VP, Sales Engineering & Solution Architecture

Kipu Systems• US,

just now

About The Position

At Kipu Health, we're passionate about creating better paths to better patient care. Join us in our work to advance behavioral health care in our communities. Our innovative solutions support providers in treating addiction, eating disorders and many other behavioral health conditions. Our EMR, CRM and revenue cycle solutions help behavioral health facilities succeed in managing their patients' entire care journey, but it's through our people that we truly make a difference. Kipu Health is evolving how it delivers technical expertise into the sales cycle, and we're seeking a Vice President of Sales Engineering & Solution Architecture to lead that transformation. This role will build and grow a Solution Architect function - centered on major and minor domain expertise across RCM, Compliance/GRC, EMR, and CRM/Alumni Engagement - and will own the strategy, people, and performance of that team going forward. You'll start by assessing Kipu's current technical sales talent, then design and execute the plan to develop, evolve, and expand the team needed to deliver on this mandate. This is a build role, and a seat at the table. You will sit as a peer to the leaders of New Business, Existing Business Growth & Expansion, and Revenue Operations, reporting directly to the CRO. Beyond running your own team, you are expected to bring market, competitive, and data insight to the broader sales leadership team - things this team can act on together - and to hold your organization to the same consistency bar Kipu holds itself to across every function: clear ownership of the metrics that define sales effectiveness and efficiency, applied consistently across your team, not just described in a deck.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in Sales Engineering, Solutions Consulting, or Solution Architecture leadership in B2B SaaS, preferably within healthcare or another regulated industry.
Proven experience building or restructuring a technical sales function, including designing skills frameworks and career paths for a specialized/generalist hybrid role.
Deep technical fluency across APIs, system integrations, and complex software ecosystems, with the credibility to be a first line of defense on technical questions.
Demonstrated ability to define and hold a team accountable to consistent performance metrics across reps, regions, or domains - not just define them, but operationalize them.
Track record of bringing market, competitive, or data insight into cross-functional leadership discussions and translating it into action alongside sales leadership peers.
Experience partnering closely with People and Finance functions on org design, role transitions, and compensation planning.
Track record of reducing sales cycle friction through technical enablement and measurably improving deal velocity or win rate.
Exceptional people leader: able to acquire, develop, and retain top technical sales talent, and to lead a team through organizational change.
Comfortable operating in an evolving, still-being-defined role, with the ability to bring structure and clarity to ambiguity.
Excellent communication skills, particularly with executive-level and peer-level partners across Sales, People, and Finance.

Nice To Haves

Hiring and development for this role are anchored to Kipu's Leadership competency model, evaluated at the Senior Leader level.
Setting Strategy & Direction: Sets strategic vision for the Solution Architect function and empowers the team to drive toward it; leads the transition through large-scale organizational change with confidence.
Team Performance & Accountability: Builds a high-performing team and fosters ownership; sustains performance over time with clear mechanisms - scorecards, QBRs, and consistent metrics - so results are consistent across reps, not dependent on any one person.
Delegation & Scaling Others: Establishes clear decision rights and operating mechanisms so the Solution Architect team can execute independently; anticipates future capacity needs as the function scales.
Coaching & Development: Creates a culture of coaching across major and minor domains; develops future leaders within the team and raises the effectiveness of every Solution Architect at scale.
Communication & Influence: Shapes strategic narratives and influences senior stakeholders; communicates complex technical and organizational strategy clearly to drive alignment across Sales, Implementation, and Customer Success.
Collaboration & Cross-Functional Leadership: Champions collaboration across the sales leadership team and the broader business; resolves strategic conflicts and sets norms for how Solution Architecture partners with New Business, Existing Business, and Sales Operations.
Decision Making & Judgment: Makes strategic decisions under uncertainty; sets decision frameworks for the team and manages risk as the function evolves.
Product, Market & Industry Expertise: Uses deep product, market, and industry insight to influence strategy and priorities; anticipates competitive shifts and customer needs, and brings that insight to the sales leadership team as shared, actionable intelligence.

Responsibilities

Design and stand up the Solution Architect operating model: a unified pool of technical sales professionals, each carrying a major domain of deep expertise (RCM, Compliance/GRC, EMR, or CRM/Alumni Engagement) and at least one minor domain of working knowledge.
Assess Kipu's current technical sales talent, identify where team members can be developed into the new Solution Architect model, and partner with People and Finance on org design, role communication, and interview process as the team evolves and grows.
Serve as the executive escalation point and first line of defense for technical, integration, and API related questions surfaced during the sales cycle, reducing the hand-offs to Product and Engineering that currently slow deal velocity.
Build and maintain a skills framework and upskilling plan - including AI fluency - so every Solution Architect can credibly support both their major and minor domain in live customer conversations.
Own consistency across the Solution Architect team in the areas that matter most to sales effectiveness and efficiency, standardizing how the team is measured and deployed against Kipu's core sales metrics (bookings performance, win rate by segment, and pipeline coverage by source), so outcomes hold steady across reps, regions, and domains.
Sit as a peer partner to the leaders of New Business, Existing Business Growth & Expansion, and Revenue Operations; bring market, competitive, and win/loss insight to the sales leadership team as shared, actionable intelligence rather than isolated team-level reporting.
Partner with New Business and Existing Business sales leadership to ensure Solution Architects are deployed against the highest-impact deals across segments.
Define, in partnership with People and Finance, the compensation structure for the new role, bridging today's Sales Engineer and Sales Specialist bands into a single, defensible band tied to team-level bookings performance.
Establish operating cadence and performance metrics for the Solution Architect team, including deal support coverage, win-rate impact, and time-to-answer on technical escalations.
Recruit, hire, and develop the Solution Architect bench, including evaluating current team members for the new structure and sourcing external talent where needed.
Support executive deliverables such as Board Reviews, Executive QBRs, and strategic planning as needed.