| Location | Grand Rapids, MI |
Summary:
Applied Innovation is seeking a collaborative and results-driven Solutions Team Manager to oversee solutions engineering, sales engineering, and technical quoting operations. This role is responsible for developing high-performing teams, improving solution design and quoting processes, ensuring quality and consistency in proposals and SOWs, and partnering across Sales, vCIO/TAM, Professional Services, PMO, Deployment, and Operations to support smooth handoffs and successful customer outcomes. The ideal candidate brings strong technical presales experience, people leadership skills, and a continuous improvement mindset to help streamline workflows, reduce delivery risk, and support revenue growth.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Team Leadership
Lead, develop, coach, and hold accountable Sales Engineers, Solutions Engineers, and Technical Quoting personnel.
Set team goals, performance expectations, workload priorities, and accountability measures.
Build a culture of collaboration, service excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Solutions Operations
Manage intake, prioritization, assignment, and progression of solution opportunities.
Balance workloads across engineering and quoting resources.
Remove bottlenecks and maintain workflow standards and service level expectations.
Solution Design & Quality
Ensure consistent, high-quality SOWs, proposals, technical recommendations, and approved architecture.
Review complex or high-impact opportunities before customer delivery.
Align sold solutions with delivery expectations to reduce scope gaps, ambiguity, and delivery risk.
Technical Quoting & Revenue Enablement
Own technical quoting processes, standards, turnaround time, and productivity.
Simplify the quoting process by developing a curated catalog of approved products, services, bundles, and templates that enables more team members to quote directly with consistency and confidence.
Serve as the company's subject matter expert for CQP quoting software, including process design, user adoption, best practices, data integrity, and continuous improvement.
Partner with Sales, Account Management, and vCIO teams to improve conversion and align pricing, scoping, and recommendations with company objectives.
Cross-Functional Alignment
Partner with Sales Leadership, vCIO/TAM, Professional Services, PMO, Deployment, and Operations.
Ensure smooth handoffs from opportunity identification through solution design, quoting, project initiation, and delivery.
Facilitate communication between solution teams and professional service delivery teams, ensuring baselines, SOWs, and design processes work across both teams.
Support leadership communication efforts by helping translate new products, services, and strategic initiatives into clear updates for the broader team.
Vendor & Portfolio Support
Support technology evaluation, service development, vendor management, standardization, and portfolio optimization.
Provide operational insight into emerging technologies and service offerings.
Other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications:
To perform this position successfully, an individual must be able to perform each job duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required.
A growth and service-minded, collaborative, and improvement-oriented mindset that balances urgency, quality, accountability, and practical execution.
Strong leadership, communication, prioritization, process design, technical scoping, quoting, coaching, and cross-functional coordination skills.
Working knowledge of managed services, infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, solution design, SOW development, pricing models, CQP, curated catalogs, and delivery handoff requirements.
Understanding and alignment with the organization's core values
Education/License/Experience Requirements:
Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
Valid driver's license and clean driving record, with no DUIs in the past five years.
5+ years of experience in technology consulting, sales engineering, solutions architecture, or technical leadership.
3+ years of people leadership experience.
Strong understanding of Managed Services, infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, project delivery, and technical presales.
Strong communication and organizational skills.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams.
Preferred Qualifications & Experience:
Experience managing Sales Engineers, Solutions Engineers, Technical Consultants, or similar technical revenue teams.
Experience developing SOWs, technical proposals, financial models, quotes, or solution profitability analysis.
MSP, VAR, or technology services industry experience.
Why Applied Innovation?
We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including:
Medical, dental, and life insurance on the 31st day of employment.
Short-term disability.
Paid vacation and holidays.
Paid volunteer time.
Onsite fitness center
401(k) retirement plan with company match program.
Opportunities for professional growth and advancement