Manager, Solutions Architecture in London

About Stripe

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies - from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups - use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead.

About The Team

The Solutions Architecture Team partners with our users to realise their full potential through the adoption of prescriptive solutions that drive their growth and success. We work with C-level executives, finance leaders, product design and engineering teams at global brands and platforms who are building financial services solutions with Stripe. Our SA team works closely with Account Executives, Professional Services, Customer Success Managers, Partners, Technical Account Managers and Product Teams to develop and execute on the account strategy for Stripe’s largest users including Enterprises, Digital Natives, and SaaS Platforms.

At Stripe, managers grow teams and inspire them to do outstanding work. This leader must be a driver who loves building teams and growing businesses. This role requires great interpersonal skills to work cross-functionally, as a trusted advisor to both our sales, partner and professional services teams, as well as with our product development and marketing teams.

As head of Solution Architecture for our existing business, you will lead, build, and mentor a world-class pre-sales engineering team to grow the existing user base through upsells and cosells. You will drive collaboration from cross-functional teams to influence and unify stakeholders at all levels of the organisation to drive business results.

What You’ll Do

• Business and technical thought leader able to partner and drive the strategy and execution plan for the segment, working with cross-functional partners.
• Recruit, hire, lead, retain and coach a world-class pre-sales team.
• Be an advocate for presales within the organisation.
• Align with a leader for the business line to understand trends and share insights for Stripe’s leadership and product teams.
• Nurture and be the role-model of a positive outlook, can-do attitude and growth mindset, while leading and keeping the SAs motivated in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment.
• Define and drive success for your team by empowering them to nurture and grow existing business through upsells and cross-sell motions.
• Partner closely with Sales, Marketing and Technical Teams (Professional Services, Partners, Product, Development, etc.) to develop joint go-to-market initiatives that drive positive user experience and outcomes while driving revenue retention and growth.
• Executive engagement skills and presence, with an ability to establish strong relationships with key decision makers and build credibility at all levels.
• Serve as an executive champion and lead EBCs with important customer base.
• Maintain a strong internal relationship with the product teams and champion the voice of our users and customers to influence product direction and feature priorities.
• Drive collaboration across teams to influence and unify stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.
• Lead and support the team in complex evaluations, problem solving and challenging customer environments.
• Build processes to measure the performance and impact of the Solutions Architecture Team and ensure that the team is optimised to meet rapidly evolving business needs.
• Stay current on industry trends and competitive dynamics, and leverage this knowledge to shape strategy around user engagements.
• Represent Stripe at industry events and conferences, customer business reviews and contribute to new ideas and industry best practices.
• Act as an escalation point for pre-sales and post-sales technical issues that arise.

Minimum Requirements

• You must have at least 3+ years of pre-sales leadership experience and 10+ years’ experience within a technical sales function.
• A track record of building and leading world-class solution architecture/engineering teams ideally in a SaaS or usage-based businesses.
• Experience working with Enterprise, Digital Native, SaaS Platform business models.
• Energy, enthusiasm, and passion for making customers successful.
• Previous technical sales experience with APIs and/or payments industry experience.
• Strong executive presence and ability to foster deep relationships with our users.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent military experience required.
• Willingness to travel approximately 25% of the time to engage with customers and collaborate with internal teams.