Solutions Team Manager - Grand Rapids MI

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.

Why Applied Innovation?

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