Senior Manager, Presales Engineering

About the role

You will partner with the Sales leadership team to define and execute the presales strategy for the DACH region, aligning with corporate objectives and market demands. This role owns the technical vision for presales activities, ensuring that all customer engagement strategies are scalable and drive measurable business results. You will act as a key technical advisor for our largest and fastest-growing customers across marketing, business automation, and customer care industries. The role demands deep collaboration with cross-functional partners to orchestrate solutions that deliver exceptional customer outcomes. You will mentor and develop a high-performing team of Presales Engineers, fostering an environment of growth and psychological safety. Success in this position will be defined by your ability to lead through data, remove organizational obstacles, and communicate tradeoffs to stakeholders effectively. You will ensure that the presales team is equipped to accelerate the sales funnel and close opportunities efficiently. This is a critical leadership position that will shape how Twilio wins and retains enterprise customers in the DACH region.

Key facts

What you'll do

Partner with the Sales leadership team to set our strategy for finding, closing and supporting opportunities in our sales funnel and in our existing customer base.

Work across functions to ensure collaboration for shared goals and appropriate capacity for your team.

Build and roll out programs that enable the Presales Engineers to scalably accelerate our Sales funnel.

Attract, develop, and motivate a team of highly skilled and talented Presales Engineers, continually educating your team and seeking innovative solutions for improving your team.

Ensure that your team has the support they need to be successful as well as providing direct mentoring and guidance on a day-to-day basis.

Lead the technical strategy and technical forecast, determine what role Presales Engineers should play in accelerating new sign-ups, and how to deploy the team most effectively.

Measure and communicate results - use data to communicate results and make decisions.

Set clear expectations for your team, remove obstacles where possible, and actively communicate tradeoffs to stakeholders when deciding where your team needs to focus.

Engage with Product, Support, Sales, Operations, Legal, Security, Engineering, and every single other department as necessary to make our customers successful on our platform.

Ensure that all presales activities are aligned with Twilio's core values and commitment to ethical business practices.

Champion the adoption of new technologies and methodologies within the presales function to maintain a competitive edge.

Manage complex customer interactions and negotiations to protect and grow long-term strategic relationships.

Provide expert-level technical guidance on Twilio's product suite, including CPaaS, contact centre, IP-based telephony, and real-time communications.

Act as a bridge between technical teams and executive stakeholders to translate business needs into technical requirements.

Requirements

7+ years of relevant presales work experience within the SaaS or CPaaS industry, inclusive of BS in Computer Science or equivalent software engineering experience.

3+ years of formal people leadership experience, with a proven track record of coaching for performance, fostering psychological safety, and supporting professional growth for team members at varying levels of seniority.

Proven ability to Drive Business Results not just by meeting targets, but by setting strategic priorities, empowering your team to work smarter, and making data-driven decisions that align with the broader organisation's goals.

Proven track record of building high performance teams and leading by example.

Superior written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence cross-functionally and resolve complex conflicts with sales leadership or other stakeholders through a "teach and demonstrate" approach.

A hands-on approach to problem solving. Always ready to handle customer blocking issues and work opportunities directly alongside your team.

A strong understanding of the developer adoption cycle, as well as experience in the technology areas relevant to Twilio's market: contact centre, IP-based telephony, messaging, real-time communications, security, authentication, email, scaling web and mobile applications.

Tech-savvy leaders, experience with cloud platforms (Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure) cloud application architecture and AI systems.

Experience with sales methodologies.

Cross-functional experience in pre-sales or post-sales technical consulting, software engineering, or product management is a plus.

Comfortable with ambiguity and proactive in leading change. Demonstrated ability to communicate the "why" behind organisational changes, manage stakeholder expectations, and maintain team agility during periods of transition.

Nice to have

Fluency in German.

Practical notes

This role is remote and based in the UK.

For this role, approximately 35% travel is anticipated to help you connect in-person in a meaningful way with customers and each other.

Working at Twilio offers many benefits, including competitive pay, generous time off, ample parental and wellness leave, healthcare, a retirement savings program, and much more. Offerings vary by location.

Twilio is an equal opportunity employer.