Director of Solutions Engineering - EMEA Strat

About Decagon Decagon is the leading conversational AI platform empowering every brand to deliver concierge customer experiences. Our technology enables industry-defining enterprises like Avis Budget Group, Block’s Cash App and Square, Chime, Oura Health, and Hunter Douglas to deploy AI agents that power personalized, deeply satisfying interactions across voice, chat, email, SMS, and every other channel. We’re building a future where customer experiences are being redefined from support tickets and hold music to faster resolutions, richer conversations, and deeper relationships. We’re proud to be backed by world-class investors who share that vision, including a16z, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Coatue, and Index Ventures, along with many others. We’re an in-office company, driven by a shared commitment to excellence and velocity. Our values — Just Get It Done, Invent What Customers Want, Winner’s Mindset, and The Polymath Principle — shape how we work and grow as a team. About the Role Decagon is seeking a Director of Solutions Engineering to build and lead our growing pre-sales solutions engineering function. This role combines technical depth, enterprise consultative engagement, and team leadership, enabling Decagon to drive adoption of our AI-native platform across some of the world’s most complex enterprises. As the manager of the Solutions Engineering team, you will be responsible for hiring, mentoring, and developing a high-performing team of Solutions Engineers. You’ll establish scalable processes and best practices for pre-sales engagements, ensure technical excellence in customer conversations, and represent Decagon as a senior technical leader on key opportunities. This role is highly cross-functional: you will partner closely with Sales, Product, and Engineering to design strategies that align technical capabilities with customer outcomes. You will also bring strong executive presence to customer engagements, guiding both technical and business stakeholders through how Decagon integrates into their technology environments and drives measurable business value. In this role, you will - Hire, mentor, and manage a team of Solutions Engineers, providing technical guidance, coaching, and career development. - Establish and operationalize best practices for pre-sales solutioning, proof-of-concepts, and technical validation. - Partner with Sales leadership to co-develop go-to-market strategies and align technical execution with business goals. - Engage directly with a select portfolio of strategic enterprise prospects and customers, guiding them through discovery, solution design, and ROI validation. - Ensure your team delivers compelling demonstrations, prototypes, and solution architectures tailored to customer needs. - Foster cross-functional collaboration with Product and Engineering to bring customer insights into roadmap priorities. - Serve as an executive-level technical representative in customer meetings, technical workshops, and industry events. - Define scalable processes and assets to support team efficiency, repeatability, and long-term growth. - Stay current on enterprise AI adoption patterns, integration strategies, and the evolving competitive landscape. Your background looks something like this - 7+ years of experience in pre-sales technical roles such as Solutions Architect, Sales Engineer, or equivalent. - 3+ years of experience managing or leading pre-sales/solutions engineering teams. - Proven success working with large enterprise customers and navigating complex buying cycles. - Strong technical proficiency with enterprise AI deployments, API integrations, and production system architectures. - Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage executives, business stakeholders, and technical teams with equal credibility. - A collaborative, organizational mindset with a track record of building scalable teams and processes. - Ability to thrive in fast-moving, high-growth environments with significant ambiguity. - Strong executive presence and consultative skills, capable of establishing trust and credibility with senior leaders. Even better if you have - Experience in AI/Generative AI pre-sales engineering or enterprise deployments. - Familiarity with enterprise architecture design, developer tooling, SDKs, and integration patterns. - Background in software engineering or systems engineering, enabling you to dive deeply into technical discussions. - Experience integrating telephony infrastructure or other complex enterprise systems. - Knowledge of LLM architecture, prompt engineering, evaluation, and AI-powered solution design. - Thought leadership experience through conferences, webinars, or published technical content. Benefits We proudly offer the following benefits for our full-time employees: - Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits for you and your family - Life Insurance and Disability Benefits - Retirement Plan (e.g., 401K, pension) - Parental Leave - Fertility and family building benefits through Carrot - Monthly stipend to support your wellness, lifestyle, and work-life balance - Daily lunches and snacks in the office to keep you at your best - Take what you need vacation policy (subject to local requirements; UK employees receive 25 days of statutory leave) These benefits are described in more detail in Decagon’s policies, may vary by location, and can change at any time according to applicable compensation and benefits plans.