Sr Manager, Pre-sales Operations

Confluent is pioneering a fundamentally new category of data infrastructure focused on data in motion. Have you ever found a new favorite series on Netflix, picked up groceries curbside at Walmart, or paid for something using Square? That's the power of data in motion in action—giving organizations instant access to the massive amounts of data that is constantly flowing throughout their business. At Confluent, we're building the foundational platform for this new paradigm of data infrastructure. Our cloud-native offering is designed to be the intelligent connective tissue enabling real-time data, from multiple sources, to constantly stream across the organization. With Confluent, organizations can create a central nervous system to innovate and win in a digital-first world.

We're looking for self-motivated team members who crave a challenge and feel energized to roll up their sleeves and help realize Confluent's enormous potential. Chart your own path and take healthy risks as we solve big problems together. We value having diverse teams and want you to grow as we grow—whether you're just starting out in your career or managing a large team, you'll be amazed at the magnitude of your impact.

About the Opportunity:

This newly created role will be responsible for establishing our Solutions Engineering (SE) Operations team and acting as a trusted partner to the leaders of our pre-sales organizations, to establish and ensure operational execution globally. This role and the team will be focused on driving productivity and scalable execution, such that "the whole is greater than the sum of the constituent parts".

The leadership of the SE Operations team is an essential part of scaling and supporting our broader Field Operations team by making our sales teams and customers successful. The role will also ensure effective alignment of the SE organization to the overall Corporate strategy. As such, the ideal candidate will have a demonstrable track record of successfully managing matrixed change strategies, influencing stakeholders at all levels, and developing and executing a results-oriented plan within a high-growth global environment.

A background in scaling a pre-sales or sales business as well as having done so for a world-class, successful, global, multi-tenant SaaS business is essential. This position reports to the head of CSG Strategy & Operations and will have management responsibility for establishing and growing a SE Operations team over time.

• Working with SE leadership on the implementation of our operational framework, including managing operational and governance cadences for the SE organization, including QBRs, all-hands, forecasts, etc
• Clear definition of roles, responsibilities, and career pathing, in conjunction with the PeopleOps function, to ensure we have the best people, able to do their best work, creating a world-class SE organization
• Definition and management of SE OKRs, in conjunction with SE leaders, to ensure maximum group performance, alignment to corporate OKRs, execution against our goals
• Ensuring world-class functional reporting and analysis that is embedded into the everyday SE work processes so that making data-driven decisions is a part of our daily habits Establishing and refining our SE processes and frameworks to allow for execution at scale across all roles and regions.
• Establishing a systems architecture, road map, and rationalization plan for all of the systems, tools, and processes utilized by the SE organization and ensuring optimal alignment to the broader organization, (Sales, CS, Enablement process, etc)
• Working with Finance to ensure effective management of budget, HC, and coverage model, across CS
• Establishing outstanding key internal stakeholder relationships across Product, Marketing, Sales, Finance and PeopleOps
• Established a program management structure, and the capacity to execute on key functional programs
• Built a culture of growth mindset and continuous learning

What We're Looking For:

• BS degree, preferably with a post-graduate degree in Information Technology, Computing, Business, or Operations
• 10+ years' relevant experience, inclusive of enterprise software sales businesses, strong functional domain experience, SaaS Sales strategy & operations, and change management
• Prior leadership of the above for a leading, world-class, high-growth, global SaaS business.
• Exceptional, demonstrable, track record of program management, program execution, change management and cross-functional stakeholder engagement to deliver results.
• Working knowledge of the roles and team within the pre and post-sales teams. Sale, Sales Engineering, Support, Professional Services, Technical Account Management, etc
• Participation in and knowledge of international Services organizations such as TSIA or other Industry and peer groups focused on post-sales customers success
• The ability to build and manage high-performance teams
• Open, growth mindset and high degrees of self-motivation, fostered in a face-paced, high growth, dynamic environment
• Strong executive presence, communication (verbal, written, presentation), and facilitation skills with experience engaging and partnering at all levels internally and with key external stakeholders

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At Confluent, equality is a core tenet of our culture. We are committed to building an inclusive global team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, beliefs, and experiences. The more diverse we are, the richer our community and the broader our impact.

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