Manager, Solutions Engineering

About the Role 

This is an exciting opportunity for a high-performing, tenured Principal or Senior Solutions Engineer ready to take their first step into people leadership. As a Manager of Solutions Engineering, you will be a player-coach: leading a regional or sector-aligned team of Solutions Engineers while continuing to operate as an active presales practitioner. You will combine your deep technical and commercial expertise with a new focus on coaching, team performance, and operational excellence — leading solutions engagements across Enterprise and/or Reseller opportunities alongside your people leadership responsibilities. Reporting to the VP of Global Solutions Engineering, you will serve as the bridge between individual contributors and SE leadership — helping your team deliver consistent, high-quality presales engagements while growing in their careers. This role is specifically designed for a Senior or Principal Solutions Engineer who has proven themselves as a trusted IC, understands the nuances of complex enterprise sales cycles, and is ready to multiply their impact through a team. If you are looking to take your SE career into management without stepping away from the work you love, this is the role for you. 

What You’ll Do 

Player-Coach: Staying Close to the Work

This is not a purely administrative management role. SE Managers at Yext are expected to remain hands-on — technically sharp, engaged in customer conversations, and consultative in the field alongside their team. 

• Maintain an active presence in customer-facing engagements, including discovery workshops, executive demos, and solution presentations, particularly on strategic or high-complexity deals. 
• Lead customer engagements with a consultant mindset — bringing structured thinking and a point of view to every interaction, rather than simply responding to briefs or demoing product. This approach is core to how Yext's customer-facing teams operate, and you will be expected to model and embed it across your team. 
• Own a proportion of direct presales activity yourself, ensuring you remain current on Yext's product suite, competitive landscape, and the evolving needs of enterprise buyers 
• Partner with Yext's Demo Engineering leadership and team to scope, shape, and support bespoke solutions and proof of concept engagements, bringing your regional customer context to inform what gets built 
• Use your own deal involvement as a coaching tool — debriefing with your team after engagements to share what you observed and how you approached it. 
• Balance your time between team oversight and direct contribution, working with the VP of Global Solutions Engineering to calibrate this as the team scales and matures. 

People Leadership & Team Management 

• Lead, manage, and develop a regional or sector-aligned team of Solutions Engineers, serving as their primary point of contact for day-to-day guidance, performance conversations, and professional development. 
• Actively coach your team to engage with customers as consultants first — helping them develop the habits of structured discovery, insight-led storytelling, and commercial curiosity that distinguish great SEs from good ones. This is a cultural expectation across Yext's customer-facing organisation, and your team should reflect it.
• ICs reporting to you will vary in seniority from Associate to Principal Solutions Engineer — you will need to flex your coaching approach accordingly. ● Conduct regular 1:1s, creating a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
• Support hiring, onboarding, and ramp planning for new SE hires in your region or vertical, partnering with HR and senior SE leadership on headcount decisions.
• Manage people-related processes including performance reviews, goal setting, leave management, and escalations.
• Identify coaching moments from deal reviews, demo feedback, and customer interactions — and translate these into structured development plans for individuals on your team.
• Act as a role model for the behaviours and standards you expect from your team, demonstrating what great looks like in customer engagements, internal collaboration, and commercial thinking. 

SE Leadership Participation & Global Alignment 

• Attend and actively contribute to weekly SE Leadership meetings, representing your region or sector and bringing forward team performance updates, deal risks, and market insights. 
• Play a leading role in the monthly Global SE All Hands, helping to shape the agenda, present regional highlights, and ensure your team is connected to the wider global presales community. 
• Collaborate with SE leadership peers across regions to share best practices, align on standards, and contribute to the continuous improvement of how Yext's SE organisation operates globally. 
• Serve as a key communication channel between the global SE leadership team and your ICs, translating strategic direction into clear, actionable priorities for your team. 

