Albert helps chemists change the world by building technology that understands how they work. As chemists ourselves, we know whatit’slike when softwaredoesn’twork the way you do — stuck with systems built by people who never spent a dayatthe bench.That’swhy we created Albert OS, the first AI-native operating system for materials science, designed to remove every obstacle between curiosity and discovery.
We have Solutions Scientists who understand R&D workflows at the bench level, and a Forward Deployed Scientists team that stays embedded with partners through delivery. Integrations and migrations are innearly everydeal we close, and the momentum behind them is real: one of our cofounders has stepped in personally to drive the integrations and migrations practice forward. The pre-sales pillar of that practice is the piece that is still being built, and this is the role that builds it. We are looking for a senior leader who sits across from IT, owns thepre-sales securityand compliancereviews andintegration conversation, and works in close partnership with the scientific team to make sure both sides of every engagement move together. TheIT buyers, many of whom are navigating their first serious enterpriseR&D solution, deserve someone who can meet them where they are. This role is it.
We are hiring a Senior Director ofSolutionEngineering to lead the technical arm of our commercial organization.You will run the technical side of pre-sales, own how we scope and price integration services,drive the pre-sales security and compliancereviewanddefine the handoff into post-saledelivery.Over time, this role will deepen its partnership with SolutionScienceto ensure the full pre-sales motionoperatesas a unified experience for our partners. We are looking for someone who has scaled apre-salessolutionsengineering function before and is ready to do it again.
If you are passionate aboutcutting-edgetechnology and thrive in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment, we want to hear from you.
What you'll do
Pre-sales technical motion
Every engagement separates scientific scope, owned by our Solutions Scientists, fromtechnicalscope. You will own the technical side and work closely with the scientific team to make sure both move together:
- Lead technical discovery with partner IT stakeholders including CIOs, Enterprise Architects, and IT Directors, many of whom are in their first serious integration conversation
- Scope integrations and migrations, producing the Binding Estimate that defines technical approach, assumptions, and estimated ranges; once signed, that estimate is the handoff to theengineeringteam for delivery.
- Own RFP and security questionnaire responses for all integration, migration, and technical security content; this is your domain, not something that escalates to engineering. This includes strong familiarity with relevantsecurity and compliance standards such asISO 27001, SOC 2,GxP, NIST 800, GDPR, theEU AIAct, etc.
- Own the SOW structure(in partnership with legal)for integration and migration engagements, ensuring documents are clear, consistent, and commercially protective
- Guide partners toward standard integration patterns and best practices; most deals should follow the catalog, and it is your job to make that the path of least resistance
- Work withtheenterpriseengineeringpost-salesteamtoidentifytooling that supports pre-sales, including mockintegrations, proof-of-concept environments, and demonstration integrations. Own these tools andleveragethem.
- Co-developing evaluation frameworks with SolutionScientiststhat connect technical feasibility and scientific fit into a single partner experience
- Spot emerging integration trends and gaps in our standardofferings, andbring those patterns back to the engineering team.
- Develop the playbooks, templates, and intake processes that let AEs and Solutions Scientists run services conversations without pulling inpost-salesprematurely
Handoff and delivery alignment
Your primary focus is pre-sales. Once a Binding Estimate is signed, the engineering teampicks upexecution. Your job is to make that handoff clean every time.
- Design and own the pre-to-post-sales handoff, ensuring scoped work, assumptions, and partner context transfer clearly into the delivery team
- Build the enablement content, templates, and standards that make the handoff consistent as deal volume grows
- Work directly withthe enterprise engineering teamto shape how the practiceoperatesas it matures beyond its current stage
- Co-owning pre-sales effectiveness metrics with SolutionScienceleadership to ensure both streams are measured consistently and improving together
- Stay aligned with the engineering team on delivery patterns so pre-sales scoping stays grounded in what isactually buildable
Team building and cross-functional leadership
- Define the structure, hiring plan, and operating model for theSolutionEngineringfunction as it scales
- Build a strong operating partnership with the SolutionScienceleader
- Build and develop the team supporting integration pre-sales, SOW operations, and technical intake
- Build andmaintianreusable content to share
- Partner with AEs and Solution Engineering to ensure early-stage conversations are routed correctly between scientific and technical tracks without pulling CE inprematurely
- Align with Product and Engineering on field requirements, integration demand patterns, and catalog roadmap priorities
- Collaborate with the Forward Deployed Scientists team to keep technical and scientific workstreams coordinated through delivery
You will have
- 8+ years incustomer engineering,solutionsarchitect, solutions engineering,orpre-sales engineering function, with at least 3 years managing a team
- Experience scaling acustomerorsolutionsengineeringfunction: hiring, structuring, and developing a team as deal complexity and org size grew
- Solid grasp of enterprise integration patterns: REST APIs, event-driven pipelines, file-based data flows, and enterpriseERPand CRMsuch as SAP orSalesforce
- Hands-on experience scoping integrations across enterprise data environments, including systems where data must move reliably between platforms with different schemas, ownership models, and access constraints
- Familiarity with AI-native platforms and how enterprise IT teams evaluate,procure, and integrate AI into existing workflows; comfortable discussing AI capabilities, deployment patterns, and data requirements with both technical and business buyers
- Experience owning RFP responses and securityques
- tionnairesfor integration and infrastructure content; comfortablerepresentingtechnical security posture directly to IT buyers
- Able to scope technical services engagements, produce SOWs and binding estimates, and hold commercial scope discipline through the pre-sales cycle
- Experience working with IT buyers who are early in their integration journey; you know how to build confidence, set realistic expectations, and move things forward
- Track recordof working alongside domain specialists or scientific teams whoseexpertiseyou respect and build around
- Executive presence and strong written communication; this roleoperatesat a senior level across commercial, technical, and scientific stakeholders
- Technically capable at a working level: comfortable calling APIs, exploring SDKs, and building lightweight proof-of-concept integrations to support pre-sales
Preferred Competencies
Albert sells into traditional industries where IT buyers may beacquiringtheir first enterprise integration. Experience navigating that environment matters more than domainexpertisein any specific platform.
- Background in vertical SaaS serving traditional industries: chemicals, industrials, construction, agriculture, CPG, or similar.
- Experience in organizations where technical and scientific or specialist pre-sales functionsoperatedas peers, with shared accountability for deal outcomes
- Familiarity with SAP (EHS, PLM, S/4HANA), which tends to follow naturally from selling into industrial verticals.Understanding ofELN, LIMS, PLM, ERM, or CRM capabilities is a plus.
- Experience working closely with SOW-based delivery teams, either within a unified org or through a structured handoff model
- Comfort with cloud platform fundamentals, particularly how SaaS platforms handle data flows, authentication, and integration architecture
- Experience at a company between Series B and Series D, where process is built rather than inherited
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