[Hiring] VP of Solutions Architecture @HiddenLayer

Role Description

The VP of Pre-Sales will be responsible for leading and managing the pre-sales team, which works closely with sales, product, and engineering teams to drive revenue by providing technical expertise during the sales process. You will oversee all pre-sales activities, including technical demonstrations, proof of concepts (POCs), and solution architecture, ensuring that our prospects and customers fully understand the value of our SaaS solutions. This role requires a strong technical background, combined with business acumen and leadership skills, to effectively support complex sales cycles in enterprise environments.

What You’ll Do

• Pre-Sales Leadership: Lead and manage the pre-sales team, including Sales Engineers and Solution Architects, to deliver exceptional technical support during the sales process.
• Sales Collaboration: Partner closely with the sales team to understand customer requirements and design tailored solutions that demonstrate the value of our platform in addressing business challenges.
• Strategy Development: Develop and execute the overall pre-sales strategy, aligning it with the company’s sales goals and ensuring that the pre-sales function supports revenue growth and customer acquisition.
• Technical Demonstrations: Oversee and participate in product demonstrations, solution presentations, and proof-of-concept engagements, ensuring that prospects fully understand the technical capabilities and benefits of our SaaS offerings.
• Customer Engagement: Act as a trusted advisor to prospects and customers, providing deep technical expertise and business insights to help them solve their unique challenges with our SaaS solutions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with product, engineering, and marketing teams to ensure the pre-sales team is equipped with up-to-date knowledge on product capabilities, customer use cases, and competitive differentiators.
• Team Development: Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing pre-sales team by providing ongoing training, career development, and support. Ensure the team stays current with industry trends, new technologies, and evolving customer needs.
• Process Optimization: Continuously improve the pre-sales processes, methodologies, and tools to increase efficiency and effectiveness in supporting the sales cycle and closing deals.
• Customer Feedback: Act as a liaison between customers and the product/engineering teams, providing feedback on feature requests and ensuring customer needs are prioritized in the product development roadmap.
• Reporting & Metrics: Define, track, and report on key pre-sales performance metrics (e.g., win rates, POC success rates, time to close) to senior leadership. Use data insights to drive strategic decisions and improvements within the pre-sales function.
• Stakeholder Management: Build and maintain strong relationships with key internal stakeholders, including sales, product, and executive leadership, to ensure alignment on goals and strategy.

Qualifications

• Excellent leadership, coaching, and mentoring skills with the ability to build and develop high-performing teams.
• Proven experience in a technical sales or sales engineering role within the cybersecurity industry, preferably in the AI security space.
• Exposure to 2 technologies required: Docker, Kubernetes, API Integration, Python/other scripting languages, Cloud networking.
• Strong understanding of cybersecurity principles, methodologies, and technologies, with a focus on AI-driven security solutions.
• Proven comfort with cloud devops, cloud security, command line and leveraging APIs.
• Proficiency in articulating technical concepts and value propositions to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience with conducting product demonstrations, proof of concepts (PoCs), and technical presentations.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build and maintain relationships with clients and internal stakeholders.
• Self-motivated with a passion for technology and a drive for continuous learning and development.
• Willingness to travel as needed to client sites and industry events.

Benefits

• Fully Remote: We are a completely remote global team. Though we’re distributed, we are intentional about getting the team together a couple of times a year. We offer a generous stipend for your home office setup, annual upgrades to ensure you have a comfortable workspace and a monthly stipend for internet/phone expenses.
• Comprehensive Health & Wellness Benefits: Better than your average startup healthcare benefits. With five options to choose from, of which are fully subsidized by HiddenLayer, we offer a variety of options to fit each person’s needs. We also offer vision, dental, and 401k offerings.
• Flexible Time Off: Enjoy unlimited and flexible time off for all salaried employees, in addition to 15 paid company holidays.
• Commitment to Learning and Development: We support personal growth and education through a dedicated L&D fund that can be used for training, conferences, certifications and industry events.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: We are committed to building a diverse team with individuals from various backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.