Pre-Sales Director

D-Fend Solutions • McLean, VA

2d

About The Position

The Pre-Sales Director is a key leadership role bridging the Sales organization with Product and R&D teams. The role is responsible for ensuring that proposed customer solutions are both technically relevant and commercially compelling, thereby supporting the sales process and driving successful business outcomes. The Pre-Sales Director will lead, in a matrix structure, all pre-sales teams across the company’s global sites and will drive knowledge management, methodologies, work culture, and collaboration models with the sales organization worldwide.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related field.
• Proven experience of at least 5 years in a Pre-Sales, Sales Engineering, or Solution Architect role.
• Previous leadership and management experience – mandatory.
• Excellent presentation and public speaking skills.
• Fluent English, both written and spoken; additional languages are an advantage.
• Strong technical understanding of the company’s products/solutions and their technological ecosystem.
• Ability to accurately analyze operational and business requirements while considering customer constraints.
• Creativity and strategic thinking with the ability to analyze competing technologies and propose compelling customer-focused solutions.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to translate technical requirements into business value.
• Experience leading continuous improvement initiatives.
• Ability to build strong working relationships with customers, sales teams, and technical organizations.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Strong technical writing capabilities.
• Strong time-management skills, multitasking ability, and capability to work effectively under pressure.

Responsibilities

• Recruit, mentor, coach, and manage the daily activities of the pre-sales team, including Sales Engineers and Solution Architects.
• Assign appropriate pre-sales resources to sales opportunities based on expertise, priorities, and urgency.
• Drive the professional, technical, and presentation skills development of team members.
• Lead in-depth discussions with prospective customers to fully understand their technical requirements and business challenges.
• Develop and deliver demonstrations, including customer-tailored scenarios, technical presentations, operational solution proposals based on company capabilities, and customized Proof of Concept (POC) processes aligned with customer requirements, company capabilities, and operational constraints.
• Lead the technical response process for RFPs and RFIs, including writing, reviewing, and tailoring responses.
• Create, maintain, and manage standardized pre-sales assets, including product documentation, FAQs, demo scenarios, POC templates, and related materials.
• Establish a structured process for collecting field feedback from customers and sales opportunities, analyzing lessons learned, sharing insights across relevant teams, and ensuring implementation of improvements with Product, R&D, Sales, and Marketing teams.
• Work closely with Sales leadership to develop overall sales strategies as well as opportunity-specific strategies when required.
• Share technical sales process insights, challenges, and solutions with the Project Management organization following deal closure to ensure effective project execution and continuity.
• Maintain deep and up-to-date knowledge of the company’s solutions, competitors, and relevant technology trends.
• Approve the technical feasibility of proposed solutions prior to final proposal submission.
• Foster professionalism, leadership, continuous improvement, structured methodologies, and operational excellence while serving as a role model for the organization.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior