Director, Global Solutions Engineering

UpGuard•Portland, CA

2d•Remote

About The Position

UpGuard is seeking a Director of Global Solutions Engineering to lead the technical engine behind its revenue organization. This role is crucial for maintaining technical credibility, which is central to winning and retaining customers. The Director will manage a global, two-part function: Sales Engineers for pre-sales technical wins and Solutions Consultants for post-sales technical escalations. Reporting directly to the CRO, this is a builder's role requiring strategic thinking, technical depth, and the ability to lead customer calls. The position involves managing distributed managers and their teams across different regions, hiring and retaining top technical talent, and fostering a culture of technical excellence and customer focus. The role also includes owning the technical experience across the entire customer journey, from pre-sales to post-sales support and cross-selling, and enabling the channel technically to represent and implement the product independently. The Director will also partner with Sales Enablement to develop training and competitive playbooks, act as the voice of the customer to Product and Engineering, and contribute to forecasting, capacity planning, and go-to-market strategy as a revenue leader.

Requirements

A track record of building and leading a world-class Solutions/Sales Engineering team, having raised the technical bar of an organization.
Experience selling and supporting a genuinely technical product to technical buyers and evaluators (engineers, security teams, architects).
Cybersecurity or security/GRC experience is strongly preferred; adjacent deeply-technical domains considered.
Proven experience as a manager of managers leading distributed or global teams across multiple time zones.
Ownership of the technical experience across the customer journey — from the technical win in new business through post-sales technical support and cross-sell.
A hands-on disposition — credible and willing in the room, able to step into and lead a high-stakes customer call yourself.
A track record of building or scaling RFP / security assessment functions and lifting win rates through repeatable process and reusable content.
Experience technically enabling channel / partner ecosystems so partners can represent and implement the product independently.
A strong partnership orientation — having worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Sales, Customer Success, Product, and Enablement.
Excellent executive communication skills; equally credible with C-level buyers and hands-on technical evaluators.
Comfort operating in a fast-paced, high-growth, remote-first environment.

Nice To Haves

Adjacent deeply-technical domains considered for cybersecurity or security/GRC experience.

Responsibilities

Lead a global, multi-layered team, managing and developing distributed managers and their teams of Sales Engineers and Solutions Consultants across regions.
Hire, coach, and retain top technical talent; set clear career paths; and build a culture of technical excellence, curiosity, and customer obsession.
Own the technical win in pre-sales, leading the Sales Engineering team to drive pipeline conversion through demos, proofs of concept, technical discovery, and value engineering.
Own the post-sales technical escalation path, leading the Solutions Consultants team as the technical escalation path for CSMs and the driver of technical cross-sell.
Be willing and able to personally jump into a high-stakes customer call and lead it, setting the technical bar by example.
Build a scalable, high-quality function for RFPs, security questionnaires, and technical/security assessments, improving accuracy, consistency, and turnaround.
Technically enable partners, including training, certification, demo readiness, and deal support.
Work with Sales Enablement to design and deliver technical training, certification, demo standards, and competitive playbooks.
Capture field and technical feedback and channel it to Product and Engineering to influence the roadmap.
Contribute to forecasting, capacity planning, and go-to-market strategy with the CRO and revenue leadership team, and define the metrics and processes that make the function measurable and scalable.