Senior Solutions Architect II, Pre-Sales, Middle East and North Africa

Welcome to Planet. We believe in using space to help life on Earth.

Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history. This constellation delivers an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a revolutionary cloud-based platform to authoritative figures in commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. We are both a space company and data company all rolled into one.

Customers and users across the globe use Planet's data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world’s toughest obstacles.

As we control every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering, our office is a truly inspiring mix of experts from a variety of domains.

We have a people-centric approach toward culture and community and we strive to iterate in a way that puts our team members first and prepares our company for growth. Join Planet and be a part of our mission to change the way people see the world.

Planet is a global company with employees working remotely world wide and joining us from offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and The Netherlands.

About the Role:

As a Senior Pre-Sales Engineer, you'll demonstrate the value of Planet's solutions to help organizations within the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) overcome their earth data challenges. You'll also collaborate with internal cross-functional teams, including Customer Success, Product Management, and Business Development, to act as the voice of the customer to enhance Planet's industry offerings. The ideal candidate enjoys helping customers get most out of their work. This role will appeal to candidates who don’t mind frequent international travel up to 50% (primarily around MENA) and are comfortable working in the government and commercial sectors.

This is a full-time, remote position based in the United Arab Emirates. This role requires frequent international travel up to 50%. If located near an office, you are expected to work from that office 3 days per week.

Impact You’ll Own:

• Use consultative techniques to uncover customers' pain points and business needs within their current or intended processes and ways of working, plus quantify why these needs are important.
• Build and deliver presentations and solution demonstrations highlighting technical capabilities of Planet’s platform related to addressing the customer’s business needs and pain points, plus the value that these solutions can bring to the customers business.
• Create solid relationships with customers’ technical and management staff as a trusted advisor to their business.
• Act as an advisor to the customer to recommend solutions that fit their business challenges that bring measurable value to their business.
• Assist with the response to tenders, RFI’s and RFP’s proposals with respect to product/solution information.
• Work with your sales team colleagues to determine account development plans and execute a strategy to engage customers and prospects.
• Collaborate with internal cross-functional teams including Customer Success, Product Management, and Business Development to act as the voice of the customer, assist with RFP and RFI preparation and submissions.
• Attain quarterly and annual sales and operational objectives assigned by management.
• Represent perspectives to Sales leadership, in communicating forecasts, pipeline opportunities, deal reviews, data in CRM tools, and customer feedback.
• Ability to present to key executive Government stakeholders within the MENA Region.
• Act as a mentor to team members and lead training to drive their development.

What You Bring:

• 10+ years of experience working with governments and commercial industry communities in Earth Observation within the Middle East region
• Bachelor’s degree in a related field
• Ability to travel internationally up to 50%, primarily around the MENA region, but also to Europe and the United States
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Fluency in Arabic and professional working proficiency in English, the language of the company
• Experience working with GIS and Remote Sensing
• Experience in IMINT, ISR, and related fields
• Experience with QGIS, SocetGXP, ArcGIS, GDAL and other common geospatial software packages
• Ability to successfully communicate and coordinate with international customers & sales team
• Excellent problem-solving skills and proactive working style
• Ability to multitask, prioritize and manage time effectively
• Ability to program with Python to process imagery, manipulate vector data, interact with APIs and build data pipelines
• Solid self-leadership and ability to lead customer engagements
• Ability to run workshops or training sessions with users

What Makes You Stand Out:

• Experience writing technical proposals for government tenders
• Experience of value based solution selling and/or …