Director, Partner Solutions Engineering

Verkada · Enterprise · California, Massachusetts, TX · Remote · Solutions Engineering

Verkada is seeking a Director, Partner Solutions Engineering to build and lead their Channel Solutions Engineering (CSE) function from scratch. This role involves defining strategy, hiring a team, establishing playbooks, and driving technical excellence within the partner ecosystem. The position requires extensive experience in pre-sales, solutions engineering, leadership, and channel development, with a focus on building and scaling technical partner programs. While the company's platform is AI-powered, the core function of this role is building and managing a partner engineering function, not directly developing AI models or systems.

What you'd actually do

  1. Build the Function: Design and stand up the Channel Solutions Engineering organization from scratch, including headcount model, team structure, coverage strategy, and operating cadence. Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing team of Channel SEs and managers built for scale.
  2. Establish the CSE Playbook: Define how Verkada engages partners technically, from partner tiering and engagement models to demo standards, technical validation frameworks, and enablement curricula.
  3. Drive Partner Technical Excellence: Support technical enablement program covering certifications, training, labs, and sandbox environments that turns partners into genuine Verkada experts. Own the partner technical lifecycle from recruitment through activation and ongoing development.
  4. Shape Go-to-Market Strategy: Build a channel SE motion that complements and extends the direct SE motion. Develop differentiated technical support models across partner types. Champion Verkada's technical positioning in partner-led sales cycles.
  5. Align Cross-Functionally: Partner closely with Channel Sales, Direct SE, Product, and Marketing to align enablement initiatives to product roadmap and business priorities. Define and track KPIs for the CSE function, including partner-influenced pipeline, technical win rates, enablement completion, and certification attainment.

Skills

Required

  • 10+ years in pre-sales or solutions engineering
  • meaningful time owning complex technical solution design at scale
  • 5+ years leading technical pre-sales organizations at the Director level
  • management of managers
  • Demonstrated experience building or substantially scaling a channel or partner SE motion
  • Deep familiarity with reseller ecosystems
  • Strong fluency across Cloud, Networking, Physical Security, Storage, and Software
  • Track record of defining and executing partner enablement programs at scale
  • Data-driven approach to measuring team performance and reporting to executive leadership

Nice to have

  • Physical security industry experience
  • Startup or high-growth company experience
  • Industry certifications

What the JD emphasized

  • build Verkada's Channel Solutions Engineering (CSE) function from scratch
  • build a channel SE motion before
  • building or substantially scaling a channel or partner SE motion