Presales Operations & Request Management

• Oversee the triage and allocation of presales requests across your team, ensuring capacity is managed effectively and the right SE is matched to the right opportunity. 
• Establish and maintain a clear view of team workload, pipeline coverage, and deal involvement, flagging risks or resourcing gaps to senior SE leadership. ● Ensure presales processes — including discovery frameworks, demo standards, and solution validation approaches — are consistently followed across your team. 
• Coordinate with Sales leadership on opportunity prioritisation, helping your team focus effort where it will have the greatest commercial impact. ● Maintain accurate records of team activity, deal support, and capacity across internal systems, contributing to regional presales reporting and forecasting. 

Deal Support & Commercial Impact 

• Maintain active involvement in strategic or complex deals within your region or sector, providing senior guidance on solution design, objection handling, and executive-level storytelling. 
• Support your team on RFPs, RFIs, and proof of concept engagements across key verticals which could include Financial Services, Retail, Hospitality, Healthcare, and Public Sector. 
• Partner with Sales leadership on opportunity strategy, account planning, and risk identification, helping to improve regional win rates and average contract value. 
• Review and provide quality oversight on customer-facing deliverables including proposals, solution narratives, and technical validations. ● Be jointly accountable with VP Global Presales for the presales quality and commercial outcomes of the most important accounts in your region or sector. 

Enablement & Continuous Development 

• Work with the Yext Enablement team to ensure your team has access to the latest product knowledge, competitive positioning, and presales best practices.
• In partnership with VP Global Presales, identify skill gaps across your team and close them through targeted training, shadowing opportunities, or structured coaching programmes. 
• Champion new solution narratives, demo assets, and positioning frameworks within your team, helping to operationalise global go-to-market strategy at a regional level. 
• Contribute regional feedback on customer needs, competitive dynamics, and market trends to Product Marketing and Product teams. 

Cross Functional Collaboration 

• Build strong relationships with regional Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, and Professional Services leadership, acting as the presales voice in cross-functional conversations. 
• Collaborate with Field Marketing on regional events, executive briefings, and account-based initiatives. 
• Support post-sale continuity by partnering with Customer Success to ensure presales commitments are accurately handed over and delivered upon. ● Contribute to broader SE leadership discussions, sharing learnings from your region to help shape global presales strategy and standards. 

What You Have 

• 5+ years of experience as a Senior or Principal Solutions Engineer within a SaaS or digital platform environment, with a track record of strong individual performance. 
• Proven experience supporting complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise sales cycles and influencing deal outcomes including win rate and deal size. ● A genuine desire to move into people management — and an awareness of what the transition from IC to manager requires. 
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage competing priorities, triage requests, and hold a clear view of team workload across multiple active deals.
• The ability to deliver constructive feedback, hold performance conversations with empathy and clarity, and develop talent at different stages of their careers. 
• Solid technical grounding in AI-driven search, data platforms, APIs, and web technologies, with the ability to credibly engage with both technical and business audiences. 
• Experience with structured enterprise sales methodologies (MEDDPICC) and presales best practices. 

Nice to Have 

• Prior experience formally or informally mentoring, coaching, or onboarding other Solutions Engineers. 
• Exposure to managing or coordinating across multiple markets or geographies. 
• Background in vertical-focused enterprise solutions, particularly in regulated industries such as Financial Services or Healthcare. 
• Multilingual capabilities. 
• Familiarity with people management tools and HR processes within a SaaS or technology business. 

Why You’ll Love It Here 

• This is a genuine first-line management opportunity — structured to set you up for success as a new leader, not throw you in the deep end. 
• You will remain hands-on and close to the work, continuing to grow as an SE practitioner while building your leadership career. 
• You will have the support of experienced SE leadership above you and a talented team of ICs around you. 
• You will work at the intersection of AI, search, and enterprise digital experience — one of the most commercially relevant spaces in technology right now. ● Your impact will be visible and measurable: team performance, deal quality, and the development of the people you lead.
• You will be part of a global presales community with strong alignment across regions and genuine investment in career growth.

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