Senior Solutions Engineer, Central

Kai; Chicago (IL); Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Competitive salary

Supportive environment

Job summary

Kai is hiring a Senior Solutions Engineer to cover the Central region. This is a fully remote, field-based role. You will own the technical sales motion in your territory—partnering with the regional Account Executive to bring Kai's platform to the largest enterprises in the Central market.

You are the technical authority in every room, connecting security expertise to measurable business outcomes and influencing product directions as we grow our SE function.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of Enterprise Security experience in a solutions engineering, systems engineering, or pre-sales role.
• Broad enterprise security knowledge across domains and mapping a platform to customer problems.
• Proven track record running structured POVs with Global 2000 or Fortune 500 accounts.
• Experience selling into accounts with 10,000+ employees.
• Strong discovery skills and ability to connect technical outcomes to business value.

Responsibilities

• Own the full pre-sales technical motion for enterprise opportunities in the Central region.
• Design and run structured, outcome-driven POVs; measure against customer-defined outcomes.
• Lead deep technical discovery of customer environment, threat model, and security stack.
• Deliver compelling presentations to technical and executive audiences; translate capabilities to business value.
• Build trusted advisor relationships with security teams at Global 2000 and Fortune 500 accounts.
• Represent Kai at industry events and customer briefings in the Central region.
• Bring field intelligence back to Product and Engineering as the voice of the customer.

Skills

Enterprise Security

Solutions Engineering

Pre-sales

Global 2000 / Fortune 500 accounts

Discovery & POVs

Executive presentations

Territory knowledge (Central region)

Travel 50%+

Tools

MEDDICC/MEDDPICC

Challenger sales

Job description

Kai is the AI company rebuilding cybersecurity for the machine-speed era. Founded bysecond timefounders and trusted by Fortune 500 enterprises,Kai is building a future where security has nocategories, no silos, and nohumanspeed bottlenecks.TheKaiAgentic AI Platformreplaces fragmented, human-limited workflows with agentic AI systems that continuously contextualize, assess, reason,and execute security work atmachine speed-makinghuman defenders, superhuman.

Why Join Kai

• Well-funded: With $125M raised, we have the capital, runway, and resolve to rebuild cybersecurity from first principles.
• Proven: We've earned the trust of Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, and we're just getting started. Their confidence in Kai reflects what we've built: an AI-powered cybersecurity platform that performs at the scale and speed the enterprise demands.
• Experienced founders: Our founding team consists of second-time entrepreneurs, each with over 20 years of experience in the cybersecurity industry. Their proven expertise and vision drive our ambitious goals.
• World-class leadership team: Our Heads of AI, Engineering, and Product bring extensive experience from some of the world’s most influential companies, ensuring top-tier mentorship, direction, and vision.
• Frontier AI Applied Research Team: Our researchers operate at the leading edge of agentic AI systems, translating breakthrough capabilities into real-world cybersecurity applications.
• Generous compensation: We offer highly competitive salaries, equity options, and a supportive work environment. Your contributions will be valued and rewarded as we grow together.

THE ROLE

Kai ishiringaSenior Solutions Engineer to cover the Central region. This is a fully remote, field-based role.

You will own the technical sales motion in your territory — from first call through POV close — partnering directly with your regional Account Executive to bring Kai's platform to the largest enterprises in the Central market. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role. You are the technical authority in every room, and your ability to connect deep securityexpertiseto measurable business outcomes willdeterminewhat closes and whatdoesn't.

We are building the SE function as we grow. The person who joins now will have direct influence on how that function operates — not just how it executes.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own the full pre-sales technical motion for enterprise opportunities in the Central region, partnering closely with your Account Executive from first call through signed agreement
• Design and run structured, outcome-driven POVs — scoped tightly, executed cleanly, measured against customer-defined business outcomes
• Lead deep technical discovery to understand each customer's environment, threat model, and existing security stack before you ever open a demo
• Deliver compelling presentations and demonstrations to technical and executive audiences — security architects, SOC leadership, and CISOs — translating platform capabilities into business outcomes
• Build trusted advisor relationships with security teams at Global 2000 and Fortune 500 accounts
• Represent Kai at industry events, security conferences, and customer briefings across the Central region
• Bring field intelligence back to Product and Engineering — you are the voice of the customer inside the company

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

Required:

• 7+ years ofEnterprise Securityexperience in a solutions engineering, systems engineering, or pre-salesrole
• Broad enterprise security knowledge — you understand the security landscape, can speak credibly across domains, and know how to map a platform to a customer's real problems
• Proventrack recordrunning structured, outcome-driven POVs with Global 2000orFortune 500 accounts
• Experience selling into accounts with 10,000+ employees
• Strong discovery skills — you ask the right questions before you ever open a demo
• Ability to connect technical outcomes to business value
• Deep, long-tenured experience covering the Central region,with established relationships within your territory
• Startup experiencebringing brand new category-defining technology into the market
• Experience at a security platform company —you'vesold a connected system, not a point solution
• Willingness to travel 50%+ across the Central region

Preferred:

• Background in detection and response, vulnerability management, exposure management, application security, security operations, or asset intelligence
• Experience working within a formal enterprise salesmethodology— MEDDICC/MEDDPICC, Force Management,Challenger, or similar
• Familiarity with AI/ML security concepts or AI-native platforms
• Prior involvement in building or refining a POV framework or SE playbook

Kai is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Kai will process your personal data in accordance with Kai's Privacy Policy .

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Kai’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.