Director of Solution Engineering
Workiva
Job Summary
As the Director/ Snr. Director of Solution Engineering, you will lead and nurture a team of Solution Engineering Managers and Solution Engineers, providing guidance in technical, business, customer, and process expertise. Your primary focus will be on talent development, engagement, and retention while contributing to organizational growth through the development of strategies, tools, and performance metrics. This role also involves managing pre-sales technical staff, overseeing the development and implementation of complex products, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to define new products. You'll act as a key company liaison on technical projects with customers and offer product feasibility analysis to support sales efforts. With a strong focus on incentivizing team members based on sales results, this second-line management role plays a pivotal part in achieving the broader mission of the Solution Engineering organization.
What You Will Do
Develop and execute a strategic vision to align cross-functional teams and enable Solution Engineering (SE) teams to drive essential sales initiatives.
Lead a team of Solution Engineering Managers and Solution Engineers, maximizing their potential to support Workiva's sales objectives.
Establish best practices, offer guidance in technical expertise, customer understanding, and presales organizational goals.
Oversee the complete employee lifecycle, from recruitment to performance management.
Serve as a trusted advisor to sales leadership, providing insights on account planning and presales strategies.
Manage resource allocation, conflict resolution, and feedback collection on sales opportunities, product features, competition, and methodologies.
Create and optimize processes, metrics, and infrastructure to enhance SE productivity and achieve sales goals.
Contribute to the development of strategies, tools, and metrics to drive overall organizational growth and lead strategic projects aligned with the SE organization's mission.
Maintain the SE team's training and motivation to ensure goal attainment.
Independently analyze industry trends for process improvement opportunities.
Foster technical thought leadership in areas like architecture, processes, and operationalization to encourage adoption by technical stakeholders during the sales process.
Participate in team-building and company growth activities, including strategy development, sales training, marketing efforts, and enhancing the customer experience.
Provide comprehensive presales support for all sales activities, encompassing needs analysis, data review, product demonstrations, and general sales support, taking on a player/coach role.
Collaborate with product engineering and product marketing teams to develop and launch industry-specific and business solutions, offering technical guidance as required.
Define opportunities for coaching and skill development for SE team members.
What You Will Need
Bachelor’s degree with 10 years related experience, or Master's degree with 8 years related experience, or PhD with 6 years related experience
Minimum 5 years direct people management experience preferred, including supervisor experience of managers
Strong business background, with significant client interface experience and exposure to business development
Hands-on experience with Workiva solutions preferred.
Experience with enterprise applications such as SAP, NetSuite, Oracle, IBM and cloud applications such as Host Analytics, Anaplan, Salesforce, etc. is a plus.
Proven track record of building, leading, and mentoring a high performing team.
Travel Requirements
20% - 30% travel
Working Conditions & Physical Requirements
Reliable internet access for any period of time working remotely, not in a Workiva office.
Where You’ll Work
Our values drive how we work and who we hire. You will see these values ingrained in how we support our customers, work with team members, build our products and in the work environment we’ve created.
Customer Success: Always delight our customers.
Trust: Rely on each other.
Integrity: Do the right thing, every time.
Collaboration: Share resources and work together.
Innovation: Keep creating solutions and finding better ways.
Inclusion: Support a diverse community where we all belong.
Accountability: Be responsible for your success and failure.
We believe our people are our greatest asset, and our unique culture gives employees the opportunity to make an impact everyday. We give our employees the freedom and resources they need—backed by our culture of collaboration and diverse thought—to continue innovating and breaking new ground. We hire talented people with a wide range of skills and experiences who are eager to tackle some of today’s most challenging problems.
At Workiva, you’ll enjoy:
Casual Dress: Workiva has a casual work environment, most people wear jeans to the office.
Involvement: Ability to participate in Business Employee Resource Groups (Black, Hispanic, Asian, Women, Rainbow (LGBTQIA+), Veterans, Disabilities), Volunteering, Company wide celebrations, and more
Work-life Balance: We have competitive PTO, VTO and Parental Leave. We encourage employees to spend time enjoying life outside of work.
Learn more about life at Workiva: https://www.linkedin.com/company/workiva/
Learn more about benefits: https://www.workiva.com/careers/benefits
Workiva is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We believe that great minds think differently. We value diversity of backgrounds, beliefs, and interests, and we recognize diversity as an important source of intellectual thought, varied perspective, and innovation. Employment decisions are made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other protected characteristic.