Solutions Engineer

Job Description

We’re hiring an experienced Solutions Engineer to work across the full customer lifecycle - from pre-sales discovery to long-term customer success. This is a senior, customer-facing role requiring strong domain expertise in industrial automation and a proven ability to guide both technical implementation and strategic solution expansion.

We’re looking for someone who not only enables the initial deployment but also identifies additional opportunities to expand value across the customer’s organization - be it new use cases, integrations, or system-wide architecture improvements.

You’ll be a key technical advisor and trusted partner to both prospective and existing customers.

Pre-Sales Support:

• Partner with Account Executives during discovery to understand customer goals and technical environments.
• Deliver tailored demos, solution architecture walkthroughs, and lead technical proof-of-concepts (PoCs).
• Help prospects align FlowFuse to their broader industrial and digital transformation goals.
• Collaborate on pricing proposals and technical responses to RFPs and security reviews.

Post-Sales Engagement:

• Lead technical onboarding and early solution implementation.
• Partner with customers to assess results, resolve blockers, and optimize solution design.
• Actively explore and surface additional use cases within the customer organization.
• Facilitate roadmap alignment and strategic planning discussions with technical champions.
• Deliver ongoing best practices, architecture reviews, and training to ensure long-term success.

Skills

What We’re Looking For:

• 5+ years in a Solutions Engineering, Sales Engineering, or Customer Success Engineering role.
• Deep industry expertise in industrial automation, IIoT, smart manufacturing, or related fields.
• Track record of identifying additional solution opportunities within enterprise accounts.
• Experience with technologies such as Node-RED, MQTT, OPC-UA, SCADA systems, PLCs, or edge computing.
• Strong communication skills - comfortable engaging engineers, architects, and executive stakeholders.
• High degree of initiative and ability to manage customer relationships across the lifecycle.
• Willingness to travel occasionally for key customer engagements.

Nice to Haves:

• Hands-on experience deploying Node-RED at scale.
• Familiarity with Unified Namespace or other modern industrial data architectures.
• Experience with containerization, cloud (AWS/Azure), or Linux-based edge devices.
• Multilingual skills (e.g., German, French, Spanish).

90-Day Plan

• Week 1-4:
  • Familiarize yourself with the FlowFuse product, platform capabilities, and target customer profiles.
  • Understand existing sales processes, customer success methodologies, and relevant internal tools.
  • Meet with key internal stakeholders across Sales, Product, and Engineering teams.
  • Begin shadowing customer calls, demos, and technical engagements to learn our approach.
  • Review and provide feedback on existing solution architecture documentation and sales enablement materials.
  • Start leading portions of customer demos and technical discussions with guidance.
• Week 5-8:
  • Develop a deep technical understanding of FlowFuse and its integration points within industrial environments.
  • Engage in your first set of technical PoCs, contributing to design and execution
  • Take ownership of specific pre-sales and post-sales customer engagements, leading technical discussions and solution design.
  • Proactively identify and propose opportunities for expanding FlowFuse's value within customer accounts.
• Week 9-13:
  • Contribute to internal knowledge sharing, developing best practices or technical guides based on customer interactions.
  • Start building relationships with customer technical champions to facilitate long-term success and strategic alignment.

Hiring Plan

• Initial Screening: Review resumes and cover letters to assess candidate qualifications, experience, and domain expertise.
• First Interview (Technical & Role Fit): Conduct a phone or video interview to evaluate technical knowledge relevant to industrial automation, IIoT, and solutions engineering, as well as communication skills. Conducted by the hiring manager.
• Second Interview (Deep Dive & Customer Experience): In-depth interview with the hiring manager and other team members to discuss specific experience in customer-facing technical roles, complex problem-solving, and managing customer lifecycles. Conducted by the Head of Professional Services.
• Technical Presentation / Case Study: Candidate will prepare and deliver a presentation on a technical solution or a case study of a past customer engagement demonstrating their problem-solving and communication skills.
• STAR Interview (Behavioral Alignment): A behavioral interview to understand past experiences and assess alignment with FlowFuse's values, initiative, and collaboration style. Conducted by the CEO.
• Final Interview: A final interview with key stakeholders, potentially including a sales leader or executive, to assess strategic alignment and executive presence.
• Offer: Extend an offer to the selected candidate.

Screning Questions

• Can you briefly walk me through your recent experience in a customer-facing engineering or solutions role?
  • Goal: Confirm they have relevant experience in pre-sales or post-sales technical roles (e.g., Solutions Engineer, Sales Engineer, Customer Success Engineer).
• Have you worked with industrial technologies like SCADA, PLCs, MQTT, or Node-RED?
  • Goal: Confirm basic exposure to the industrial automation ecosystem. If not Node-RED specifically, check for adjacent tech like OPC-UA or IIoT platforms.
• Can you share an example of a time when you helped a customer expand or deepen their use of a solution over time?
  • Goal: Gauge if they’ve played a role in post-sale expansion, solution discovery, or upsell enablement—key traits for this hybrid SE role.
• How comfortable are you leading technical conversations with both engineers and business stakeholders?
  • Goal: Evaluate communication range and confidence in dealing with mixed audiences—an essential skill for FlowFuse’s customer base.
• Have you ever delivered a proof of concept (PoC) or demo as part of a sales process?
  • Goal: Validate they’ve led or contributed to technical pre-sales motions.
• Do you have experience working remotely and managing your own schedule across multiple customers?
  • Goal: Confirm self-management and comfort with autonomy in a remote startup environment.

Evaluation Criteria

• Go Forward if they:
  • Have customer-facing technical experience (especially in IIoT or automation)
  • Can communicate clearly across technical and business audiences
  • Show signs of proactivity and comfort with ambiguity
• No-Go if they:
  • Lack relevant experience (pure dev, sysadmin, etc.)
  • Struggle to articulate impact in customer engagements
  • Are uncomfortable with remote work or startup dynamics