KNIME is a leading AI platform that enables organizations to make sense of their data through intuitive, scalable, and collaborative data science. As the VP Solutions, you will lead and scale the ...
Knime
1 job near Columbus, OH
KNIME is a leading AI platform that enables organizations to make sense of their data through intuitive, scalable, and collaborative data science. As the VP Solutions, you will lead and scale the ...
Full-time
Posted 6 days ago
Job description
Job Summary:
KNIME is a leading AI platform that enables organizations to make sense of their data through intuitive, scalable, and collaborative data science. As the VP Solutions, you will lead and scale the international pre-sales organization, focusing on accelerating the sales cycle and maximizing deal conversion through strategic alignment with Sales, Product, and Marketing.
Responsibilities:
• Lead and develop a world-class global team of Solution Engineers responsible for technical discovery, demonstrations, POC execution, and RFP/RFI responses.
• Standardize global POC execution and demo excellence to maximize win rates and shorten time-to-close.
• Define SE engagement models, coverage ratios, and capacity planning across enterprise, mid-market, and strategic segments.
• Lead a team of Industry Experts (vertical SMEs) across key industries (e.g., Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail) and embed them in high-value pursuits to elevate credibility and tailor solution narratives.
• Build horizontal/vertical solution frameworks, use case libraries, and ROI models; stay ahead of industry trends and regulatory shifts.
• Align pre-sales strategy with global sales and marketing objectives to accelerate pipeline velocity and deal progression.
• Elevate the commercial impact of demos by shifting the narrative from product features to business value and ROI.
• Direct the strategic approach for overcoming enterprise-level technical, security, and compliance objections in high-stakes sales cycles.
• Own pre-sales pipeline contribution metrics including influenced ARR, win rate, POC conversion, and deal acceleration.
• Partner with Marketing on thought leadership, case studies, business assets, and competitive battlecards.
• Channel field insights and competitive gaps into the product roadmap with Product and Engineering.
• Collaborate with the Senior VP Client Delivery to align pre-sales commitments with delivery capabilities and avoid scope misalignment.
• Mentor and scale a high-performing, commercially minded solutions team tailored to global enterprise accounts.
• Build clear career tracks and competency frameworks for both technical (SE) and domain (industry expert) paths.
• Deliver onboarding, continuous education, and certification programs to keep the team sharp on product and industry knowledge.
• Track pre-sales performance metrics including SE coverage, POC win rates, time-to-technical-win, and field feedback loop velocity.
• Oversee tools and assets used by the pre-sales team (demo environments, sandbox infrastructure, asset libraries, RFP tools).
• Establish governance around POC scope, resource allocation, and escalation paths.
Qualifications:
Required:
• 10+ years of experience in Solutions Engineering, Technical Sales, or Pre-Sales Management within enterprise software, with 5+ years in a senior leadership position (Director or above).
• Proven track record building and scaling international pre-sales organizations - including both SEs and Industry Experts - in a high-growth Enterprise SaaS environment.
• Demonstrated success improving win rates, deal velocity, and conversion funnels through structured pre-sales programs and tight partnership with Sales and Marketing.
• Background engaging with C-suite buyers in complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise environments.
• Deep technical fluency in SaaS platforms, APIs, integrations, and cloud architecture - sufficient to credibly lead an SE team.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to translate complex technology into compelling commercial strategies; strategic grasp of how enterprise security, compliance, and governance shape the software procurement lifecycle.
• Exceptional presentation, storytelling, and executive communication skills; strong analytical capabilities to measure and improve team performance.
• Bachelor's degree in a technical or business discipline required.
Preferred:
• MBA or advanced technical degree preferred.
Company:
KNIME provides a platform for end-to-end data science and analytics. Founded in 2008, the company is headquartered in Zürich, CHE, with a team of 201-500 employees. The company is currently Growth Stage.
KNIME is a leading AI platform that enables organizations to make sense of their data through intuitive, scalable, and collaborative data science. As the VP Solutions, you will lead and scale the international pre-sales organization, focusing on accelerating the sales cycle and maximizing deal conversion through strategic alignment with Sales, Product, and Marketing.
Responsibilities:
• Lead and develop a world-class global team of Solution Engineers responsible for technical discovery, demonstrations, POC execution, and RFP/RFI responses.
• Standardize global POC execution and demo excellence to maximize win rates and shorten time-to-close.
• Define SE engagement models, coverage ratios, and capacity planning across enterprise, mid-market, and strategic segments.
• Lead a team of Industry Experts (vertical SMEs) across key industries (e.g., Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail) and embed them in high-value pursuits to elevate credibility and tailor solution narratives.
• Build horizontal/vertical solution frameworks, use case libraries, and ROI models; stay ahead of industry trends and regulatory shifts.
• Align pre-sales strategy with global sales and marketing objectives to accelerate pipeline velocity and deal progression.
• Elevate the commercial impact of demos by shifting the narrative from product features to business value and ROI.
• Direct the strategic approach for overcoming enterprise-level technical, security, and compliance objections in high-stakes sales cycles.
• Own pre-sales pipeline contribution metrics including influenced ARR, win rate, POC conversion, and deal acceleration.
• Partner with Marketing on thought leadership, case studies, business assets, and competitive battlecards.
• Channel field insights and competitive gaps into the product roadmap with Product and Engineering.
• Collaborate with the Senior VP Client Delivery to align pre-sales commitments with delivery capabilities and avoid scope misalignment.
• Mentor and scale a high-performing, commercially minded solutions team tailored to global enterprise accounts.
• Build clear career tracks and competency frameworks for both technical (SE) and domain (industry expert) paths.
• Deliver onboarding, continuous education, and certification programs to keep the team sharp on product and industry knowledge.
• Track pre-sales performance metrics including SE coverage, POC win rates, time-to-technical-win, and field feedback loop velocity.
• Oversee tools and assets used by the pre-sales team (demo environments, sandbox infrastructure, asset libraries, RFP tools).
• Establish governance around POC scope, resource allocation, and escalation paths.
Qualifications:
Required:
• 10+ years of experience in Solutions Engineering, Technical Sales, or Pre-Sales Management within enterprise software, with 5+ years in a senior leadership position (Director or above).
• Proven track record building and scaling international pre-sales organizations - including both SEs and Industry Experts - in a high-growth Enterprise SaaS environment.
• Demonstrated success improving win rates, deal velocity, and conversion funnels through structured pre-sales programs and tight partnership with Sales and Marketing.
• Background engaging with C-suite buyers in complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise environments.
• Deep technical fluency in SaaS platforms, APIs, integrations, and cloud architecture - sufficient to credibly lead an SE team.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to translate complex technology into compelling commercial strategies; strategic grasp of how enterprise security, compliance, and governance shape the software procurement lifecycle.
• Exceptional presentation, storytelling, and executive communication skills; strong analytical capabilities to measure and improve team performance.
• Bachelor's degree in a technical or business discipline required.
Preferred:
• MBA or advanced technical degree preferred.
Company:
KNIME provides a platform for end-to-end data science and analytics. Founded in 2008, the company is headquartered in Zürich, CHE, with a team of 201-500 employees. The company is currently Growth Stage.