Technical Account Manager, Federal

Hitachi Vantara Federal is the trusted leader in mission-centric data solutions for the Federal government. We’re a collaborative, full-service company with longstanding OT/IT roots. We empower data-driven insight with a deep bench of integrated partners — advancing Federal customer missions regardless of their data maturity levels. Hitachi Vantara Federal is a FOCI-mitigated subsidiary of Hitachi Vantara. Visit us at hitachivantarafederal.com.

OVERVIEW

The Technical Account Manager (TAM) is a key role within Hitachi Vantara Federal (HVF), acting first and foremost as the single point of contact between HVF’s professional services organization and its largest accounts. The TAM role drives value for both the customer and HVF by proactively addressing customer needs and developing a strong relationship with key individuals in the customer’s organization.

RESPONSIBILITIES

While the priorities for the TAM role vary to some degree based on customer, the primary responsibilities of the role remain consistent. As the single point of contact, TAM responsibilities range across the entire customer lifecycle, from pre-sales and implementation to escalations and other service-related issues.
• Single point of contact: Own his / her role as the Management contact and escalation point in relation to delivery of all HVF services. Proactively sharing updates and information, both of a technical and non-technical nature, with the customer on a frequent basis.
• Relationship development: Build networks through outreach and establishment of new relationships within the customer organization, extending beyond just the primary points-of- contact. Additionally, maintain vendor relationships for all products deployed within the storage infrastructure (e.g. disk, fabric, software
• Meetings and reporting: Organize and conduct regular meetings and communications with key teams / individuals at each account to review account and status, and ensure that customers get the customized reporting they need. Ensure customer satisfaction with service delivery.
• Solutions assurance: Works closely with Pre-sale and Account Management teams to ensure the solutions being sold, installed, and implemented at the customer’s site fulfill the customer’s needs, and fulfill HVF’ obligations. This includes ownership of the solutions assurance process, coordinating and managing implementation consultants and overseeing the Solutions Assurance Document (SAD).
• Service escalations: Oversee escalations by owning the coordination of customer meetings, communicating with the customer, and aligning the logistics of the escalation team with the customer’s internal team. Facilitate a smooth handoff to the escalation team by proactively staying on top of all issues while having the necessary data prepared and ready to share.
• Rebuild after escalation: Complete and review incident report detailing the sequence of events, the root cause of the incident, lessons learned and actions to be taken. Engage in all post- mortem communication to the customer with a focus on rebuilding trust. Solicit survey feedback from the customer and drive the implementation of any needed changes.
• Sales and pre-sales involvement: Be a full participating member of the account team, responsible for keeping the team apprised of customer developments and insider information to
maximize growth opportunities. Attend and facilitate regularly scheduled internal meetings with other members of the account team and participate in external sales meetings. Continually seek further opportunities for HVF products and services and inform rest of the account team.
• Domain expertise: Be Hitachi’s internal expert on the customer’s system, service history, and current and future business objectives. Ensure that pre-sales, sales, implementation, and service teams have the customer knowledge they need to operate, and guarantee that any proposed solution fulfills the customer’s business needs. Maintain understanding of the products, services and solutions supported by HVF.
• Pre-install and implementation: Own the account support plan, including details for how the account is serviced and supported. Coordinate and manage a smooth install for the customer and provide them with timely updates throughout the process. Work with CS&S engineers, Resource Management and Global Support to ensure that all incidents relating to installed storage infrastructure and to HVF service delivery are managed and resolved in a timely manner.
• Routine maintenance: Assume lead responsibility for delivery of maintenance support services for each account. Manage and coordinate CEs to ensure routine maintenance, break-fix, and communication is conducted in a timely manner. Ensure Customer is aware of new microcode releases & engineering changes. Coordinate the activities of third parties supporting HVF at the customer as required.
• Continuous Improvement: Identify and follow through opportunities for improving customer care, whether internal or external to HVF. Identify and address proactively any issues impacting the effectiveness of HVF support.

