VP, Salesforce Solutions

dentsu•New York, NY

19h•Hybrid

About The Position

The VP, Salesforce Solutions is a senior pre-sale and solutioning leader within Merkle's Customer Data Solutions business. This role leverages Merkle's Salesforce Data Cloud and Agentforce capabilities, along with Data Engineering and Merkury capabilities, to address client business challenges and drive measurable CX and commercial outcomes. The candidate will connect platform expertise, data strategy, and client discovery to frame business challenges and develop compelling solution architectures. This role requires operating as a trusted strategic partner to senior and C-level client stakeholders, leading internal multi-disciplinary pursuit teams, and developing differentiated, winnable proposals. This is a pre-sales role focused on winning work and ensuring sold scope is technically sound, architecturally coherent, and commercially defensible.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university.
10+ years of experience in customer data, MarTech, or data platform strategy and architecture roles.
Substantial hands-on experience architecting or advising on enterprise CDP, identity resolution, or customer 360 solutions.
Deep, real-world Salesforce Data Cloud expertise, including hands-on experience designing production-grade Data Cloud architectures (data ingestion, identity resolution, unified profiles, audience activation).
Demonstrated Agentforce or AI solutioning experience, including framing data readiness requirements, articulating appropriate agent use cases, and positioning AI capability as an outcome of sound data infrastructure.
Proven pre-sales or solutioning track record: experience presenting to C-suite audiences, shaping large-scope proposals, and directly influencing enterprise purchase decisions.
Deep fluency in first-party data strategy (identity resolution, consent and privacy management, data clean rooms, omnichannel activation) and ability to translate these concepts into client-ready business narratives.
Excellent executive presence and communication skills; ability to simplify complex architecture without losing technical credibility.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree or relevant certifications (Salesforce Data Cloud Consultant, Salesforce AI Associate/Specialist, or equivalent).
Prior experience at a consulting, systems integration, agency, or MarTech vendor environment.
Demonstrated ability to manage multiple client and pursuit contexts simultaneously.
Broad multi-platform fluency: working knowledge of Snowflake, Tealium, Adobe Experience Platform, or comparable data infrastructure.
Familiarity with Merkle's competitive landscape (Publicis Sapient / Epsilon, Accenture Song, IBM iX, and boutique Salesforce SI partners).
Experience working with or positioning a proprietary identity resolution platform (Merkury, Acxiom, LiveRamp, or equivalent) as infrastructure within a Salesforce or CDP architecture.
Demonstrated external thought leadership (speaking, writing, or recognized expertise within the Salesforce, CDP, or marketing data ecosystem).
Familiarity with AI agent deployment patterns, LLM integration in CX workflows, and the data prerequisites for agentic personalization at enterprise scale.

Responsibilities

Owning the solutioning process for Salesforce Data Cloud and Agentforce pursuits, from initial discovery through final proposal, ensuring technical defensibility, commercial structure, and responsiveness to client objectives.
Developing and maintaining Merkle's strategic and technical point of view on Salesforce Data Cloud and Agentforce, and their integration with Merkle's Merkury identity graph and Snowflake data infrastructure.
Serving as Merkle's senior technical authority in client-facing pursuit settings, translating complex architecture decisions into business-relevant narratives, and building confidence with VP and C-suite stakeholders.
Collaborating with Salesforce's partner and co-sell teams to position Merkle as a preferred SI for Data Cloud and Agentforce implementations, participating in joint GTM planning, and maintaining best-practice currency.
Building and maintaining a library of repeatable pre-sales assets, including architecture frameworks, discovery playbooks, demo environments, RFP response modules, and proposal templates.
Leveraging Merkle's Merkury identity platform and first-party data capabilities as native inputs to Salesforce Data Cloud architectures, ensuring identity resolution, consent management, and audience activation are integrated.
Defining Merkle's approach to Agentforce solutioning, including data readiness, identity resolution, and customer 360 infrastructure as prerequisites for AI agent deployment.
Contributing to CDS capability development by informing Salesforce-related hiring profiles, certification strategy, and delivery team enablement.
Generating external thought leadership through conference presence, written content, and LinkedIn to build Merkle's market credibility within the Salesforce ecosystem.