communication
▪ Building Relations
▪ Championing Expertise
▪ Problem Solving
▪ Change Management
▪ Innovation
▪ Learning Agility
▪ Network & Cloud Architecture Expertise
▪ Risk Awareness (hosting, network and delivery dependencies)
▪ Commercial Awareness (effort sizing, costing and SOW)

💼 What we can offer you  

• · 🎯 A critical mission and purpose - At Amadeus, you'll power the future of travel with a critical mission and extraordinary purpose.  
• · 🌎 A truly global DNA - Everything at Amadeus is global, from our people to our business, which translates into our footprint, processes, and culture.  
• · 🎓 Great opportunities to learn - Learning happens all the time and in many ways at Amadeus, from on-the-job training to formal activities, and daily interactions.  
• · 🤗 A caring environment – Amadeus fosters a caring environment that supports both professional growth and personal well-being.  
• · 💰 A complete rewards offer - Amadeus provides attractive compensation packages, including salary, bonus, caregiving and health benefits.  
• · 🌟 A flexible working model - Embrace our flexible working model, enabling you to excel wherever and however you work best.  
• · 🌈 A diverse, equitable, and inclusive community – We are committed to enabling each employee to reach their full potential by fostering a culture of belonging and fair treatment.  
• · 📈 A Reliable Company - Trust and reliability are fundamental to shaping our relationships with customers, partners, and employees. 

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Diversity & Inclusion

Amadeus aspires to be a leader in Diversity and Inclusion in the tech industry, enabling every employee to reach their full potential by fostering a culture of belonging and fair treatment, attracting the best talent from all backgrounds, and as a role model for an inclusive employee experience.  

Amadeus is an equal opportunity employer and committed to an accessible recruitment process. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, beliefs, disability or any other characteristics protected by law.

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