Senior Director of Solutions Engineering at Albert Invent in UNITED

Albert helps chemists change the world by building technology that understands how they work. As chemists ourselves, we know what it’s like when software doesn’t work the way you do — stuck with systems built by people who never spent a day at the bench. That’s why we created Albert OS, the first AI-native operating system for materials science, designed to remove every obstacle between curiosity and discovery.

We have Solutions Scientists who understand R&D workflows at the bench level, and a Forward Deployed Scientists team that stays embedded with partners through delivery. Integrations and migrations are in nearly every deal we close, and the momentum behind them is real: one of our cofounders has stepped in personally to drive the integrations and migrations practice forward. The pre-sales pillar of that practice is the piece that is still being built, and this is the role that builds it. We are looking for a senior leader who sits across from IT, owns the pre-sales security and compliance reviews and integration conversation, and works in close partnership with the scientific team to make sure both sides of every engagement move together. The IT buyers, many of whom are navigating their first serious enterprise R&D solution, deserve someone who can meet them where they are. This role is it.

We are hiring a Senior Director of Solution Engineering to lead the technical arm of our commercial organization. You will run the technical side of pre-sales, own how we scope and price integration services, drive the pre-sales security and compliance review and define the handoff into post-sale delivery. Over time, this role will deepen its partnership with Solution Science to ensure the full pre-sales motion operates as a unified experience for our partners. We are looking for someone who has scaled a pre-sales solutions engineering function before and is ready to do it again.

If you are passionate about cutting-edge technology and thrive in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment, we want to hear from you.

What you'll do

Pre-sales technical motion

Every engagement separates scientific scope, owned by our Solutions Scientists, from technical scope. You will own the technical side and work closely with the scientific team to make sure both move together:

• Lead technical discovery with partner IT stakeholders including CIOs, Enterprise Architects, and IT Directors, many of whom are in their first serious integration conversation

• Scope integrations and migrations, producing the Binding Estimate that defines technical approach, assumptions, and estimated ranges; once signed, that estimate is the handoff to the engineering team for delivery.

• Own RFP and security questionnaire responses for all integration, migration, and technical security content; this is your domain, not something that escalates to engineering. This includes strong familiarity with relevant security and compliance standards such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, GxP, NIST 800, GDPR, the EU AI Act, etc.

• Own the SOW structure (in partnership with legal) for integration and migration engagements, ensuring documents are clear, consistent, and commercially protective

• Guide partners toward standard integration patterns and best practices; most deals should follow the catalog, and it is your job to make that the path of least resistance

• Work with the enterprise engineering post-sales team to identify tooling that supports pre-sales, including mock integrations, proof-of-concept environments, and demonstration integrations. Own these tools and leverage them.

• Co-developing evaluation frameworks with Solution Scientists that connect technical feasibility and scientific fit into a single partner experience

• Spot emerging integration trends and gaps in our standard offerings, and bring those patterns back to the engineering team.

• Develop the playbooks, templates, and intake processes that let AEs and Solutions Scientists run services conversations without pulling in post-sales prematurely

Handoff and delivery alignment

Your primary focus is pre-sales. Once a Binding Estimate is signed, the engineering team picks up execution. Your job is to make that handoff clean every time.

• Design and own the pre-to-post-sales handoff, ensuring scoped work, assumptions, and partner context transfer clearly into the delivery team

• Build the enablement content, templates, and standards that make the handoff consistent as deal volume grows

• Work directly with the enterprise engineering team to shape how the practice operates as it matures beyond its current stage

• Co-owning pre-sales effectiveness metrics with Solution Science leadership to ensure both streams are measured consistently and improving together

• Stay aligned with the engineering team on delivery patterns so pre-sales scoping stays grounded in what is actually buildable

Team building and cross-functional leadership

• Define the structure, hiring plan, and operating model for the Solution Enginering function as it scales

• Build a strong operating partnership with the Solution Science leader

• Build and develop the team supporting integration pre-sales, SOW operations, and technical intake

• Build and maintian reusable content to share

• Partner with AEs and Solution Engineering to ensure early-stage conversations are routed correctly between scientific and technical tracks without pulling CE in prematurely

• Align with Product and Engineering on field requirements, integration demand patterns, and catalog roadmap priorities

• Collaborate with the Forward Deployed Scientists team to keep technical and scientific workstreams coordinated through delivery

You will have

• 8+ years in customer engineering, solutions architect, solutions engineering, or pre-sales engineering function, with at least 3 years managing a team

• Experience scaling a customer or solutions engineering function: hiring, structuring, and developing a team as deal complexity and org size grew

• Solid grasp of enterprise integration patterns: REST APIs, event-driven pipelines, file-based data flows, and enterprise ERP and CRM such as SAP or Salesforce

• Hands-on experience scoping integrations across enterprise data environments, including systems where data must move reliably between platforms with different schemas, ownership models, and access constraints

• Familiarity with AI-native platforms and how enterprise IT teams evaluate, procure, and integrate AI into existing workflows; comfortable discussing AI capabilities, deployment patterns, and data requirements with both technical and business buyers

• Experience owning RFP responses and security ques

• tionnaires for integration and infrastructure content; comfortable representing technical security posture directly to IT buyers

• Able to scope technical services engagements, produce SOWs and binding estimates, and hold commercial scope discipline through the pre-sales cycle

• Experience working with IT buyers who are early in their integration journey; you know how to build confidence, set realistic expectations, and move things forward

• Track record of working alongside domain specialists or scientific teams whose expertise you respect and build around

• Executive presence and strong written communication; this role operates at a senior level across commercial, technical, and scientific stakeholders

• Technically capable at a working level: comfortable calling APIs, exploring SDKs, and building lightweight proof-of-concept integrations to support pre-sales

Preferred Competencies

Albert sells into traditional industries where IT buyers may be acquiring their first enterprise integration. Experience navigating that environment matters more than domain expertise in any specific platform.

• Background in vertical SaaS serving traditional industries: chemicals, industrials, construction, agriculture, CPG, or similar.

• Experience in organizations where technical and scientific or specialist pre-sales functions operated as peers, with shared accountability for deal outcomes

• Familiarity with SAP (EHS, PLM, S/4HANA), which tends to follow naturally from selling into industrial verticals. Understanding of ELN, LIMS, PLM, ERM, or CRM capabilities is a plus.

• Experience working closely with SOW-based delivery teams, either within a unified org or through a structured handoff model

• Comfort with cloud platform fundamentals, particularly how SaaS platforms handle data flows, authentication, and integration architecture

• Experience at a company between Series B and Series D, where process is built rather than inherited