Now Hiring - Strategic Sales Engineer in Lexington, KY

Goals

OVERALL

Increase win rates, deal size and solution accuracy on opportunities through strategic business and technical thought leadership.

EDUCATION

Account Teams – Educate the Sales, CA, SE, and Channel Manager (and their Partners), organizations on Windstream strategic SDW, MNS, ACC & Professional integrated services, their optimum design use-cases, and value in the market.

Product Teams – Educate the SD Wan & MNS product teams of client feedback and competition market demands to inform strategic direction and prioritization of roadmap.

DEAL SUPPORT

Supplier Engagement – Act as engagement liaison to our primary platform manufacturers for the SDWan and MNS solutions (Fortinet & Velo) with the goal of ensuring confidentiality, integrity and availability our go-to-market messaging symmetrically between both companies.

Validation - Identify issues with proposed solutions, consult with deal teams to remove issues, and feedback chronic and anomaly issues and their resolutions to next wave of deals.

Customer Facing – Join the account team as a full member in order to challenge and enhance the business, solution and service strategy, including capturing the clients desired business outcomes and requirements, and ensuring the proposed solution provides a valid and sound value proposition.

Responsibilities & Services

Education, Account Team

• Work on vertical specific (Retail, Healthcare, Hospitality, Other) training materials, solution best practice, and a library of integrated solutions reference architecture. Capture in easily referenceable documentation accessible by the appropriate audience.

• Participate in Flight Plan and new hire on-boarding as needed.

• Act as Sales Trainer by coordinating and presenting, on at least a quarterly basis, a training for Sales Reps, CAs & Channel Managers in each region focused on:

• service & vertical specific best-use-cases,

• business value propositions &

• working with Customer Advocates to proactively propose conversions from legacy services ahead of any contract terminations.

• Act as SME Trainer by coordinating and presenting, on at least a monthly basis, a training for SE Managers and the service SMEs that focuses on:

• design best-practice reference architecture that is tailored to verticals,

• changes in service categories of standard/ICB/non-viable,

• post-sales pitfalls and pre-sale mitigation actions, &

• Windstream service updates and roadmap.

Education, Product Teams

• Act as Product Evangelist and feedback loop between the Windstream SDW & MNS product teams. and both Windstream post-sales for process improvement, and the client to capture customer market demands and trends.

Deal Support, Validation

• Act as Post-sales Assistant to smooth out technical issues in the implementation process and identify chronic vs. anomaly issues for training and process improvement opportunities. *2

• Act as solution Validation Auditor for SD WAN & MNS services via peer review process. *3

• Act as a Design Expert, after SE and SME conference, to provide Tier 2 engineering validation and assist in preparation and presentation of technical ICBs. This is mandatory for new product launched in its first year (i.e. Fortinet SDWan in 2020).

Deal Support, Customer Facing

• Act as strategic Thought Leader, participating in full customer facing discovery & challenge sales process, presenting cutting edge vertical market trends and reference architecture, as well as internal collaboration on qualified strategic deals. *4

• Act as customer facing strategic Deal Architect, including building the value proposition of the client need, roadmap to growth for the entire suite of Windstream services and solutions, and the solution strategy, coordinating service SMEs and Overlays as needed on qualified strategic deals. *4

Windstream DEI&B Statement:

Connecting people in a world of infinite possibilities. At Windstream, we celebrate the authenticity and uniqueness of our people and their ideas. The diverse voices of our employees fuel our innovation and the inclusive, equitable culture we are building fosters belonging and empowers each one of us to create amazing customer experiences.

Our Employee Resource Groups:

• WinVets – Veteran Employee Resource Group

• WOW – Women Employee Resource Group

• WINPRIDE – LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group

• WBPN – Black Professional Resource Group

• WARG – Ability Resource Group

• LaFamilia –Hispanic Resource Group

Job Requirements

Minimum Requirements: College degree in IT, Engineering or a related field and 8 years professional level experience; or 12 years professional level related Engineering/Technical experience; or an equivalent combination of education and professional level related Engineering/Technical experience required.

• This is a safety sensitive position.