Solutions Architect, US Remote

Exa • San Francisco, CA

18h • $160,000 - $300,000 • Remote

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, and describes itself as high-agency and low-ego.

Solutions Architects lead the technical side of Exa’s presales motion, partnering with Account Executives from the first call through the technical win. The role demonstrates Exa’s capabilities, validates its fit for prospects’ use cases, and contributes to technical wins, POC conversion, and pipeline velocity. It combines engineering and sales rather than focusing only on demonstrations.

The Solutions Architect conducts discovery with engineers and executives; builds tailored demos, sample applications, and prototypes; and designs and runs workshops and proofs of concept. They benchmark Exa against alternatives on quality, latency, and cost, address technical objections and questions about security, compliance, and architecture, and bring in Forward Deployed Engineers when specialist depth is needed. After a deal closes, they provide a thorough handoff to those engineers. The role also feeds market insights to Product and creates reusable presales resources such as demo environments, reference architectures, and evaluation playbooks.

This is a remote opportunity in the United States. Travel may be required as needed for customer meetings and workshops.

Requirements

• Several years of hands-on programming experience, including the ability to build compelling demos, implement end-to-end POCs, and design and run rigorous evaluations in head-to-head competitive 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, including adapting a pitch to CTOs, engineers, and PMs and explaining 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, and the ability to discuss retrieval and search quality credibly.
• Experience helping close revenue or drive commercial outcomes at a previous company.
• Thriving in early-stage environments where job responsibilities change frequently.
• Enjoyment of demonstrating a product in a way that helps prospects understand its value.
• 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 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 apps, 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 clear case against alternatives.
• Handle technical objections and answer security, compliance, and architecture questions.
• Bring in Forward Deployed Engineers when deals require deeper expertise, and provide a clean handoff after close.
• Feed market signals back to Product, including prospect requests, reasons for losses, 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 benefits.
• Fertility benefits.
• Monthly wellness stipend.

What This Job Offers

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