Solutions Engineer - Strategic

Serval; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Serval, an AI-native automation platform, is looking for a founding Solutions Engineer to own the pre-sales technical cycle for strategic customers. You’ll demo, architect, and evaluate the platform with CIOs and security leaders, shaping how we present value and win the technical decision.

Because you’re first, you’re writing the playbook with GTM and account teams, building the technical backbone for future SEs.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in solutions architecture, sales engineering, or a comparable pre-sales technical role at a high-growth B2B software or infrastructure company.
• Track record of selling technical products to senior IT and security buyers with credibility before CIOs and security leaders.
• Genuine technical depth: able to hold an architecture review, debug integrations live, answer security questions without a deck.
• Fluent with modern IT and identity stacks, including IdPs, SCIM, ITSM, API access controls, and SaaS administration.
• Excellent communication and storytelling, translating complex concepts for engineers and executives.
• Builder’s instinct and ownership, energized by being first and creating scalable systems.
• Experience with ITSM, IGA, access management, security, or AI automation products is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

• Run the technical sales motion with AEs: discovery, architecture, demos, whiteboard sessions, executive briefings, and security reviews.
• Deep dive on integrations with the prospect’s stack (Okta/Entra, ITSM, HRIS, cloud, SaaS apps Serval provisions).
• Translate environments and goals into value-based use cases and pilot success criteria.
• Be the credible voice on security, guardrails, least-privilege, audit logging, and access governance.
• Execute a clean handoff to Deployment at pilot kickoff with full technical context.
• Build the foundational SA toolkit: demos, reference architectures, evaluation frameworks, FAQs, and competitive positioning.
• Bridge field and product: capture objections and gaps and work with engineering to close them.

Skills

Solutions architecture

Sales engineering

Pre-sales technical

Security governance

Identity & access management

Business communication

Tools

Okta

Entra

ITSM

API integrations

SaaS platforms

Job description

Who We Are

Serval is an AI-native automation platform transforming how enterprises operate. We build intelligent agents that understand real-world workflows and execute them end-to-end — replacing manual processes and rigid legacy systems with adaptive, learning software. Founded in early 2024, Serval is already trusted by companies like Fox, Notion, Perplexity, Vercel, and Brex to automate high-volume, high-friction operational work across their organizations.

At the core of Serval is an agentic AI platform that turns natural language into production-grade workflows. Our agents don’t just respond to requests — they reason, take action across systems, and continuously improve with usage. What began with operational use cases has quickly evolved into a horizontal AI automation layer used across IT, HR, Finance, Security, Legal, and Engineering.

Our mission is to eliminate repetitive, manual work across the enterprise and give teams leverage through intelligent automation. Long term, we’re building the universal AI operations layer — a system of agents that sits across business functions and runs the workflows that keep modern companies moving.

We’re backed by leading investors including Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Meritech, First Round, General Catalyst, Elad Gil, and others.

Role Overview

This is our founding Solutions Engineer: the first technical seller at Serval and the person who defines what world-class solutions architecture looks like here. You'll own the technical side of the pre-sales cycle for prospective strategic customers, sitting across the table from sophisticated IT and security buyers who test every claim we make. Your job is to earn their trust, prove the platform, and win the technical decision. Because you're first, you're not inheriting a playbook, you're writing it: partnering directly with our GTM leaders and account executives, shaping how we demo and run technical evaluations, and building the technical foundation the next ten SAs will use.

Who You Are

• A builder at heart, able to scope what matters, stand up a demo or proof-of-value yourself, and ship it.

• Deeply technical and credible, the kind of person who earns the respect of CIOs, Heads of IT, and security leaders in the first meeting.

• A trusted advisor by instinct, who listens for the real problem and proves value in the sales cycle rather than pitching features.

• Living on the AI frontier, fluent in how agents and LLM-powered systems get deployed and governed inside the enterprise.

• Comfortable in ambiguity, owning your work end-to-end, and moving without waiting to be told what to build next.

What You'll Do

• Run the technical sales motion with AEs: discovery, architecture, demos, whiteboard sessions, executive briefings, and the security review that wins technical buy-in.

• Go deep on integrations with the prospect's stack, including identity providers (Okta, Entra), ITSM and ticketing, MDM, HRIS, cloud, and the SaaS apps Serval provisions against.

• Translate unique technical environments, requirements, and goals into a scoped set of value-based use cases and success criteria for pilot.

• Be the credible voice on security and access, fluent in guardrails, approval workflows, least-privilege and just-in-time access, audit logging, and the compliance questions security teams press on.

• Execute a clean handoff to Deployment at pilot kickoff, with full technical context, then roll off the account.

• Build the foundational SA toolkit from scratch: demo environments, reference architectures, evaluation frameworks, technical FAQs, and competitive positioning.

• Act as the bridge between the field and product, capturing the hardest objections and feature gaps and working directly with engineering to close them.

What You'll Need

• 10+ years in solutions architecture, sales engineering, or a comparable pre-sales technical role at a high-growth B2B software or infrastructure company.

• A track record of selling technical products to senior IT and security buyers, with hands‑on credibility in front of CIOs, Heads of IT, and security leaders.

• Genuine technical depth: you can hold your own in an architecture review, debug an integration live, and answer a sharp security question without reaching for a deck.

• Working fluency with the modern IT and identity stack, including IdPs and SCIM, ITSM and ticketing, SaaS administration, APIs, and how access is granted and revoked across an org.

• Excellent communication and storytelling, translating complex concepts for both engineers and executives.

• A builder's instinct and high ownership, energized by being first and motivated to create the systems that scale a team.

• Experience with ITSM, IGA, access management, security, or AI automation products is a strong plus.

What We Offer

• Impact: Be a key player in shaping the success of our product and company.

• Growth: Build a fundamentally new AI product offering with the support of our experienced team and investors. Grow rapidly with the company.

• Culture: Join a culture that values innovation, ownership, accountability, and fun.