AI & Analytics Pre-Sales Lead (US East)

AOB Recruitment•New York, NY

About The Position

The AI & Analytics Pre-Sales Lead drives technical solution strategy and deal success across Manufacturing and Agricultural Technology (AgTech) accounts in the eastern United States. This senior leadership role is part of an established AI & Analytics practice with experience delivering AI solutions in production. The lead owns the technical win throughout the pre-sales lifecycle, from discovery and solution shaping through proposals, demonstrations, and win strategy. The role combines executive-level client advisory with hands-on development of demonstrations, prototypes, and proofs of concept using generative and agentic AI. The role also shapes industry-specific offerings, develops reusable accelerators and intellectual property, and partners with sales, architecture, data science, engineering, DataOps, and MLOps teams to deliver differentiated client solutions. The practice includes generative AI, agentic automation, machine vision, deep learning, natural language processing, and reinforcement learning, supported by modern data platforms across major cloud environments. The position is intended for someone based on the US East Coast and involves approximately 30% travel to client sites and industry events. Candidates should primarily come from mid-sized services companies, and recent experience with a manufacturing client is mandatory. Sales professionals retain primary quota ownership, while this role supports practice sales objectives.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent knowledge gained through self-study and professional experience.
10+ years of overall experience, including substantial experience in pre-sales, solution consulting, practice leadership, or business development for data and analytics solutions.
10+ years of experience with data and analytics platforms.
10+ years of experience in pre-sales and solution consulting.
5+ years of generative AI experience.
5+ years of experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
Demonstrated success leading pre-sales engagements, facilitating workshops, developing proposals, shaping solutions, and supporting complex deal cycles.
Hands-on ability to rapidly build working demonstrations and prototypes using generative and agentic AI tools.
Experience designing and positioning large-scale data and analytics platforms.
Working knowledge of predictive modeling, generative AI, document intelligence, and agentic automation.
Ability to assess practical AI capabilities and guide clients toward solutions with measurable business impact.
Understanding of cloud and distributed-systems principles, with experience across platforms such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Familiarity with containerization and orchestration technologies.
Excellent written and verbal communication, executive presentation, and interpersonal skills.
Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments and bring structure to complex, open-ended problems.
Willingness to travel approximately 30%.
Recent experience with a manufacturing client is mandatory.
Candidates should come primarily from mid-sized services companies and have strong pre-sales and solutioning experience.

Nice To Haves

An advanced degree is preferred.
Familiarity with the Manufacturing and/or AgTech industries is strongly preferred; recent manufacturing-client experience is mandatory.

Responsibilities

Lead the technical pre-sales lifecycle for AI & Analytics across Manufacturing and AgTech accounts, including discovery, requirements analysis, solution shaping, and win strategy.
Build demonstrations, prototypes, and proofs of concept using generative and agentic AI.
Advise client executives on AI adoption, data-platform modernization, capability roadmaps, and process automation.
Shape industry-specific offerings, including intellectual property, custom service offerings, target markets, and lead-generation approaches.
Partner with industry sales teams to identify strategic opportunities and develop account-specific solution strategies.
Drive proposals, RFP/RFI responses, value narratives, ROI models, and client-facing collateral.
Present organizational capabilities through sales meetings, executive briefings, workshops, and industry conferences.
Facilitate AI strategy workshops, ideation sessions, and deep-dive assessments to translate operational challenges into feasible, high-value AI use cases.
Collaborate with solution architects, data scientists, and engineering, DataOps, and MLOps teams to develop demos, PoCs, pilots, and reusable accelerators.
Extend reusable intellectual property and solution assets that can be scaled across multiple clients.
Support practice sales objectives while partnering with sales professionals who retain primary quota ownership.
Develop thought leadership and verticalized offerings that strengthen the practice’s market position.