Solutions Team Manager - Grand Rapids MI

Applied Innovation

$95K — $115K *
Technical Services
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Growth-minded and service-oriented with a focus on improvement.
  • Strong leadership, communication, and prioritization skills.
  • Working knowledge of managed services, infrastructure, cloud, and cybersecurity.
  • Understanding of solution design and pricing models.
  • Bachelor's degree in IT, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or related field, or equivalent experience.
  • Minimum 5 years in technology consulting or sales engineering roles.
  • At least 3 years of experience in people leadership.

Responsibilities

  • Lead, coach, and develop Sales Engineers and Solutions Engineering staff.
  • Set team goals and performance expectations while managing workloads.
  • Cultivate a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
  • Manage the prioritization and flow of solution opportunities.
  • Ensure high-quality proposals, statements of work, and technical recommendations.
  • Oversee technical quoting processes and standards to improve productivity.
  • Facilitate cross-department communication for effective project delivery.

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and life insurance starting on the 31st day of employment.
  • Short-term disability coverage.
  • Paid vacation and holidays for work-life balance.
  • Paid volunteer time to support community engagement.
  • Onsite fitness center for employee wellness.
  • 401(k) retirement plan with company match.
  • Opportunities for professional growth and career advancement.
Full Job Description
Summary:

Applied Innovation is seeking a collaborative and results-driven Solutions Team Manager to oversee solutions engineering, sales engineering, and technical quoting operations. This role is responsible for developing high-performing teams, improving solution design and quoting processes, ensuring quality and consistency in proposals and SOWs, and partnering across Sales, vCIO/TAM, Professional Services, PMO, Deployment, and Operations to support smooth handoffs and successful customer outcomes. The ideal candidate brings strong technical presales experience, people leadership skills, and a continuous improvement mindset to help streamline workflows, reduce delivery risk, and support revenue growth.

Duties and Responsibilities:
  • Team Leadership
  • Lead, develop, coach, and hold accountable Sales Engineers, Solutions Engineers, and Technical Quoting personnel.
  • Set team goals, performance expectations, workload priorities, and accountability measures.
  • Build a culture of collaboration, service excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement.
  • Solutions Operations
  • Manage intake, prioritization, assignment, and progression of solution opportunities.
  • Balance workloads across engineering and quoting resources.
  • Remove bottlenecks and maintain workflow standards and service level expectations.
  • Solution Design & Quality
  • Ensure consistent, high-quality SOWs, proposals, technical recommendations, and approved architecture.
  • Review complex or high-impact opportunities before customer delivery.
  • Align sold solutions with delivery expectations to reduce scope gaps, ambiguity, and delivery risk.
  • Technical Quoting & Revenue Enablement
  • Own technical quoting processes, standards, turnaround time, and productivity.
  • Simplify the quoting process by developing a curated catalog of approved products, services, bundles, and templates that enables more team members to quote directly with consistency and confidence.
  • Serve as the company's subject matter expert for CQP quoting software, including process design, user adoption, best practices, data integrity, and continuous improvement.
  • Partner with Sales, Account Management, and vCIO teams to improve conversion and align pricing, scoping, and recommendations with company objectives.
  • Cross-Functional Alignment
  • Partner with Sales Leadership, vCIO/TAM, Professional Services, PMO, Deployment, and Operations.
  • Ensure smooth handoffs from opportunity identification through solution design, quoting, project initiation, and delivery.
  • Facilitate communication between solution teams and professional service delivery teams, ensuring baselines, SOWs, and design processes work across both teams.
  • Support leadership communication efforts by helping translate new products, services, and strategic initiatives into clear updates for the broader team.
  • Vendor & Portfolio Support
  • Support technology evaluation, service development, vendor management, standardization, and portfolio optimization.
  • Provide operational insight into emerging technologies and service offerings.
  • Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications:

To perform this position successfully, an individual must be able to perform each job duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required.
  • A growth and service-minded, collaborative, and improvement-oriented mindset that balances urgency, quality, accountability, and practical execution.
  • Strong leadership, communication, prioritization, process design, technical scoping, quoting, coaching, and cross-functional coordination skills.
  • Working knowledge of managed services, infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, solution design, SOW development, pricing models, CQP, curated catalogs, and delivery handoff requirements.
  • Understanding and alignment with the organization's core values


Education/License/Experience Requirements:
  • Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
  • Valid driver's license and clean driving record, with no DUIs in the past five years.
  • 5+ years of experience in technology consulting, sales engineering, solutions architecture, or technical leadership.
  • 3+ years of people leadership experience.
  • Strong understanding of Managed Services, infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, project delivery, and technical presales.
  • Strong communication and organizational skills.
  • Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams.


Preferred Qualifications & Experience:
  • Experience managing Sales Engineers, Solutions Engineers, Technical Consultants, or similar technical revenue teams.
  • Experience developing SOWs, technical proposals, financial models, quotes, or solution profitability analysis.
  • MSP, VAR, or technology services industry experience.


We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including:
  • Medical, dental, and life insurance on the 31st day of employment.
  • Short-term disability.
  • Paid vacation and holidays.
  • Paid volunteer time.
  • Onsite fitness center
  • 401(k) retirement plan with company match program.
  • Opportunities for professional growth and advancement

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