Pre-Sales Solution Engineer
AfterCollege
Sales & Business Development
San Diego, CA, USA
Pre-Sales Technical Activities
- Partner with enterprise account executives to lead technical discovery — understanding customer infrastructure, maintenance practices, and pain points around transformer and rotating equipment reliability.
- Deliver compelling product demonstrations and technical presentations tailored to each prospect's operational environment, whether in a utility substation, data center, or industrial facility.
- Design and propose proof-of-concept (POC) scopes that clearly demonstrate VIE's leading-indicator approach — including sensor placement strategies, data collection parameters, and success criteria.
- Respond to technical sections of RFPs, RFIs, and security/IT questionnaires (including cybersecurity questionnaire templates) with accuracy and speed.
- Develop solution architectures and integration proposals, addressing how VIE connects with existing CMMS, SCADA, or operational workflows.
- Build and maintain technical ROI models that quantify the value of predictive maintenance versus reactive approaches for specific customer contexts.
- Act as the primary technical resource in prospect meetings, field visits, and executive briefings.
Initial Post-Sales Delivery
- Lead the end-to-end onboarding of new accounts — from site assessment and hardware installation coordination through system configuration, data validation, and user training.
- Conduct site walks and transformer/asset surveys to determine sensor placement, installation requirements, and integration needs.
- Serve as the primary technical point of contact for new customers during the initial deployment window, ensuring a smooth and confidence-building experience.
- Configure VIE's platform to reflect each customer's asset hierarchy, alert thresholds, and reporting preferences.
- Deliver onboarding training sessions for operations, maintenance, and reliability teams — translating VIE's AI-driven insights into practical, day-to-day maintenance workflows.
- Document deployment outcomes, lessons learned, and customer configuration details to enable a clean handoff to the Customer Success team.
- Collaborate with the engineering and data science teams to surface field observations that inform product improvements and model refinement.
What We're Looking For
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience in a Solution Engineering, Sales Engineering, or Technical Account Management role, ideally selling or deploying hardware/software solutions to utility, industrial, or critical infrastructure customers.
- Working knowledge of power transformer fundamentals — including transformer construction (core, windings, bushings, tap changers, cooling systems), nameplate ratings (MVA, kV, impedance), and the distinction between power, distribution, and autotransformer configurations.
- Familiarity with transformer failure modes and the conventional diagnostics used to detect them, including: Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) and the interpretation of key fault gases (hydrogen, methane, acetylene, ethylene); insulation condition assessment via power factor / tan-delta testing and polarization index; Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) for detecting winding deformation; and thermal imaging for identifying hot spots in bushings, LTCs, and radiators.
- Understanding of the limitations of traditional condition monitoring approaches — particularly why DGA, oil sampling, and periodic electrical testing are lagging indicators that miss early-stage mechanical and electrical degradation — and the ability to articulate why leading-indicator, continuous monitoring is a fundamentally different value proposition.
- Ability to read and interpret transformer maintenance records, oil test reports, and SCADA/PI historian data in the context of a customer's asset management workflow.
- Comfort navigating substation environments and working alongside utility relay engineers, T&D operations teams, and asset managers during site assessments and POC deployments.
- Broad technical foundation across adjacent domains: rotating equipment condition monitoring (vibration analysis, motor current signature analysis), predictive maintenance methodologies (CBM, RCM), and industrial IoT sensor deployment.
- Demonstrated ability to translate complex technical concepts — including AI model outputs and vibration-based anomaly detection — into clear business value for both field-level maintenance teams and executive stakeholders.
- Experience conducting hands-on customer-site technical assessments, POC deployments, or product installations.
- Comfort working in both a consultative pre-sales capacity and a hands-on field implementation capacity — this role does both.
- Strong written communication skills, including the ability to produce professional technical proposals, SOW documents, and customer-facing configuration documentation.
- Willingness and ability to travel 30–50% to customer sites, primarily across North America.
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience with transformer monitoring, vibration analysis, or predictive maintenance platforms (e.g., SKF, Emerson, GE APM, or similar).
• Familiarity with data center critical infrastructure, electric utilities, or industrial manufacturing environments.
• Background in IoT sensor deployment, edge computing, or non-invasive monitoring technologies.
• Experience responding to enterprise procurement processes including security questionnaires, compliance reviews, and technical due diligence.
• Proficiency with CRM platforms (Salesforce preferred) for documenting pre-sales and post-sales activity.
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).
What Success Looks Like
In your first 90 days, you will have led at least one live technical demonstration, contributed to an active POC scope, and completed the deployment and onboarding of at least one new customer account. Within six months, you will be a trusted technical voice in key sales pursuits, will have developed reusable demo and proposal assets, and will be the go-to resource for ensuring new customers reach their first value milestone with VIE's platform.
Why VIE
• We are solving a real, urgent problem — critical infrastructure fails silently, and we are the only solution providing true leading indicators of failure across electrical, thermal, and mechanical failure modes.
• You will be a key contributor at a company where the work you do this quarter will materially shape how the company wins and delivers in the next few years.
• We are backed by strong commercial traction with marquee accounts across the data center, utility, and industrial sectors.
• Our core values — Adaptability, Courage, Discovery, Connection, and Environment — are not a poster on the wall. They are how we make decisions and build the team.
• Competitive compensation package including base salary, performance-based incentives, and equity participation.