Strategic Solutions Engineering Director

Cresta unlocks the true potential of the customer experience, turning every conversation into a competitive advantage. Cresta’s unified AI platform combines conversational AI agents, real-time human agent augmentation, and comprehensive conversation intelligence to drive revenue and efficiency gains across every channel. The world’s leading companies, including United Airlines, Cox Communications, and Marriott, use Cresta to power world-class customer experiences every day. Born from the Stanford AI Lab, Cresta has raised more than $270 million from the world’s leading investors, including a16z, Greylock, and Sequoia. Cresta’s leadership includes some of the leading minds in AI today. Our CEO, Ping Wu , founded and led Google's Contact Center AI and Vertex AI platforms before joining Cresta to build the future of AI-driven customer experiences. Over the next few years, AI is going to redefine how people all over the world interact with businesses every day. Come build that future at Cresta. About the role: As a Strategic Solutions Engineering Director at Cresta, you will lead a team of high-performing Solutions Engineers supporting complex sales cycles within our Strategic West segment. You’ll partner closely with Strategic sales leadership to align SE coverage with pipeline priorities, coach your team through technical discovery and solution design, and ensure executional excellence across demos, POCs, and technical validation. In this role, you will collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Enablement to elevate the SE team’s impact and drive continuous improvement in how we position and deliver Cresta’s platform. You’ll also support key strategic deals directly, providing hands-on technical leadership, influencing the solution design, and helping shape the business case alongside Strategic Account Executives. Responsibilities: Conduct weekly 1:1s and team meetings to coach SEs on deal strategy, technical execution, and best practices. Create and maintain individualized development plans; lead monthly ride-alongs and collaborate with SE Enablement on targeted training. Align closely with Strategic Sales Leaders through weekly syncs, sales leadership meetings, and coverage reviews to drive segment strategy. Run weekly SE pipeline reviews to ensure technical qualification, surface systemic blockers, and share performance metrics with leadership. Manage SE team capacity and utilization, coordinate cross-regional support, and drive recruiting and onboarding with structured 30-60-90 day plans. Provide hands-on support for 2–3 strategic Strategic accounts by leading technical discovery and shaping technical strategy for deals >$1M. Collaborate with Product to influence the roadmap, lead Strategic-specific POC initiatives, and validate complex implementations. Develop and deliver high-impact demos and presentations; co-design POCs that accelerate sales cycles for priority Strategic opportunities. Establish and scale technical best practices, discovery frameworks, and competitive enablement assets across the Strategic SE team. Qualifications We Value: 8+ years of experience in sales engineering or technical sales, with 3+ years in a leadership capacity Understanding of AI Agent applications, with hands-on experience integrating AI into customer workflows Deep expertise in Contact Center technologies, including Conversational AI, CCaaS platforms, and telephony infrastructure Strong working knowledge of strategic platforms including Salesforce, Google, Amazon, and contact center infrastructure Known for resourcefulness, strategic thinking, and a collaborative mindset when working cross-functionally to drive deal success Passionate about Sales Engineering career development, with a focus on coaching SEs through structured growth plans, role clarity, and skills development Experience in building mentoring frameworks that foster technical excellence, soft skill growth, and leadership readiness within the SE organizati