Solutions Architect, Enterprise (Presales)

Stripe; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Stripe is seeking an experienced Solutions Architect in Chicago to build trusted C-level partnerships and guide customers through complex monetization and growth initiatives.

You will craft end-to-end Stripe solutions, align with customer roadmaps, and drive adoption across product, engineering, and sales teams. This role demands strategic thinking, strong communication, executive presence, and willingness to travel up to 25% to meet clients where they operate.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in a customer-facing engineering role such as solution consultant, solutions architect, or sales engineer in a global software enterprise.
• 5+ years of experience in pre-sales.
• Experience in payments, billing, invoicing, issuing, banking or fintech space.
• Executive engagement skills with senior decision-makers and credibility at all levels.
• Strong communication and presentation skills for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Understanding of SDLC and API architectures; coding background in Stripe languages is a plus.
• Ability to operate independently in a fast-paced environment.
• English fluency (verbal and written).
• Willingness to travel as needed.

Responsibilities

• Be a key Stripe account team member involved in shaping customer strategy.
• Identify and close complex opportunities and accelerate solution adoption.
• Engage CIO/CTO/COO/CRO/CDO and heads of product engineering and payments.
• Design and apply Stripe solutions to customer challenges and articulate end-to-end journeys.
• Conduct business analysis and research to support growth for the customer.
• Lead strategy engagements and secure technical wins through executive briefings.
• Expand Stripe footprint into new markets and business units with new capabilities.
• Voice of the Customer: surface insights to leadership and product teams.
• Participate in sales forecasting and account planning; travel as needed.
• Travel approximately 25% to engage with customers in person.

Skills

Enterprise architecture

Pre-sales

Executive engagement

API architectures

Customer-facing

Communication

Travel willingness

Strategic thinking

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 Solutions Architecture Team partners with our users to realize their full potential through the adoption of prescriptive solutions that drive their growth and success. We influence revenue growth across Stripe’s product portfolio, and collaborate with sales, support, product management, and Stripe’s executive team to provide the best experience to our most valued customers.

What you’ll do

As a member of the team, the Solutions Architect will build highly consultative trusted relationships with C-level executives and technical decision makers in the customer’s organization to provide business and technical thought leadership, and become a trusted advisor in solving mission-critical business challenges. You'll architect business models with them so they can drive new monetization opportunities and growth for both the user and Stripe.

Responsibilities

• Be a key member of a Stripe account team with deep involvement in defining the customer strategy
• Identify and close new complex opportunities, and accelerate solution adoption. Understand and align with the customer’s product and business roadmap and uncover opportunities for Stripe to accelerate their progress on that roadmap.
• Drive thought leadership and be a trusted advisor for key business and technical stakeholders including CIO, CTO, COO, CRO, CDO, Head of Product Engineering and Head of Payments.
• Work to deeply understand the customer’s business objectives, and then design and apply Stripe’s solutions to their challenges. Develop and articulate the end to end customer transformation journey and create future roadmaps and architectures with deep 3rd party integrations in play.
• Conduct business analysis and background research on customers, industries, and competitors with a view to support growth for the user's business.
• Lead strategy engagements with users to align to business priorities, design solutions and secure the technical win by performing in-depth customer discovery, evangelizing the proposed solutions through executive briefings, readouts, presentations, workshops and solution demos.
• Expand Stripe’s footprint within existing accounts to new global markets and business units by introducing new capabilities and local payment methods.
• Act as the “Voice of the Customer” to bring insights, trends and opportunities to the leadership, product and engineering teams from the forefront and prioritized for delivery.
• Participate in sales forecasting, Quarterly Business Reviews and account/territory planning to strategically and tactically align for success
• Approximately 25% travel is anticipated to help you connect in-person in a meaningful way with users and collaborate internally

Who you are

You have achieved an experienced position as an enterprise architect, senior solution architect or principal solution engineer and have a successful track record advising enterprise-grade digital native / SAAS / Platform / Marketplace companies, focused on identifying business priorities, formulating technology strategies and designing an end-to-end business solution. You possess deep technical acumen, high interpersonal and leadership skills, and have demonstrated the ability to become a trusted advisor to senior executives and facilitate customer success along the entire customer journey. Strategic and creative thinker who can proactively identify challenges, take ownership, and maintain a positive approach when facing difficult obstacles.

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. The preferred qualifications are a bonus, not a requirement.

Minimum requirements

• 7+ years of experience in a similar customer-facing engineering role such as solution consultant, solutions architect, sales engineer, for a global software enterprise.
• 5+ years of experience in pre-sales
• Experience in the payments/ billing / invoicing / issuing / banking / Fintech space
• Executive engagement skills and presence, with an ability to establish strong relationships with key decision makers and build credibility at all levels.
• Effective group-facilitation skills and confidence in proposing and leading customer meetings to gain strategic footing and pursue opportunities.
• Thorough understanding of the software development lifecycle and API architectures. A background in writing code in any of Stripe’s primary deployment languages (Ruby, Python, JavaScript, Java, Go, etc.) is a plus.
• Outstanding spoken and written communication skills, presentation skills, and confident in explaining complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to operate independently in a highly ambiguous and fast-paced environment
• Passion to take on ownership and drive change in a constantly evolving environment.
• Superior verbal and written communication skills in English
• Ability to travel per business needs

Preferred requirements

• Media & Entertainment, Gaming / Retail / Financial Services industry experience
• Prior experience in consulting
• Experience at a growth stage internet/software company