Engagement Director, AI Practice

The Engagement Senior Manager/Director, AI Practice plays the critical role for setting customers up for success by prescriptively crafting and then owning the execution of large and ground-breaking projects with our most strategic customers. This person serves as a trusted advisor to Salesforce customers, providing direction to Sales & Professional Services teams, ensuring alliances across each customer's projects, and ensuring the highest levels of happiness from our customers. Partnered with an Account Partner, they lead both pre and post sales activities, as the Delivery Authority across the portfolio of products and engaging other subject matter authorities to develop and articulate comprehensive implementation proposals. This person will then maintain the executive relationships and act as a point of contact for critical issues within these implementations in a billable capacity, ensuring tight partner alignment, offering proactive and prescriptive advice resulting in outstanding Customer Success.

Responsibilities:

• Align closely with Account and Services Sales teams to lead the development of client-specific implementation proposals, SOWs, staffing plans, engaging with SMEs across the organization to gain consensus on an acceptable proposal for AI, Automation & Data Strategy

• Provide the Professional Services team with Subject Matter Expertise related to the proposed solution and client needs in order to ensure successful project delivery for AI, Automation & Data Strategy

• Where appropriate and required for Customer Success, provide direct oversight to the project team during the full lifecycle of the engagement, acting as the escalation point for both the customer and Salesforce delivery teams

• Ensure that engagements conclude with fully satisfied clients that are willing to be references for new potential clients

• Manage multiple strategic clients simultaneously

• Proactively mitigate and manage critical escalations and at-risk accounts; communicate effectively and appropriately with internal and external leaders and executives

• Travel 25-50% (depends on geography and account distribution)

Your impact:

• Enable successful outcomes for Salesforce customers and help them realize value from the Salesforce AI solutions

• Influence AI professional services business growth

• Drive professional services expansion by positioning creative solutions

• Regularly interact with executives and/or major customers. Interactions frequently involve special skills, such as negotiating with customers or management or attempting to influence senior level leaders regarding matters of significance to the organization.

• Work on complex issues where analysis of situations or data requires an in-depth knowledge of the company.

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• 10+ years consistent track record delivering consulting services, including team leadership and active involvement in selling professional services.

• 5+ years operating in a pre-sales environment, crafting and scoping large and sophisticated implementation projects.

• 5+ years of enterprise-level project or program management experience.

• Validated technical and/or functional proficiency, and ability to engage with architects or SME into pre-sales activities.

• Very strong written and verbal communication skills, executive-level presence and experience in a client advisory role.

• Proven track record to influence an audience, facilitate solutions and lead discussions such as implementation methodology, road mapping, Enterprise Transformation strategy, and executive-level requirement gathering sessions.

• Excellent analytical & problem solving skills.

• BA/BS or equivalent; MBA is a plus.