Solutions Engineer

Blacksmith • San Francisco, CA

5d

About The Position

At Blacksmith, we’re rebuilding CI from the ground up. We provide cloud infrastructure that allows engineering teams to run GitHub Actions dramatically faster and far more cost-effectively — and we’re on a mission to build the world’s first CI-optimized cloud. Enterprises and fast-growing engineering teams depend on CI as mission-critical infrastructure. But traditional hyperscalers weren’t built for the unique performance and cost demands of CI workloads. Blacksmith gives DevOps, Platform, and Engineering Teams a purpose-built CI cloud that unlocks massive velocity improvements, significant cost savings, and a radically simpler operational model. As a Solution Engineer, you’ll be the technical face of Blacksmith in the field. You’ll partner closely with Account Executives to lead evaluations, drive technical wins, and guide customers through the full lifecycle of discovery, benchmarking, and proof-of-concepts. You will be a trusted advisor to engineering leaders and hands-on practitioners, ensuring they see the full value of adopting a CI-optimized cloud. This is a highly visible, customer-facing role at the intersection of Engineering, Sales, and Product — with meaningful influence over our roadmap, GTM strategy, and category creation.

Requirements

• Strong technical fluency
• Experience in solutions engineering, field engineering, pre-sales, DevOps, or consulting.
• Hands-on understanding of modern CI/CD tooling (GitHub Actions preferred), pipelines, and DevOps workflows.
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure), containerization, or ephemeral compute systems.
• Comfort working directly with developers
• You can read logs, diagnose failures, and reason about CI performance bottlenecks.
• You don’t need to be a full-time engineer — but you should be able to debug environments, understand code snippets, and think like a practitioner.
• Exceptional communication & storytelling skills
• Ability to present confidently to engineering ICs, architects, and CTOs.
• Skilled at simplifying complex concepts and tying technical value to business impact.
• Customer-obsessed problem solver
• You anticipate needs, remove friction, and help customers realize the full value of Blacksmith.
• You thrive in ambiguity and enjoy building new processes from scratch.
• Startup DNA
• Scrappy, resourceful, fast-moving.
• Comfortable in a high-velocity, evolving technical and GTM environment.
• Energized by being part of a small, senior, talent-dense team shaping a new product category.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with DevOps tooling, infrastructure automation, or ephemeral compute systems.
• Understanding of CI benchmarking, cloud cost analysis, or hyperscaler limitations.
• Experience supporting enterprise evaluations at scale (security reviews, architecture sessions, procurement support).
• Familiarity with Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes, or observability tools.
• Deep curiosity about engineering productivity and developer experience.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Sales to secure the technical win
• Lead technical discovery, scoping sessions, and qualification calls with engineering, DevOps, and platform teams.
• Deliver high-impact product demos, whiteboard sessions, and tailored technical deep dives.
• Design and execute POCs, including benchmarking CI performance, optimizing pipeline architecture, and validating ROI models.
• Act as a trusted technical advisor to customers
• Build credibility with architects, engineering managers, SREs, and CTO-level stakeholders.
• Translate engineering pain into clear solution designs using Blacksmith’s CI cloud.
• Guide customers on best practices for CI modernization, ephemeral compute, cost optimization, and migration off hyperscalers.
• Solve technical challenges in real time
• Assist customers in debugging CI performance bottlenecks, runner reliability issues, or pipeline misconfigurations.
• Help teams optimize GitHub Actions at scale and adopt ephemeral runners effectively.
• Maintain deep technical understanding of Blacksmith’s architecture and how it integrates into complex enterprise environments.
• Influence product direction
• Capture customer feedback and use cases, advocating for features and improvements that accelerate adoption.
• Collaborate with Engineering and Product to validate requirements, shape roadmap decisions, and improve usability for large-scale CI teams.
• Support expansion and long-term success
• Participate in strategic account planning with AEs, CSMs, and leadership.
• Identify technical expansion opportunities within existing customers.
• Ensure smooth handoff from evaluation to onboarding, working closely with post-sales teams.

Benefits

• Competitive salary + meaningful equity
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Unlimited PTO
• Early-exercise stock options
• 12 weeks fully paid parental leave (U.S.)
• Quarterly offsites

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees