Solutions Team Manager - Grand Rapids MI

Applied Innovation; Grand Rapids (MI); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Life insurance

Short-term disability

Paid vacation

Volunteer time

Onsite gym

401(k) match

Career growth

Job summary

Applied Innovation in Grand Rapids, MI is seeking a Solutions Team Manager to lead solutions engineering, sales engineering, and technical quoting efforts. You will build high-performing teams, standardize proposals and SOWs, and partner across Sales, vCIO/TAM, PS, PMO, Deployment, and Operations to ensure smooth handoffs and successful customer outcomes.

The role requires strong technical presales experience, people leadership, and a continuous improvement mindset to streamline workflows,

Qualifications

• 5+ years in technology consulting, sales engineering, or related fields.
• 3+ years of people leadership experience.
• Bachelor's degree in IT, CS, Engineering, Business, or equivalent.
• Valid driver's license with clean record.
• Strong leadership, communication, and cross-functional coordination.
• Understanding of Managed Services, cloud, cybersecurity, and SOWs.
• Ability to translate products and initiatives for broader teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, coach, and hold accountable Sales Engineers and related roles.
• Set team goals, priorities, and accountability measures.
• Manage intake, prioritization, and progression of solution opportunities.
• Ensure high-quality SOWs, proposals, and architecture.
• Own technical quoting processes and improve catalog efficiency.
• Collaborate across Sales, vCIO/TAM, PS, PMO, Deployment, and Operations.
• Facilitate smooth handoffs from opportunity to delivery.

Skills

Leadership

Presales

Quoting

Solution design

Cross-functional coordination

Vendor management

Delivery handoffs

Team development

Process improvement

Education

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

Tools

CQP quoting software

Job description

Summary:

Applied Innovation is seeking a collaborative and results-drivenSolutions Team Managerto 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 abilitiesrequired.

• 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