Director of Solutions Engineering

Solo.io; New York (NY); Remote; USD 150.000 - 210.000; Vollzeit

Benefits dieser Stelle

Remote-first

Laptop & home setup stipend

Monthly phone/internet allowance

Fitness/wellness reimbursements

Pre-tax retirement plans

Stock options

Zusammenfassung

Solo.io is seeking a Director of Solutions Engineering to lead a team across the Central and West regions. You will win technical evaluations, guide architecture sessions, and drive POCs with enterprise customers leveraging Istio and related tech.

The role requires deep cloud-native expertise, open-source experience, and strong executive communication to coach and close complex multi-stakeholder deals.

Qualifikationen

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years in technical pre-sales for infrastructure software, including 3+ years managing SEs.
• Experience with open source/open-core sales motions and enterprise selling to platform teams.

Aufgaben

• Directly lead a team of Solutions Engineers across Central and West regions.
• Win technical evaluations by driving architecture sessions and POCs.
• Coach discovery, demos, POC strategy, and executive communication.
• Partner with regional sales leadership on account strategy and forecast accuracy.
• Serve as technical executive sponsor on large, complex opportunities.

Kenntnisse

Team leadership

Coaching

Technical pre-sales

Executive communication

Strategic account planning

Mentoring SEs

Discovery & POC strategy

MEDDPICC (sales methodology)

Public speaking / demos

Ausbildung

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Istio

Envoy

Cilium/eBPF

Gateway API

Jobbeschreibung

• The Director, Solutions Engineering is a player-coach leadership role responsible for winning the technical evaluation in every deal across our Central and West regions
• You will lead a team of Solutions Engineers directly, partnering with regional sales leadership to turn open source adoption of Istio, kgateway, agentgateway and kagent into enterprise customers
• You will manage and develop the team, build the repeatable processes that make them consistent, and stay hands-on enough to lead architecture sessions and POCs on our most complex opportunities yourself
• Our buyers are platform engineering, security and architecture teams at some of the largest companies in the world, and our deals are won on technical credibility
• Lead and develop a team of Solutions Engineers across the Central and West regions, setting a high technical bar and coaching on discovery, demos, POC strategy, and executive communication
• Act as technical executive sponsor on the region’s largest and most complex opportunities, leading architecture sessions, design reviews, and objection handling yourself when the deal requires it
• Own the technical win in region: decide which deals to go deep on and which to qualify out, and set clear POC success criteria with customers before work begins
• Partner with regional sales leadership on account strategy, SE coverage, deal reviews, and forecast accuracy
• Build repeatable assets such as discovery frameworks, reference architectures, demo environments, and POC playbooks
• Position Solo against open source DIY, hyperscaler offerings, and other agnetic infrastructure, API gateway, and service mesh vendors in competitive evaluations
• Act as the voice of the field, bringing structured customer and competitive feedback to the product management, engineering, and marketing teams
• Represent Solo in the community through customer workshops, meetups, industry events, and technical content creation

Benefits

• Remote first: We are a globally distributed remote workforce
• New employees receive a laptop, as well as a one-time stipend to support setting up their work from home space
• All employees receive a monthly allowance to help cover phone and internet expenses
• Global benefit plans include fitness and wellness reimbursements
• Employees have access to pre-tax savings options for retirement
• Employees are offered stock options to share in Solo’s success

A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experienceLocated in the Central or West US, with willingness to travel to customers and events in regionWorking knowledge of AI/LLM workloads or agent infrastructure (model gateways, MCP/A2A, agent access governance) is a plusExperience with Gateway API, Cilium/eBPF, or another API gateway or service mesh product is a plusDeep, hands-on expertise in cloud-native technologies, including Kubernetes, agentic infrastructure, service mesh (such as Istio), and API gateways (such as Envoy), along with L4/L7 networking, mTLS, and zero-trust securityFluency in a formal sales methodology (MEDDPICC, Command of the Message, or similar) and the ability to coach a team to use itProven record of hiring and developing SEs and measurably improving technical win rate or POC conversionBackground at a CNCF-ecosystem or open-core infrastructure company, or experience in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, telco), is a plus8+ years of experience in technical pre-sales (Solutions Engineer, Sales Engineer, Solutions Architect, or Field Engineer) for infrastructure software, including 3+ years directly managing SEsExperience in an open source or open-core sales motion, converting community users into enterprise customersExperience selling to enterprise platform engineering, infrastructure, and security teams on complex, multi-stakeholder dealsStrong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage both principal engineers and executive buyers