Solutions Team Manager - Grand Rapids MI

appliedinnovation; Grand Rapids (MI); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and life insurance

Short-term disability

Paid vacation and holidays

Paid volunteer time

Onsite fitness center

401(k) retirement plan with company 2%

Growth opportunities

Job summary

Applied Innovation in Grand Rapids, MI is seeking a Solutions Team Manager to lead solutions engineering, sales engineering, and technical quoting operations.

You will develop high-performing teams, standardize proposals and SOWs, and partner with Sales, vCIO/TAM, Professional Services, PMO, Deployment, and Operations to ensure smooth handoffs and successful customer outcomes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, CS, engineering, business, or related field.
• Valid driver's license and clean driving record.
• 5+ years in technology consulting, sales engineering, solutions architecture, or technical leadership.
• 3+ years of people leadership.
• Strong understanding of MSP, infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, and presales.
• Excellent communication and organizational skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, coach, and hold accountable Sales Engineers, Solutions Engineers, and Technical Quoting personnel.
• Set team goals, performance expectations, workload priorities, and accountability measures.
• Balance workloads across engineering and quoting resources.
• Review complex opportunities before customer delivery.
• Align sold solutions with delivery expectations to reduce risk.
• Own technical quoting processes and improve turnaround times.
• Foster collaboration across Sales, vCIO/TAM, Professional Services, PMO, Deployment, and Operations.

Skills

Team Leadership

Technical Presales

Process Improvement

Cross-functional Collaboration

Quoting & Proposals

Budgeting & Forecasting

Education

Bachelor’s degree in IT/CS/Engineering/Business

5+ years tech consulting / presales

3+ years people leadership

Job description

Summary:

Applied Innovation is seeking a collaborative and results-driven Solutions Team Manager to oversee solutions engineering, sales engineering, and technical quoting operations. This role is responsible for developing high-performing teams, improving solution design and quoting processes, ensuring quality and consistency in proposals and SOWs, and partnering across Sales, vCIO/TAM, Professional Services, PMO, Deployment, and Operations to support smooth handoffs and successful customer outcomes. The ideal candidate brings strong technical presales experience, people leadership skills, and a continuous improvement mindset to help streamline workflows, reduce delivery risk, and support revenue growth.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Team Leadership




• Lead, develop, coach, and hold accountable Sales Engineers, Solutions Engineers, and Technical Quoting personnel.




• Set team goals, performance expectations, workload priorities, and accountability measures.




• Build a culture of collaboration, service excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement.




• Solutions Operations




• Manage intake, prioritization, assignment, and progression of solution opportunities.




• Balance workloads across engineering and quoting resources.




• Remove bottlenecks andmaintainworkflow standards and service level expectations.




• Solution Design & Quality




• Ensure consistent, high-quality SOWs, proposals, technical recommendations, and approvedarchitecture.




• Review complex or high-impact opportunities before customer delivery.




• Align sold solutions with delivery expectations to reduce scope gaps, ambiguity, and delivery risk.




• Technical Quoting & Revenue Enablement




• Own technical quoting processes, standards, turnaround time, and productivity.




• Simplify the quoting process by developing a curated catalog of approved products, services, bundles, and templates that enables more team members to quote directly with consistency and confidence.




• Serve as the company’s subject matter expert for CQP quoting software, including process design, user adoption, best practices, data integrity, and continuous improvement.




• Partner with Sales, Account Management, andvCIOteams to improve conversion and align pricing, scoping, and recommendations with companyobjectives.




• Cross-Functional Alignment




• Partner with Sales Leadership,vCIO/TAM, Professional Services, PMO, Deployment, and Operations.




• Ensure smooth handoffs from opportunity identification through solution design, quoting, project initiation, and delivery.




• Facilitate communication between solution teams and professional service delivery teams, ensuring baselines, SOWs, and design processes work across both teams.




• Support leadership communication efforts by helping translate new products, services, and strategic initiatives into clear updates for the broader team.




• Vendor & Portfolio Support




• Support technology evaluation, service development, vendor management, standardization, and portfolio optimization.




• Provideoperational insight into emerging technologies and service offerings.




• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications:

To perform this position successfully, an individual must be able to perform each job duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required.

• A growth and service-minded, collaborative, and improvement-oriented mindset that balances urgency, quality, accountability, and practical execution.




• Strong leadership, communication, prioritization, process design, technical scoping, quoting, coaching, and cross-functional coordination skills.




• Working knowledge of managed services, infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, solution design, SOW development, pricing models, CQP, curated catalogs, anddeliveryhandoff requirements.




• Understanding and alignment with the organization’s core values

Education/License/Experience Requirements:

• Bachelor’sdegree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field,oranequivalentcombination ofeducationandrelevantexperience.




• Valid driver’s licenseandcleandrivingrecord, withnoDUIsin the pastfiveyears.




• 5+ years of experience in technology consulting, sales engineering,solutionsarchitecture, or technical leadership.




• 3+ yearsof peopleleadership experience.




• Strong understanding of Managed Services, infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, project delivery, and technical presales.




• Strong communicationand organizational skills.




• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications& Experience:

• Experience managing Sales Engineers, Solutions Engineers, Technical Consultants, or similar technical revenue teams.




• Experience developing SOWs, technical proposals, financial models, quotes, orsolutionprofitability analysis.




• MSP, VAR, or technology services industry experience.

Why Applied Innovation?

We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Medical, dental, and life insurance on the 31st day of employment.




• Short-term disability.




• Paid vacation and holidays.




• Paid volunteer time.




• Onsite fitness center




• 401(k) retirement plan with company match program.




• Opportunities for professional growth and advancement