Candidate FAQ: Technical Account Manager and Enterprise Support

At September 2020 I have joined AWS as Senior Technical Account Manager in Nordics region. Our team is growing with amazing pace and we are hiring in all Nordics countries. One year later, already in a new role, I am writing this post to share insights about what Technical Account Manager (TAM) role is.

FAQ below will help candidates to understand better TAM role, Enterprise Support organization and Amazon culture. Feel free to post comments with your questions or reach out to me via Linkedin

Q: What Technical Account Manager role is at AWS?

A: A Technical Account Manager (TAM) is customer’s designated technical point of contact who helps customers onboard, provides advocacy and guidance to help plan and build solutions using best practices, coordinates access to subject matter experts, assists with case management, presents insights and recommendations on your AWS spend, workload optimization, and event management, and proactively keeps customers’ AWS environment healthy.

Q: Ok. And what exactly TAM does?

A: As a TAM you will:

  • Build solutions, provide technical guidance and advocate for the customer
  • Ensure AWS environments remain operationally healthy whilst reducing cost and complexity
  • Develop trusting relationships with customers, understanding their business needs and technical challenges
  • Using your technical acumen and customer obsession, you’ll drive technical discussions regarding incidents, trade-offs, and risk management
  • Consult with a range of partners from developers through to C-suite executives
  • Collaborate with AWS Solutions Architects, Business Developers, Professional Services Consultants, and Sales Account Managers
  • With a bias for action, you’ll proactively find opportunities for customers to gain additional value from AWS
  • Provide detailed reviews of service disruptions, metrics, detailed pre-launch planning
  • Solve a variety of problems across different customers as they migrate their workloads to the cloud
  • Uplift customer capabilities by running workshops, brown bag sessions, etc.

Q: That’s a pretty long list. What prior experience and qualifications do I need to have to apply?

A: TAMs are coming into the role with very diverse backgrounds and prior experiences (and we value it very much!), so there is no clear pattern.

From basic qualifications we are looking for:

  • Experience in a similar role as a Technical Account Manager, Consultant, Solutions Architect, Platform Engineer, Systems Engineer, Cloud Architect etc.
  • Understand operational parameters and troubleshooting for a combination of the following: Compute, Storage, Networking, CDN, Databases, DevOps, Big Data and Analytics, Security, Applications Development
  • Internal enterprise or external customer-facing experience with the ability to clearly articulate to small and large audiences
  • Ability to juggle tasks and projects in a fast-paced environment
  • Customer obsessed

Q: Do I need to be an expert in all technical areas mentioned above?

A: No, you haven’t. We assess technical competence during interview process, however, you don’t need to be an expert in all technologies.

Q: I don’t have experience with AWS Services. Can I still apply?

A: Yes, you can. Knowledge of AWS Services is preferred qualification not a basic one.

Q: What is AWS Enterprise Support?

A: AWS Enterprise Support provides customers with concierge-like service where the main focus is helping them achieve their outcomes and find success in the cloud.

With Enterprise Support, customers get 24×7 technical support from high-quality engineers, tools and technology to automatically manage health of your environment, consultative architectural guidance delivered in the context of customers applications and use-cases, and a designated Technical Account Manager (TAM) to coordinate access to proactive / preventative programs and AWS subject matter experts.

You can read more about AWS Enterprise Support here.

Q: Can I hear about TAM role in their own words?

A: Yes, you can! Hear from two of our TAM’s what it’s like:

https://emea-resources.awscloud.com/write-your-own-story/meet-liga-sr-technical-account-manager

https://emea-resources.awscloud.com/write-your-own-story/meet-niels-technical-account-manager

Q: I want to know more about Amazon financial data. Where can I find it?

A: You can check out official Amazon Investor Relations page that have all public details

Q: I still have questions. Who can I contact?

A: If you are interested in Technical Account Manager role in Nordics. Reach me out via Linkedin


Leave a Reply