Solutions Architect, NYC

Exa • New York, NY

2d • $160,000 - $300,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Exa is building a search engine for the AI era. Its Search API powers agents, Fortune 500 companies, and AI labs. The company is a largely San Francisco-based team of approximately 100 people.

Solutions Architects lead the technical side of Exa’s presales motion, partnering with Account Executives from initial prospect conversations through technical wins. The role focuses on demonstrating how Exa meets prospect needs and supporting opportunities through technical evaluation, proof-of-concept conversion, and pipeline velocity. It is an engineering role with a commercial focus, not a demo-only position.

The Solutions Architect runs discovery with technical and executive stakeholders; builds tailored demos, sample applications, and prototypes; and designs and delivers workshops and proofs of concept. The role also addresses technical objections, evaluates Exa against alternatives, coordinates specialist support from Forward Deployed Engineers when needed, and hands customers off to them after a deal closes. The position feeds prospect and market insights to Product and develops reusable presales materials. This is an in-person opportunity in New York City, with travel as needed for customer meetings and workshops. Exa is willing to sponsor international candidates, including STEM OPT, OPT, H-1B, O-1, and E-3 candidates.

Requirements

• Several years of hands-on programming experience, including the ability to build compelling demos, implement proofs of concept end to end, and design and run rigorous evaluations in competitive head-to-head scenarios.
• At least 2 years of hands-on presales or technical sales experience, ideally at an AI-native or developer-first company.
• Experience owning the technical side of deals, running discovery and demos with technical buyers, and helping carry opportunities to close.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to adapt to CTOs, engineers, and product managers and explain complex technology simply.
• A track record of high performance in demanding environments.
• High tolerance for context-switching, ambiguity, and sustained intensity.
• Willingness to travel as needed for customer meetings and workshops.

Nice To Haves

• Experience as a solutions architect, solutions engineer, or sales engineer at a developer-tools, API, or AI company.
• Experience building with LLMs, RAG, or agents, with credible knowledge of retrieval and search quality.
• Experience helping close revenue or driving commercial outcomes at a previous company.
• Thriving in early-stage environments where responsibilities change frequently.
• Enjoyment of helping prospects understand a product through a demo.
• Strong interest in organizing the world’s knowledge and making it accessible to machines.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical side of new opportunities alongside Account Executives, from the first call through technical win.
• Run discovery to understand prospects’ use cases, architectures, data needs, and success criteria, and qualify where Exa fits.
• Build and deliver tailored demos, sample applications, and prototypes using prospects’ problems.
• Design and run workshops and proofs of concept with clear success criteria, timelines, and evaluation plans, and drive them to a decision.
• Win technical evaluations by benchmarking Exa on quality, latency, and cost and making a case against alternatives.
• Handle technical objections and answer security, compliance, and architecture questions.
• Bring in Forward Deployed Engineers as specialists when deeper expertise is needed, and hand off customers to them after close.
• Provide Product with market feedback, including prospect requests, reasons for lost deals, and opportunities to improve win rates.
• Build reusable presales assets, such as demo environments, reference architectures, and evaluation playbooks.

Benefits

• Premium medical, dental, and vision healthcare benefits.
• Fertility benefits.
• Monthly wellness stipend.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed