Every customer conversation is an opportunity to build trust. The best solutions don't begin with technology – they begin with understanding the business problem, asking the right questions, and designing an approach that creates lasting value.
As a Senior Solution Engineer, you'll serve as a senior technical partner throughout the pre-sales process, helping customers navigate complex business and technology challenges and translating those needs into thoughtful, scalable solutions. Working closely with Sales and teams across Summit, you'll lead technical discovery and solution design for complex opportunities while bringing the experience and judgment to challenge assumptions, evaluate tradeoffs, and guide customers toward the right approach.
Success in this role isn't just about designing the right technical solution. It's about earning customer confidence, bringing clarity to complex decisions, and ensuring what we sell is technically sound, commercially viable, and ready to deliver.
What You’ll Do:
- Lead technical discovery and solution design for complex customer opportunities, uncovering business objectives, technical requirements, constraints, dependencies, and risks.
- Serve as the primary technical advisor throughout the sales process, partnering closely with Sales from initial discovery through solution development and close.
- Translate complex customer requirements into secure, scalable Summit solutions that align with technical best practices and our service portfolio.
- Guide customers through technical decisions by asking thoughtful questions, challenging assumptions, and clearly communicating options, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
- Develop and present solution architectures, technical recommendations, demonstrations, and presentations to technical, business, and executive audiences.
- Lead technical responses for proposals, statements of work, and other complex customer engagements.
- Anticipate and address technical objections, risks, and solution gaps throughout the opportunity lifecycle.
- Partner with Finance and internal teams to evaluate solution economics, cost models, and commercial viability for complex opportunities.
- Bring together the right technical resources across Solution Engineering, Architecture, Product, Delivery, and other teams when opportunities require specialized expertise.
- Provide technical guidance and support to other Solution Engineers, sharing expertise and helping strengthen solution quality across the team.
- Stay current on Summit's products and services, industry trends, emerging technologies, and evolving customer needs.
- Contribute to the tools, standards, documentation, reference architectures, and practices that improve consistency and effectiveness across Solution Engineering.
What You’ll Deliver:
- High-quality solution designs for complex customer environments that balance business needs, technical requirements, risk, and long-term scalability.
- Trusted technical guidance that helps customers confidently evaluate options and make informed technology decisions.
- Clear, compelling technical presentations and recommendations for audiences ranging from engineers to executive stakeholders.
- Accurate and complete solution scopes that set Delivery teams up for successful implementation.
- A consultative pre-sales experience that builds credibility, strengthens customer relationships, and supports successful business outcomes.
- Strong technical partnership across Sales, Architecture, Product, Delivery, and other teams throughout complex opportunities.
- Clear handoffs from pre-sales to implementation that reduce ambiguity, identify risks early, and create shared understanding of the solution.
- Technical leadership that improves solution quality, strengthens team capabilities, and contributes to the continued evolution of Summit's Solution Engineering practice.
You’ll Thrive in This Role If You:
- Bring 6+ years of experience in Solution Engineering, Solutions Architecture, Technical Consulting, Pre-Sales Engineering, or a related customer-facing technical role.
- Have experience designing solutions within B2B technology, IT consulting, managed services, cloud infrastructure, data center, or similar environments.
- Can lead complex technical discovery and turn ambiguous customer needs into clear, actionable solution recommendations.
- Bring broad technical knowledge across infrastructure technologies and the depth to recognize when additional expertise is needed.
- Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to technical, business, and executive audiences.
- Can evaluate competing technical approaches and confidently explain the tradeoffs, risks, and business implications.
- Build credibility with customers through technical expertise, curiosity, sound judgment, and a consultative approach.
- Work effectively across Sales, Delivery, Product, Engineering, Finance, and other teams to solve complex customer challenges.
- Can manage multiple complex opportunities while maintaining strong attention to detail, quality, and customer commitments.
- Enjoy sharing knowledge, supporting other Solution Engineers, and helping raise the technical capability of the broader team.
- Navigate ambiguity independently and know when an opportunity requires broader technical or organizational involvement.
Bonus Points:
- Experience working within an ISP, data center, managed services provider, cloud service provider, or technology consulting environment.
- Experience designing solutions for complex or enterprise customer environments.
- Hands-on experience with Linux and/or Windows systems administration.
- Experience with AWS, Azure, or other hyperscale cloud platforms.
- Familiarity with virtualization technologies such as VMware, Hyper-V, Xen, or KVM.
- Experience designing backup, disaster recovery, networking, infrastructure, or managed services solutions.
- Industry certifications across cloud, networking, Linux, Microsoft, virtualization, or related technologies.
- Experience supporting customers in regulated or compliance-driven environments.
How We Work at Summit
How you approach the work matters just as much as what you do. At Summit, our core values show up in how we make decisions, work together, and support our customers.
We build the infrastructure that keeps businesses running. We need people who take that seriously, and have fun doing it.
Our Core Values:
- Empower our people
- Constant elevation
- Customer first
- Focus on outcomes
- Embrace curiosity
Benefits
Summit offers a total rewards package designed to support you at work, at home, and everywhere in between. Here’s a snapshot of what that looks like:
- Flexible Time Off (yes, really) – take what you need, we trust you to manage it
- Medical, Dental & Vision – comprehensive coverage with HSA/HRA options
- 401(k) with 4% match – we invest alongside you
- Parental Leave – paid time for the moments that matter most
- Life & Disability Insurance – built-in peace of mind
- Wellness Support – resources for your mental and physical health
- Free Colocation & Cloud Access – build and experiment in real environments
- Work From Anywhere – remote-friendly by design
- A low-ego, get-it-done culture – come as you are, do great work
Compensation
The base salary range for this role is $130,000 – $155,000 annually, plus participation in an Incentive Plan.
This role includes an additional earning opportunity designed to recognize performance. Incentive payouts are based on established performance goals and results and are not guaranteed.
Base salary is determined by experience, skills, and geographic location. We aim to make offers that are fair, competitive, and aligned with both what you bring today and where you're headed.
Internal candidates may see variations based on current role, compensation, and progression at Summit. Same thoughtful approach, just with additional context.
Summit is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Summit is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status.
As part of this commitment, Summit will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided with reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please email [email protected].