EXPECTATIONS AND GOALS

The TAM role will have internal and external goals, including both individual goals and general HVF benchmarks for the role. To some degree, the TAM will set their own goals, while others will be set by HVF management.
Many goals will be based around key metrics for the TAM role, which the TAM is expected to track and know on a regular basis. These metrics are based around the following areas-- though there may be additional areas:
• Customer satisfaction
• Customer relationship building
• Account service readiness
• Escalation response
• Sales success

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLSET

The TAM role is a hybrid – it is critical that individuals have both account management and technical leadership skills. Just one skillset is not enough to succeed in this position. If a TAM has a strong
background in just one skillset or the other, training may be required to get the individual confident and capable in both areas.
• Account Management Skills
The TAM needs to be comfortable reaching out to new people within the customer’s organization and establishing connections. Merely maintaining existing points-of-contact is not sufficient. The TAM must be able to proactively maintain existing connections deepening and strengthening them. The TAM role is not a sales role, but the TAM must be comfortable in sales meetings and other sales situations, and be able to discuss products, services, and solutions with the customer.
• Technical Leadership Skills
The TAM must be able to communicate technical details, both internally and with the customer. To do this, the TAM must understand the customer’s system from a technical level. Being able to communicate technical details will be key for establishing credibility both with technical experts inside HVF and with the customer. Furthermore, the TAM needs to be able to put technical specifics into non-technical language for those who are less technical in the customer’s organization. This includes understanding HVF-specific terminology and communicating it externally.

Additionally, the TAM must have a minimum of 10 years IT Industry experience, with a 5 year minimum service management experience in enterprise level service. The TAM must have a strong knowledge of the storage industry, products, and solutions. They must have the technical ability to build customer facing reports, create implementation plans, coordinate installs, and monitor product health throughout escalations. A TAM should be comfortable pulling technical data from a customer’s system as well as monitoring trends or irregularities in the data. The TAM must be innovative, actively looking for solutions to problems, and a catalyst for change.

Additional Skillset:

• Possesses a high degree of self-motivation to achieve set objectives and contributes directly to the success of the business; communicates a positive attitude toward tasks and challenges
• Excellent skills in developing and maintain customer relationships
• Willingness to accept responsibility and ownership
• Highly proficient in written and spoken business English
• Well organized, adaptable and a clear thinker
• Broad understanding of storage solutions and associated IT issues
• Innovative, actively looking for solutions to problems, and a catalyst for change
• ITIL service management, 6 Sigma, continuous improvement methods to be considered
• Demonstrates integrity in all business relationships and transactions
• Follows up and follows through on all commitments

Great careers start with growth and innovation and here at HV Federal, our mission is to deliver insights that power smarter businesses and inspire social innovation solutions for a healthier, safer future. The key to our innovation is our people -- our culture values respect, diversity, and collaboration. Join our Hitachi family and together, let’s lead the way to extraordinary!

Championing diversity, equity, and inclusion   

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are integral to our culture and identity. Diverse thinking, a commitment to allyship, and a culture of empowerment help us achieve powerful results. We want you to be you, with all the ideas, lived experience, and fresh perspective that brings. We support your uniqueness and encourage people from all backgrounds to apply and realize their full potential as part of our team.   

How we look after you  

We help take care of your today and tomorrow with industry-leading benefits, support, and services that look after your holistic health and wellbeing. We’re also champions of life balance and offer flexible arrangements that work for you (role and location dependent). We’re always looking for new ways of working that bring out our best, which leads to unexpected ideas. So here, you’ll experience a sense of belonging, and discover autonomy, freedom, and ownership as you work alongside talented people you enjoy sharing knowledge with.   

We’re proud to say we’re an equal opportunity employer and welcome all applicants for employment without attention to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, age, disability status or any other protected characteristic. Should you need reasonable accommodations during the recruitment process, please let us know so that we can do our best to set you up for success.