Manager - Solution Architect

Itron • Austin, TX

13d • Hybrid

About The Position

Itron is innovating new ways for utilities and cities to manage energy and water. We create a more resourceful world to protect essential resources for today and tomorrow. Join us. Itron is seeking a dynamic and experienced Manager of Solution Architects (SAs) to lead a high-impact, customer-facing team within our Sales and Pre-Sales organization. This role is designed for a strategic, sales-focused leader who thrives in a player-coach capacity—balancing direct engagement in strategic pursuits with the development and enablement of a growing team. The Manager of Solution Architects partners closely with Enterprise/Client Executives to co-create compelling, feasible, and commercially aligned solutions that drive customer success. This leader ensures that the SA team translates Itron’s technology, roadmap, and value into clear, actionable solution narratives, reducing reliance on Product Management for messaging and enabling direct articulation of capabilities and outcomes. This role requires a collaborative mindset, technical fluency across Itron’s portfolio, and a commitment to continuous improvement, innovation, and customer-centricity.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in solution architecture, technical pre-sales, or enterprise architecture roles.
• 3+ years of leadership or mentorship experience in a technical or sales environment.
• Proven success in supporting complex technical sales pursuits with a customer-first mindset.
• Deep expertise in AMI, DI/Grid Edge, MDMS, and network architecture.
• Exceptional communication and customer-facing storytelling skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, information systems, or a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to lead with authenticity, accountability, and agility in a collaborative environment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working with regulated utilities and understanding industry dynamics.
• Proven ability to influence and collaborate with Product Business Units.
• Familiarity with proposal tools such as Loopio.
• Participation in DI/AMI industry groups or meter schools.
• Passion for innovation and continuous improvement in solution development.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and mentor a geographically distributed team of Solution Architects.
• Operate as a player–coach, actively supporting high-value pursuits while fostering team growth and scalability.
• Develop and maintain a structured onboarding and training program to ensure team readiness and portfolio fluency.
• Promote cross-training and knowledge sharing to reduce single points of dependency.
• Establish and uphold quality standards for architectural clarity, solution alignment, and technical storytelling.
• Define and track KPIs related to solution quality, responsiveness, readiness, and influence on bookings.
• Serve as Solution Owner for select strategic opportunities, modeling best practices in customer engagement.
• Collaborate with Enterprise Client Executive and Client Executives to shape solution architectures, value positioning, scope, and win themes.
• Provide final technical review of Solution Definitions, architecture diagrams, and RFP responses.
• Contribute to Opportunity Review Board documentation with clear, feasible, and commercially aligned technical content.
• Proactively identify and communicate risks and architectural tradeoffs.
• Build and maintain a centralized repository of reusable architecture patterns, templates, and messaging frameworks.
• Define and implement standard operating procedures (SOPs) and RACI models for SA engagement and cross-functional collaboration.
• Partner with Deal Desk, Product Solution Engineers (PSEs), Technical Solution Engineers (TSEs), and Sales Specialists to streamline proposal development.
• Ensure solution narratives emphasize customer outcomes, integration clarity, and use-case alignment.
• Foster a culture of documentation, repeatability, and continuous improvement.
• Maintain strong relationships with Product Business Units (PBUs) to ensure roadmap clarity and product readiness.
• Deliver timely updates to the SA team and provide structured customer feedback to influence future product direction.
• Collaborate with PSEs and TSEs to ensure demo and architecture alignment with customer needs.
• Engage Professional Services early to validate solution feasibility and ensure seamless handoff.
• Align consistently with Sales Specialists, Value Architecture, and Global Managed Services (GMS) teams.
• Maintain broad fluency across AMI, DI/Grid Edge, MDMS, network technologies, and partner ecosystems.
• Equip SAs to clearly articulate the differentiated value of AMI 2.0, including regulatory justification and measurable outcomes.
• Ensure team proficiency in explaining both the "what" and the "how" of AMI 2.0, including architectural enablers and operational workflows.
• Guide strategic positioning through competitive and regulatory awareness.

Benefits

• This position also includes a competitive benefit package including; financial, social, health and wellbeing programs, paid vacation, 401k matching, employee stock purchase program, hybrid work schedule, and more!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees