Head of Solutions Architecture, UK

Stripe; London; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial infrastructure platform is seeking a motivated thought leader to build and lead their UK Solution Architects team. This role involves strategic leadership, influencing technical sales, and developing high-performance teams, impacting the future success of the company.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in technical sales, 10+ in leadership.
• Experience with SaaS, APIs, and FinTech preferred.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute technical sales strategy.
• Recruit and develop Solution Architects.
• Influence product direction and priorities.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Collaboration

Adaptability

Job description

Who we are About Stripe

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies - from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups - use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an unprecedented opportunity to put the global economy within everyone's reach while doing the most important work of your career.

About the team

The mission of Solution Architects is to be trusted partners to Stripe customers, partners and product/eng teams. We understand our customers and what is required to help them achieve their business goals. We develop a shared vision, establish joint accountability, and prioritize their long term success above all else. We think and act as one team along the customer's multi year journey. We recognize that every customer's success increases the GDP of the internet and accelerates Stripe’s growth.

At Stripe, managers grow teams and inspire them to do outstanding work. We are looking for a motivated thought leader to help build and lead our UK Solution Architects team. This leader must be a driver who loves building teams and businesses. This role requires great interpersonal skills to work cross functionally, as a trusted advisor to both our sales, partner and professional services teams, as well as, with our product development and marketing teams. Your influence can have a far ranging impact. This is not the kind of opportunity that presents itself very often. Individuals applying for this role must be entrepreneurial and self-driven with a passion for breaking into markets and creating something new they can be proud of.

What you’ll do

As a thought leader of our UK Solution Architects team, you will have a major impact on our future success. You will be responsible for strategic leadership and management oversight of the largest region in EMEA.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute Stripe’s technical sales strategy in conjunction with sales leaders, marketing, professional services, GTM partner team and product engineering.
• Build repeatable playbooks and defining execution best practices
• Recruit, mentor, develop and inspire SAs to do the best work of their careers.
• Influence the mindset of CXOs, developers, architects and other technical decision makers, helping to shape their long-term architectural direction and scope roadmap for them to get to their target end-states.
• Champion the voice of our users and influence product direction and priorities.
• Partner with Sales, professional services, support services and product engineering to manage the customer journey from business and technical discovery, to technical win, to successful adoption, value realization and expansion
• Drive thought leadership through presenting at EBCs, industry events, developing whitepapers and reference architectures.

Who you are

We're looking for someone who meets the minimum requirements to be considered for the role. If you meet these requirements, you are encouraged to apply.

Minimum requirements

• 15+ years of experience in a technical sales role (e.g., Solutions Architect/Consultant), including 10+ years in a technical Pre-Sales leadership position.
• Proven experience as a first-line leader, managing individual contributors and recruiting/developing high-performance teams selling technology solutions to global companies.
• Previous technical sales experience with SaaS, APIs, distributed systems, databases, developer tools, or the FinTech industry preferred.
• Demonstrated track record of building and leading world-class solution architecture teams, ideally in SaaS or consumption-based businesses.
• Strong understanding of developing human-centric CX experiences, enterprise systems and architecture
• Strong drive for results and ability to collaborate and influence in a “Win as a team” environment.
• Passionate about coaching and developing others to their highest potential, with strong people management skills.
• Success recruiting and developing high performance teams selling technology solutions to global companies
• Excellent communication (written and verbal) and presentation skills.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills for communicating and collaborating with both business and technical stakeholders at all levels within an organization.
• Self-starter who is adaptable and flexible, able to work and thrive in a highly dynamic environment.
• Willingness to travel 30% of the time.
• Strong executive presence and ability to foster deep relationships with users.