Partner Solutions Engineering Manager

Available Locations: US, remote

About the team

The PreSales Partner Solutions Engineering organization guides Partners toward excellence as technical PreSales champions. As a member of the Partner Solutions team, you are a technical thought leader and trusted advisor. Partner Solutions develops technical Cloudflare champions within the Partner ecosystem, guides Partner technical sellers through their Cloudflare journey to build Partner Practices, and collaboratively celebrates joint successes.

What you’ll do as a Partner SE Manager

You will play a pivotal role in driving our partner technical strategies, enhancing partner capabilities, and contributing directly to the success of our partnerships. In this player/coach role, you will guide Channel partners through their Cloudflare journey with your strong leadership, technical, and business acumen as well as lead, mentor, and develop a team of Partner Solutions Engineers to deliver technical coverage aligned with our Partner Program.

The Partner Solutions team will engage with Partners to provide PreSales technical support, guidance, and expertise, including leading technical discussions, demos, and presentations to partners and their clients. Your team will collaborate with partners on solution design, integration, and implementation, as well as provide hands-on technical assistance during offer development and integration.

To aid your team, you will work closely with every team at Cloudflare, from Sales and Product, through to Engineering and Customer Support. Your goal of partner and customer success should drive you through the entire organization as you seek out and advise your team on how to provide scalable PreSales technical coverage for partner needs.

Ultimately, you are passionate about technology, have the ability to explain complex technical concepts in easy-to-understand terms, and you like coaching and teaching. You are naturally curious, and an avid builder who is not afraid to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. On the Solutions Engineering team, you will find a collaborative environment where everyone brings different strengths and jumps in to help each other, and you will be an integral part of driving that culture. As a Partner Solutions Engineering Manager at Cloudflare, you will be part of a diverse group of technically minded folks working together to bring our technology through our Partner Network to end customers. 

Reporting to the Global Director of Partner Solutions, you will own the performance and development of the Solution Engineers on your team with accountability for Team Development, Operational Diligence, and partner with the Revenue organization to drive positive outcomes in developing technical partner practices.

Specifically, we are looking for you to:

• Directly contribute by engaging hands-on with partners to drive partner presales success and guiding them through their Cloudflare partner journey.
• Apply your technical background, excellent communication and presentation skills to build strong relationships with partners and team members.
• Develop and manage a tailored presales framework for Partners in your region, ensuring they receive the assistance needed for efficient Cloudflare solution selling and management.
• Oversee the creation of specialized resources and tools designed to enhance partner capabilities in selling Cloudflare solutions and offerings.
• Build and lead your team with clarity, authority and empathy. Create an environment of psychological safety, where collaboration is expected and encouraged and where innovation and creativity thrives.
• Be focused on coaching and developing your team for both functional and technical skills.
• Articulate and demonstrate the execution of your team vision and strategy. Foster team collaboration.
• Manage & report on complex technical projects, cross-functional initiatives, and operational progress that include partner development metrics.
• Exemplify and support the navigation of building technical partner practices by partnering with your peers in the Revenue organization, engaging with your team to drive successful partner journey experiences
• Represent Solutions Engineering, building relationships with key business partners and stakeholders. This will include peer SE Leaders, Sales Leadership, Product, Support, Engineering. Use these relationships to ensure the success of Cloudflare, our Partners and our Customers.
• Participate in internal organization projects for innovation and growing the PreSales organization.

Examples of desirable skills, knowledge and experience

• Experience managing technical sales within partners and accounts:
  • Driving technical wins
  • Assisting with technical validation
• Experience with or curiosity in any the core industry components of Cloudflare solutions (and passion to learn more):
  • SASE concepts and Zero Trust Networking architectures
  • Internet security technologies including DDoS mitigation, Firewalls, VPN
  • HTTP technologies including reverse proxy (e.g., CDN), forward proxy (e.g., Secure Web Gateway)
  • Workflow from user to application, including hybrid cloud architectures and serverless application development

We know that the ideal candidate may not have all of the above skills on Day 1 and we’re committed to developing and investing in the right person for the role.