Technical Sales Solution Architect

Kardex • Cincinnati, OH

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Solution Architect is a customer-facing technical and commercial resource within Kardex Solutions responsible for helping the Sales organization identify customer requirements, develop solution concepts, and effectively demonstrate how Kardex Solutions technologies can solve complex distribution and fulfillment challenges. The role sits at the intersection of sales, solution design, operations, and technology. The Solution Architect engages early in the sales process to understand a prospect's operational challenges, material flows, business requirements, and growth objectives, then translates those requirements into an automation strategy centered primarily around AutoStore, conveyor and material handling technologies, and the broader Kardex Solutions portfolio. A critical component of the role is making automation understandable and compelling. The Solution Architect will lead customer discovery sessions, solution workshops, product demonstrations, conceptual solution reviews, and technical presentations that enable customers to understand not only how the technology works, but how it improves their operation and delivers measurable business value. The successful candidate will combine strong knowledge of warehouse operations and automation with the communication skills necessary to engage everyone from warehouse operators and engineers to senior executives.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in warehouse automation, material handling, distribution operations, solution engineering, systems integration, or a related field.
• Strong understanding of warehouse and distribution center operations.
• Experience supporting customer-facing technical or solution-selling activities.
• Ability to understand operational data and translate it into automation requirements.
• Strong presentation and communication skills.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience working collaboratively with Sales and Engineering organizations.
• Ability to manage multiple opportunities simultaneously.
• Understand many of the following concepts: Warehouse material flow, Order fulfillment processes, Throughput calculations, SKU velocity, Inventory profiles, Storage density, Pick rates, Peak demand analysis, Conveyor capacity, System bottlenecks, Availability and redundancy, Controls architecture, Host-system integration, WMS/WCS/WES environments, ROI and automation business cases.
• Consultative rather than transactional approach.
• Technically curious.
• Comfortable asking detailed operational questions.
• Able to challenge customer assumptions professionally.
• Commercially aware.
• Highly credible in front of customers.
• Comfortable presenting to executives.
• Capable of facilitating workshops.
• Able to simplify complex concepts.
• Collaborative across departments.
• Comfortable working in an entrepreneurial and rapidly growing environment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with one or more of the following is strongly preferred: AutoStore, Goods-to-person systems, Conveyor systems, Sortation, AS/RS, AMRs / AGVs, Warehouse robotics, WMS, WCS, or WES software, Warehouse simulation, Material handling systems integration, Distribution center solution design.
• Experience working for a material handling integrator, automation provider, consulting organization, or sophisticated distribution operation is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Sales to engage prospective and existing customers during the earliest stages of an opportunity.
• Lead structured discovery sessions to understand current warehouse and fulfillment processes, receiving, replenishment, storage, picking, packing, and shipping workflows, SKU profiles and inventory characteristics, order profiles and demand patterns, required throughput and peak operating conditions, service-level requirements, labor requirements and constraints, available building footprint and facility limitations, growth expectations, integration requirements, and customer business objectives and investment criteria.
• Translate operational discussions into clear functional and technical requirements that can be used by Kardex Solutions engineering and solution design teams.
• Identify gaps in customer-provided information and work with Sales and the customer to collect the data required to develop an appropriate solution.
• Develop high-level automation concepts that address the customer's operational and business requirements.
• Evaluate where technologies such as AutoStore, conveyor and sortation, goods-to-person technologies, pick and pack workstations, AMRs and other mobile robotics, warehouse execution and control software, and peripheral automation and value-added technologies can be combined to create an effective end-to-end solution.
• Work closely with Kardex Solutions engineering and design teams as opportunities progress from conceptual design into detailed engineering and proposal development.
• Help ensure that proposed solutions balance operational performance, technical feasibility, scalability, simplicity, customer experience, implementation risk, capital investment, and long-term total cost of ownership.
• Serve as a knowledgeable customer-facing resource for AutoStore opportunities.
• Help customers understand concepts including grid and storage design, bin sizing and utilization, robot and port requirements, throughput, workstation strategies, picking and replenishment processes, system expansion, redundancy and availability, software integration, and operational optimization.
• Support the Sales team in explaining why a particular AutoStore configuration is appropriate for the customer's operation.
• Collaborate with internal engineering resources to ensure assumptions used during early sales conversations align with the final engineered solution.
• Support the development and presentation of integrated conveyor solutions connecting AutoStore and surrounding warehouse processes.
• Understand and help define material flows including tote transportation, carton transportation, order consolidation, packing, sortation, shipping, replenishment, and exception handling.
• Help customers understand how AutoStore, conveyor, software, and peripheral technologies work together as a complete system rather than as individual pieces of equipment.
• Develop and deliver compelling demonstrations of Kardex Solutions products and technologies.
• Translate technical capabilities into clear customer outcomes such as increased throughput, reduced labor dependency, improved storage density, increased order accuracy, improved ergonomics, greater scalability, improved system availability, and reduced operating cost.
• Act as a technical partner to Kardex Solutions Sales Managers throughout the opportunity lifecycle.
• Participate in customer discovery meetings, qualification calls, site visits, solution workshops, executive presentations, technical presentations, demonstrations, RFP responses, proposal presentations, customer reference visits, and trade shows and industry events.
• Help Sales determine whether an opportunity is technically and commercially aligned with the capabilities of Kardex Solutions.
• Identify potential technical risks, scope gaps, unrealistic expectations, or solution constraints early in the sales process.
• Support the development of clear value propositions and solution differentiators.
• Translate complex automation technology into a clear story that customers can understand.
• Present solutions differently depending on the audience, explaining workflow, labor impact, throughput, reliability, ergonomics, and operational flexibility for operations leaders; technical architecture, controls, interfaces, system performance, and integration requirements for engineering and IT teams; and business impact, ROI, scalability, risk, and strategic value for executives.
• Ensure Kardex Solutions proposals communicate the business outcome of the solution, not simply the equipment being supplied.
• Work closely with Sales, Solution Design, Engineering, Software, Project Management, Customer Service, Product Management, Marketing, and Strategic technology partners.
• Provide structured feedback to Product Management and Engineering regarding recurring customer requirements and market needs.
• Help develop reusable sales tools such as discovery templates, demonstration environments, solution presentation templates, customer use cases, ROI tools, technical comparison documents, and application guides.
• Increase win rate, shorten the sales cycle, improve solution quality, and reduce the technical risk associated with opportunities entering engineering.

What This Job Offers

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