Senior Presales Consultant (Founding Sales Engineer)

Our client is an Italian high-growth start-up whose technologies are already being used by companies like NVIDIA OVH Rackspace and Fastweb to run Kubernetes at scale. They are now looking to commercialise their popular Opensource solutions and have launched a premium solution that provides Large Enterprises and Managed Service Providers the building blocks to deliver Kubernetes-as-a-Service (including all the elements in the stack).

They are looking for their first Senior Pre-Sales Engineer to be the technical engine of our enterprise sales cycle running compelling demos leading proofs-of-concept and winning the technical decisions that close deals. Given the start-up nature they require someone technically strong and ideally has been an architect before moving across to presales.

Their team is remote-first in Europe (the role will also work with customers globally) and excellent English communication skills are required (candidates must either have an EU passport or a UK passport). They offer a payroll solution in Italy anyone joining outside of Italy may need to invoice them to start with.

They are looking for candidates entrepreneurial in spirit who can grow with the company. The ideal candidate would have some small/mid sized company experience but they are open to considering people from larger companies who have the right attitude and are happy being very hands-on and self-propelled (ie can operate without a lot of support)

The role involves:

• Own the technical side of enterprise opportunities alongside Account Executives from first discovery to technical decision and commercial close

• Run compelling product demos and architecture sessions tuned to each customers environment and buying stage

• Lead proofs-of-concept end-to-end define success criteria deploy Clastix solutions across on-prem cloud and hybrid environments and drive the engagement to a clear yes

• Build and maintain competitive intelligence on Red Hat OpenShift SUSE Rancher VMware Tanzu vCluster and adjacent platforms translate differences into crisp customer-facing arguments

• Articulate economic value TCO reduction infrastructure density operational efficiency with numbers that build the business case for the buyer

• Discover the customers real drivers business goals political dynamics budget cycles and shape the technical conversation to remove friction and accelerate the close

• Partner with Sales leadership on forecasting qualification and deal-review bringing technical judgement into pipeline decisions

• Feed field learnings back into Engineering Sales and Marketing sharpening the roadmap and the sales motion

They strongly encourage the team to leverage generative AI tools for productivity (a Claude Pro subscription is provided and they expect candidates to use modern AI-assisted workflows for demo preparation competitive research and repetitive technical tasks).

Candidate Profile:

• Proven track record in a pre-sales sales engineering or solutions consulting role selling complex infrastructure cloud or platform software to enterprise buyers

• Demonstrated ability to move deals forward hitting revenue targets progressing complex opportunities through technical objections to commercial close

• Strong working knowledge of Kubernetes and the cloud-native ecosystem enough to run compelling demos handle deep technical questions credibly and hold your own in architecture conversations with SREs and platform engineers

• Hands-on comfort with hybrid environments: at least one hyperscaler (AWS Azure or GCP) plus exposure to private cloud or bare metal (vSphere OpenStack KVM or direct hardware)

• Familiarity with Terraform Helm and GitOps tooling (ArgoCD or Flux) able to set up demo and PoC environments end-to-end

• Strong discovery and listening skills able to uncover business drivers behind technical requirements and build the case that connects the two

• Excellent executive presence comfortable going from a deep technical session with SREs to a value-led conversation with a VP or CEO

• Fluent in English (written and spoken)

Nice to Have

• Experience positioning or selling against Red Hat OpenShift SUSE Rancher VMware Tanzu or vCluster

• Background with Managed Service Providers telecoms sovereign cloud or AI infrastructure customers

• Familiarity with Cluster API hosted control plane patterns or multi-cluster management at scale

• Experience building business cases around TCO infrastructure density or platform economics

• Scripting and coding ability to set up custom demo scenarios and integrations

Company Culture

• Remote Work:flexible remote or hybrid work options across Europe.

• Performance-Based:focus on results and outcomes not set working hours; high autonomy and ownership expected.

• International Environment:enterprise customers and distributed team across Europe US and beyond.

• Direct Impact:reporting to the CRO your field insights directly shape the product roadmap and go-to-market playbook.

• Engineering-first culture:sales conversations grounded in real implementation not slideware backed by a team that builds what youre selling.

Please ignore the salary levels mentioned on the job board - the client is flexible for the right profile and there would be a 70:30 variable plan

Required Experience:

Senior IC

Employment Type : Full-Time
Experience: years
Vacancy: 1