Sr. Global Solutions Engineer

Your role

This is your opportunity to take ownership of a high-impact, high-visibility leadership position with the largest wholesale data center provider in the world. You’ll enjoy working directly with our customers performing client, tenant and customer-facing engineering functions in support of customer acquisition, project installation and custom construction solutions. You’ll have cradle to grave influence as you serve as the liaison between internal Digital Realty groups and our customers, ensuring projects are moving as planned and the customer is well taken care of. This is a wide-reaching role providing ample opportunity to shine. Though you could be challenged in this position for years to come, if you’re hungry and prove yourself a star, additional advancement opportunities could become available. 

What you’ll do

It will be your mission to eventually lead a growing technical team of Sales Engineers. Though your leadership responsibilities are at the core of this position, you’ll make an impact across multiple functions as you work collaboratively with your peers, act as a solutions expert, and as the communications hub between cross-functional internal teams, Sales, and customers. This is a role for a hands-on leader that cannot be managed purely from a desk. Not only will you work with your team, you’ll leverage your skill as a Sales Engineer to interact directly with large clients, understanding their needs from a technical infrastructure point-of-view, then helping to drive decisions and consensus with Digital Realty teams including Sales, Design, Construction, Finance  -- all those involved with project delivery. You’ll respond directly to customers, speed the sales process, drive project delivery, etc. You’ll evangelize our message to the market place, solicit market trends, and deliver the acquired information to Operations, Design, Planning, Construction…any group who will benefit from the intel. More specifically, you will:

• Direct prospect engagements, including leading building and site tours, sales calls, proposal generation, pricing and contract negotiations.
• Serve as the “hub” for project communication.
• Evaluate customer needs, and then design and present a preliminary solution.
• Assist with customer RFPs.
• Develop cost-engineering and profitability models for large customer opportunities.
• Act as a subject matter expert related to the infrastructure, nuances and pitfalls associated with various buildings.
• Act as an "eyes-on" resource and provide support to remote Design and Construction teams during bid, construction and commissioning processes.
• Participate in forecasting, pipeline and market analysis.
• Liaise with the professional community, including attending technical forums and presenting papers at industry events.
• Monitor and evaluate trends in prospect, customer and target tenant base.

Note: this description is intended to give you a general overview of the position and is not an exhaustive listing of duties and responsibilities.

What you’ll need 

The ideal candidate for this role will have experience as a Sales Engineer in a data center or colocation environment, and a track record of success in a sales leadership role. To be a strong fit for the Senior Manager, Sales Engineering, you will have:

• 5+ years of relevant experience working with a data center or colocation provider, OR
• 8+ years working in telecommunications, networking, data security, hosting, high tech facilities, mission-critical construction, engineering consulting or other related field.
• The ability to work directly with customers to understand their needs, then work cross-functionally with multiple internal stakeholders to provide a solution including cabinet configuration, electrical design, cooling strategies and connectivity.
• Exceptional interpersonal and polished presentation skills and the ability to speak intelligently with big data / power users.
• Experience and skill leading and motivating a technical sales team.  
• Technical savvy and a solid understanding of at least one of the following:
  • Networking
  • Electrical provisioning / configuration.
  • Mechanical cooling systems.
• Proven project management skills including experience with document management and project tracking.
• The ability to work well under pressure and take a proactive approach in handling issues, providing solutions and/or acting as a change manager.
• Good organizational skills, attention to detail and openness to new ideas and procedures.
• Expert application software skills including, MS Word and Excel; Visio; AutoCAD; and Adobe Acrobat.
• A bachelor's degree, ideally in Mechanical, Electrical or Computer Engineering