Manager, Solutions Architecture - Platforms (Chicago)

Details

Who We Are

About Stripe

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies—from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups—use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an unprecedented opportunity to put the global economy within everyone’s reach while doing the most important work of your career.

About The Team

The Platforms Solutions Architecture Team partners with users to realize their full potential through the adoption of prescriptive solutions that drive their growth and success.

The team works with C-level executives, finance leaders, and product design and engineering teams at global brands and platforms that are building financial services solutions with Stripe. Solutions Architects work closely with Account Executives, Professional Services, Customer Success Managers, Partners, Technical Account Managers, and Product Teams to develop and execute account strategies for SaaS platforms of all shapes and sizes. The team also works with innovative startup users to position Stripe’s offerings and solutions for their use cases.

At Stripe, managers grow teams and inspire them to do outstanding work. This leader must be a driver who loves building teams and growing businesses. The role requires strong interpersonal skills to work cross-functionally as a trusted advisor to sales, partner, and professional services teams, as well as product development and marketing teams. As a manager and leader of Solutions Architecture for the existing business, you will lead, build, and mentor a world-class pre-sales engineering team to grow the existing user base through upsells, cross-sells, and co-sells. You will drive collaboration across cross-functional teams to influence and unify stakeholders at all levels of the organization and drive business results.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a business and technical thought leader who partners with cross-functional teams to drive segment strategy and execution.
• Recruit, hire, lead, retain, and coach a world-class pre-sales team, and advocate for the Solutions Architecture team within the organization.
• Align with segment leadership to understand trends and share insights with Stripe’s leadership and product teams.
• Maintain a positive outlook, can-do attitude, and growth mindset while leading and motivating Solutions Architects in a fast-paced, changing environment.
• Define and drive team success by empowering the team to nurture and grow existing business through upsell and cross-sell motions.
• Partner closely with Sales, Marketing, Professional Services, Partners, Product, Development, and other technical teams to develop joint go-to-market initiatives that drive positive user outcomes, revenue retention, and growth.
• Engage executives and establish strong relationships with key decision-makers while building credibility at all organizational levels.
• Serve as an executive champion and lead executive business centers with key customers.
• Maintain strong internal relationships with product teams and champion the voice of users and customers to influence product direction and feature priorities.
• Drive collaboration across teams to influence and unify stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
• Lead and support the team in complex evaluations, problem-solving, and challenging customer environments.
• Build processes to measure the performance and impact of the Solutions Architecture Team and ensure it is optimized for evolving business needs.
• Stay current on industry trends and competitive dynamics and use this knowledge to shape user engagement strategies.
• Represent Stripe at industry events and conferences and customer business reviews, and contribute to new ideas and industry best practices.
• Act as an escalation point for pre-sales and post-sales technical issues.

Requirements

• At least 3 years of pre-sales leadership experience.
• 10 or more years of experience in a technical sales, consulting, implementation, or go-to-market function.
• A track record of building and leading world-class Solutions Architecture or engineering teams, ideally in SaaS or usage-based businesses.
• Energy, enthusiasm, and passion for making customers successful.
• Previous technical sales experience with APIs and/or experience in the payments industry.
• Strong executive presence and the ability to foster deep relationships with users.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent military experience.
• Willingness to travel approximately 25% of the time to engage with customers and collaborate with internal teams.
• Bonus: Experience working with SaaS platform business models.