Solutions Engineer

Confluent - Richmond, VA

Full-time - Mid Level

Richmond, VA

Publishing Industries

About the position

Confluent Solutions Engineers (Pre-Sales) play a pivotal role in the technical evaluation stage of the sales process, making them essential to customer success as real-time data streams gain importance in modern enterprises. In this position, you will collaborate closely with account representatives, acting as the technical advisor on the sales team. Your role will involve working intimately with product management and engineering teams, serving as a vital product advocate in front of prospects, customers, and the broader Kafka and Data Streaming communities. As a trusted advisor, you will assist Confluent customers in the technical design and development of their end-to-end solutions, staying well-informed about the current state and future roadmap of Kafka in open source. You will also be responsible for identifying known issues and informing customers of upcoming fixes or workarounds. Your responsibilities will include clearly articulating Confluent’s technical and product positioning to a diverse range of business and technical stakeholders, forging strong relationships with them throughout the sales cycle and beyond. This role is crucial as it directly impacts how organizations leverage data streaming technology to innovate and enhance their operations. You will be expected to demonstrate exceptional presentation and communication skills, confidently engaging with highly skilled audiences, including enterprise architects and C-level executives. Your ability to tackle complex technical problems and your self-starter attitude will be key to your success in this role.

Responsibilities

• Drive the technical evaluation stage of the sales process as a Solutions Engineer.
• Partner with account representatives to provide technical advice during the sales cycle.
• Work closely with product management and engineering teams to advocate for the product.
• Assist customers in the technical design and development of their end-to-end solutions.
• Stay informed about the current state and future roadmap of Kafka in open source.
• Identify known issues and inform customers of upcoming fixes or workarounds.
• Articulate Confluent’s technical and product positioning to various stakeholders.
• Forge strong relationships with customers throughout the sales cycle.

Requirements

• Experience with distributed systems and infrastructure software such as databases, message queues, or Big Data products.
• Proficiency in Java, Python, or SQL.
• Experience building or running cloud applications.
• Exceptional presentation and communication skills, especially to technical and business audiences.
• Demonstrated self-starter behavior and a desire to learn and tackle technical problems.
• Experience building and operating large-scale systems.

Nice-to-haves

• Confluent Certified Developer or Confluent Certified Administrator.
• Knowledge of Kubernetes operations and cloud-based distributed computing.

Benefits

• Competitive pay and benefits in line with industry standards.
• Annual estimated salary of $132,400 - $155,610.
• Competitive equity package.
• Eligibility for additional commission and/or bonus pay.