Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering
Job description
At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Internet properties for customers ranging from individual bloggers to SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. Cloudflare protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare all have web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company.
At Cloudflare, we’re not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap; we’re looking for the builders who see the cracks in the Internet that everyone else has simply learned to live with. We value candidates who have the instinct to spot a "normalized" problem and the AI-native curiosity to create a solution using the latest tools. Our culture is built on iteration, leveraging AI to ship faster today to make it better tomorrow, while ensuring that every improvement, no matter how small, is shared across the team to lift everyone up. If you’re the type of person who values curiosity over bureaucracy, and that AI is a partner in solving tough problems to keep the Internet moving forward, you’ll fit right in.
Work Location: Switzerland
Cloudflare’s solutions engineering (SE) function is responsible for collaborating with clients from early-stage ideation through to planning for production. Being much more than an expert solely in Cloudflare’s services, our Solutions Engineers are expected to sit alongside our peers in our clients, and to contribute their energy, ideas and opinion on solving the hard problems we face in our industry today. Often this means deep work on the art-of-the possible (and sometimes being willing to put aside preconceptions on the impossible!).
What you’ll do
As a Solutions Engineering Manager, you set the cadence of the team’s communication, collaboration and culture. Supporting the personalised individual development plan for each team member, you will coach our SE colleagues in Switzerland to excel across the sales and technical disciplines necessary to support a successful team. You will also work closely with our Enterprise prospects and customers by shadowing and improving your team’s technical expertise to help develop good practice and ensure a high standard of customer success.
Responsible for the hiring, on-boarding, enablement and technical pre-sales performance of Solutions Engineers within your charge, you will be the focal point for coordinating the team’s resources to have the greatest customer impact and to help provide guidance when specific assistance is required or to escalate early and to engage the correct resources at the right time.
To aid your team, you will work closely with cross-functional teams at Cloudflare, from Sales and Product, through to Engineering and Customer Support. Your goal of customer success should drive you through the entire organisation as you seek out and advise your team on how to create scalable solutions for your customer’s needs.
Who we are
The problems that our clients face are both diverse and unique - which is reflected in how we think about our Solution Engineering team. Building on the benefit of the hive-mind, our SE team is made up of individuals from a wide range of backgrounds - from end-customers to other vendors, Financial Consulting to Product Management, Customer Support to Software Engineering. In short, if we are to solve complex problems we need a diverse, curious and collaborative team.
Cloudflare’s mission is one which is both simple and timeless, to help build a better Internet. This requires a broad set of services and associated knowledge of Internet performance and security technology. We recognise many of our team usually join us with one or two core domains of expertise, however key to success is the curiosity to maintain and develop new knowledge which is essential to keeping up with the high rate of product innovation at Cloudflare.
In our aim to support your success, all the resources and training required to build a custom personal development plan to be effective for the role, will be provided.
Examples of desirable skills, knowledge and experience
Our Solutions Engineers come from a wide range of backgrounds: financial consulting, engineering, software development, product management, customer support & project delivery. We're serious about building a diverse team. When hiring we look for diversity of experience combined with genuine curiosity for our technology.
Ultimately, you are passionate about technology, have the ability to explain complex technical concepts in easy-to-understand terms, and you like coaching and teaching.
Requirements
- Minimum of 3 years in a prior leadership role, with minimum of 10-years related industry experience.
- Demonstrable experience in coaching, leadership skills or team management.
- Demonstrable experience in understanding and solving escalations, team issues or other management related scenarios.
- Proven track record of successfully partnering with account executives and customer success teams to deliver solutions to customers.
- Proven track record in technical pre-sales domain.
- Proven knowledge of the enterprise market in Switzerland.
Inter-Team Goals
- Cultivate cross SE team/office coordination, keep us all connected as one team.
- Facilitate knowledge transfer between SE teams.
- Ensure the team learns from the great ideas of single team members.
- Ensure mistakes are not repeated within the team.
- Develop strong relationships outside of SE organisation to aid in escalation of issues. (product/support/engineering/special projects/marketing/legal/etc).
- Maintain strong communication with Account Executives and Customer Success leads.
Intra-Team Goals
- Keep the pulse of the team: who is happy, productive, performing. Know each member’s strengths and how they would each like to develop.
- Exemplify and cultivate positive culture traits.
- Provide support and confidence to team members.
- Cultivate a very open communication environment. Criticism is welcome and appreciated.
- Maintain a culture of independence amongst team members while offering advice to team members on how to improve.
What Makes Cloudflare Special?
We’re not just a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company. We’re a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company with a soul. Fundamental to our mission to help build a better Internet is protecting the free and open Internet.
Project Galileo: Since 2014, we've equipped more than 2,400 journalism and civil society organizations in 111 countries with powerful tools to defend themselves against attacks that would otherwise censor their work, technology already used by Cloudflare’s enterprise customers--at no cost.
Athenian Project: In 2017, we created the Athenian Project to ensure that state and local governments have the highest level of protection and reliability for free, so that their constituents have access to election information and voter registration. Since the project, we've provided services to more than 425 local government election websites in 33 states.
1.1.1.1: We released 1.1.1.1 to help fix the foundation of the Internet by building a faster, more secure and privacy-centric public DNS resolver. This is available publicly for everyone to use - it is the first consumer-focused service Cloudflare has ever released. Here’s the deal - we don’t store client IP addresses never, ever. We will continue to abide by our privacy commitment and ensure that no user data is sold to advertisers or used to target consumers.
Sound like something you’d like to be a part of? We’d love to hear from you!
Please note that applicants who progress to the offer stage of the interview process may be asked to attend an in-person interview within one of the Cloudflare Offices or Cloudflare Hubs. More details about this will be available at that stage of the interview process.
This position may require access to information protected under U.S. export control laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Please note that any offer of employment may be conditioned on your authorization to receive software or technology controlled under these U.S. export laws without sponsorship for an export license.
Cloudflare is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and place great value in both diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to their, or any other person's, perceived or actual race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law. We are an AA/Veterans/Disabled Employer.
Cloudflare provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job. Examples of reasonable accommodations include, but are not limited to, changing the application process, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment. If you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected] or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.