Solution Engineer

The Solution Engineer helps the Sales team sell software products by supporting and participating in various activities throughout each sales process: (i) meeting with prospective customers to thoroughly understand their needs; (ii) recognizing and understanding which prospective customer needs are addressed well by our software products, as well as which needs might warrant our non-participation; (iii) conducting Value Assessment Workshops with prospective customers to help identify prospect business pains our solutions can resolve and prospect business outcomes that our solutions can achieve, and the return on investment the prospects can expect to see from using or solutions; (iv) helping prospective customers develop internal business cases to justify the investment needed to purchase our solutions; (v) conducting software demonstrations to prospective customers; (vi) transferring discovery documentation and guidance from the pre-sales process to our services/implementation personnel to help assure successful product/project delivery to new customers; (vii) helping account executives and sales managers develop strategies for pursuing different sales opportunities; (viii) supporting the Sphera sales process and making sure all involved with a sales opportunity [the account executive, services personnel, etc…] are following the best practices and steps as prescribed in our sales process documentation; (ix) helping to coordinate and complete our responses and proposals for prospective customer RFIs and RFPs. Typically the Solution Engineer is tasked with answering and writing out thorough and well-written responses to all the functional and technical questions in an RFI/RFP; and (x) Support marketing activities by presenting as an expert on webinars, submitting papers to publications and speaking at industry conferences.

Overall, the Solution Engineer is an integral role in helping us meet our company’s monthly/quarterly/annual sales goals.

Essential Functions:

The duties of the Solution Engineer include the following; these responsibilities may be modified and other duties may be assigned to meet the needs of the business:

Sphera Sales Engineering:

• Participate in discovery meetings with prospective customers to thoroughly understand their needs. Gain an understanding of their current technical environment, key business issues/requirements, and future needs.
• Conduct and/or participate in Vision Alignment, Value Assessment and Business Operations workshops for each sales opportunity as it progresses through the sales process.
• Help account executives and sales managers in developing strategies for pursuing each sales opportunity.
• Supporting the Sphera sales process and making sure all involved with a sales opportunity [the account executive, services personnel, etc…are following the best practices and steps as prescribed in our sales process documentation
• Analyze prospective customer needs, and recognize/understand which prospective customer needs are addressed well by our software products as well as identification of solution gaps.
• Deliver technical and sales oriented presentations to prospective customers’ technical staff and senior management.
• Maintain high level of knowledge about our software products.
• Maintain high level of knowledge about the domain area of EH&S regulatory compliance and data management by reading trade and government publications, attending conferences, etc….
• Support marketing activities by presenting as an expert on webinars, submitting papers to publications, speaking at industry conferences, etc….
• Maintain high level knowledge of competitive product lines, especially as it relates to technical strengths and weaknesses of the competitor's products and what strategy we should develop to counter.
• Work directly with our product management department to deliver feedback from the field to best facilitate ideas for product development
• Work directly with our Services department to transfer and provide guidance and information learned from a prospect as the post-sale implementation of the solution begins.
• Provide continuous knowledge transfer to the sales force regarding technical aspects and benefits of our software products.
• Position requires travel 30-40% of the time minimum, and international trips are sometimes required.
  
  
  

Core Values Role-Specific Competencies:

• Integrity Presentation skills
• Respect Technical proficiency
• Team work Product Knowledge
• Accountability Sales Goals
• Innovation Results Focus

Education and Experience:

• BS/BA in engineering, computer science, environmental/chemical engineering or relevant field of study
• Experience and domain knowledge in the areas of environmental compliance, operational risk management, product stewardship and/or enterprise software
• Experience and high comfort level in public speaking and in conducting presentations to small- and medium-sized audiences. Audiences can be Environmental, Health and Safety professionals, IT professionals, and/or corporate executives (Experience with software presentations a strong plus).
• Minimum of 5 years experience in implementing/using data management software products, especially software having to do with EHS&S data management.
• Minimum of 2 years experience in rfp/rfi proposal writing and analysis for software organization.

Specialized Knowledge & Skills:

• Analytical, planning and presentation development skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent command of English grammar, spelling and composition
• Strong attention to detail
• High level of initiative and strong business judgment
• Ability to work under pressure of multiple deadlines
• Sales and marketing skills

Measures of Success:

• Increase sales effectiveness through leading-edge product presentations and sales support.
• Participate in continued development and enhancement of software solutions.
• Actively engage in goal and performance management activities.
• Support the mission, vision and values of the company.

Physical Activity:

• Climbing. Occasionally ascends or descends stairs, and the like, using feet and legs and/or hands and arms

• The requirements described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

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