Director, Solutions Engineering

🇺🇸In-Person - Chicago, IL$180K–$280K/yri7h ago

K-12 Sales Solutions Engineering Enterprise Sales Sales Enablement Technical Leadership Customer Success

Role Snapshot

Director of Solutions Engineering leadership role for TurnItIn's EdTech products, responsible for building and managing a high-performing pre-sales technical solutions team while driving revenue growth and supporting strategic customer engagements across K–12, Higher Education, and Professional Education markets.

Key Responsibilities: Build, mentor, and manage a Solutions Engineering team while partnering with Sales on complex enterprise opportunities, conducting technical evaluations, and leading executive-level product demonstrations and POCs. Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Customer Success, and Sales teams to align solutions with customer requirements, shape product roadmap priorities, and ensure seamless pre-sales-to-implementation handoffs.

Skills & Tools: Expertise in education technology platforms (LMS, APIs, data integrations), data privacy compliance, pre-sales technical leadership, and solution architecture design. Strong leadership, executive communication, stakeholder management, and cross-functional collaboration abilities with demonstrated ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions.

Qualifications: Typically requires 10+ years of experience in solutions engineering or pre-sales technical roles, with at least 3–5 years in a leadership or management capacity, preferably in EdTech or SaaS. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent professional experience, with deep knowledge of education technology ecosystems and enterprise sales processes.

Location: In-Person - Chicago, IL

Compensation: $180K–$280K/yr (estimated)

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Job Description

Solutions Engineering Leadership – Education Technology

Role Overview

This leadership role directs the pre-sales and technical solutions function for the organization’s Education Technology (EdTech) products and services, aiming to support revenue growth, customer success, and product innovation across K–12, Higher Education, and Strategic/Professional Education markets. The leader is responsible for building, managing, and mentoring a high-performing Solutions Engineering team while actively supporting strategic sales opportunities and complex customer engagements. This position acts as the primary liaison, bridging Sales, Product, and Customer Success teams to design scalable, secure, and impactful for education customers.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Development: Build, lead, mentor, and coach a team of Solutions Engineers, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous learning. Define the solutions engineering strategy aligned with company revenue goals and establish best practices for technical evaluations, discovery, solution design, and product demonstrations. Manage capacity planning, resource engagement prioritization, and hiring for the team.
Strategic Sales & Customer Engagement: Partner with Sales team to provide technical sales support for strategic and enterprise opportunities. Lead high-complexity customer discussions, conducting detailed needs assessments to translate business requirements into compelling technical solutions. Oversee or personally execute executive-level product demonstrations, technical/strategic presentations, and proof-of-concepts/pilot programs.
Solution Development & Technical Expertise: Develop a deep understanding of customer environments, pain points, and success criteria. Develop value-based solutions aligned to customer use cases. Solutions must address key education requirements and technologies, including LMS platforms, data integrations and APIs, and compliance with data privacy standards. Master both front-end and back-end product knowledge, serving as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) to internal and external stakeholders.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Product teams to communicate customer requirements, market needs, and field feedback to help shape the product roadmap, product content resource generation, and feature prioritization. Collaborate with Customer Success and Onboarding teams to ensure seamless handoffs from pre-sales to implementation and guarantee strategic customer success. Coordinate and design inter-departmental processes to address complex workflow scenarios reducing barriers for execution of charters.
Operational Excellence: Develop, track, and report on key departmental metrics, including technical win rate, sales cycle length, impact on revenue growth, and team performance. Improve solutions engineering processes, tools, and technical documentation. Implement and manage demo environments and solution architectures.