Lead Solutions Engineer, POC Operations (Chicago)

This job is with Braze, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community. Please do not contact the recruiter directly.

At Braze, we have found our people. We’re a genuinely approachable, exceptionally kind, and intensely passionate crew.

We seek to ignite that passion by setting high standards, championing teamwork, and creating work-life harmony as we collectively navigate rapid growth on a global scale while striving for greater equity and opportunity – inside and outside our organization.

To flourish here, you must be prepared to set a high bar for yourself and those around you. There is always a way to contribute: Acting with autonomy, having accountability and being open to new perspectives are essential to our continued success.

Our deep curiosity to learn and our eagerness to share diverse passions with others gives us balance and injects a one-of-a-kind vibrancy into our culture.

If you are driven to solve exhilarating challenges and have a bias toward action in the face of change, you will be empowered to make a real impact here, with a sharp and passionate team at your back. If Braze sounds like a place where you can thrive, we can’t wait to meet you.

The Lead Technical Program Manager, Customer POCs owns the POC program for Braze's Solutions organization — the process, governance, and resourcing model that determine how customer Proof of Concepts get scoped, staffed, and run. You'll build and operate the system that ensures every Solutions Consultant running a POC has a clear playbook, the right resources, and a structured path to a technical win.

This is an individual contributor role focused on program design and operations: you'll set the standards, cadence, and tooling for POC delivery across the team, and use data to continuously improve how the program runs — rather than owning any single customer engagement.

• Program Design: Define the end-to-end POC methodology — intake criteria, standard timelines, and exit/success criteria — that Solutions Consultants use to scope and run individual POCs.

• Resourcing Model: Build and maintain the resourcing and capacity-planning model that matches POC demand to available technical talent across regions, flagging capacity gaps to the AVP, Global Technical Consulting.

• Operating Cadence: Run the recurring intake, status, and review cadence across all active POCs, giving Sales and Solutions Consulting leadership visibility into progress and risk without personally running each engagement.

• Risk & Escalation Framework: Design the risk and escalation process the team uses to flag scope creep, resourcing gaps, and technical blockers, and step in to unblock only the highest-risk POCs.

• Playbooks & Enablement: Build and maintain repeatable POC playbooks, templates, and tooling for the technical team to use in the field, improving consistency and speed across regions.

• Reporting & Analytics: Own POC program metrics — volume, cycle time, win rate, and resourcing utilization — and report trends and recommendations to the AVP, Global Technical Consulting.

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner with Product and Engineering to relay recurring POC blockers or feature gaps surfaced across engagements, and with Sales/Solutions Consulting on demand forecasting.

• Continuous Improvement: Use program data to identify bottlenecks and iterate on process, staffing, and tooling to improve program-wide win rates and cycle time.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• 5+ years in technical program management, solutions consulting operations, or a related role within B2B SaaS.

• Proven experience designing, scaling, or operating a technical program (e.g., POCs, pilots, or technical evaluations) across many simultaneous engagements — not running individual engagements yourself.

• Strong program management fundamentals: scoping, milestone tracking, resource planning, and risk management.

• Comfortable working with technical concepts (APIs, SDKs, data integrations) well enough to scope and sequence technical work, though not expected to build the solution yourself.

• Excellent stakeholder management skills; able to align Sales, Solutions Consulting, Engineering, and customer stakeholders around a shared plan.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience reporting program health to leadership.

• PMP, CSM, or equivalent program/project management certification is a plus.

For candidates based in the United States, the pay range for this position at the start of employment is expected to be between $89,000 and $140,000/year, with an expected On Target Earnings (OTE) between $107,000 and $167,000/year (including bonus or commission). Your exact offer may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition to cash compensation, this role qualifies for a comprehensive Total Rewards package that includes equity grants of restricted stock (RSUs) so that you will own a piece of our company.

WHAT WE OFFER

Braze benefits vary by location, and we encourage you to review our specific benefits offerings for each country at here . More details on benefits plans will be provided if you receive an offer of employment.

From offering comprehensive benefits to fostering hybrid ways of working, we've got you covered so you can prioritize work-life harmony. Braze offers benefits such as:

• Competitive compensation that may include equity
• Retirement and Employee Stock Purchase Plans
• Flexible paid time off
• Comprehensive benefit plans covering medical, dental, vision, life, and disability
• Family services that include fertility benefits and equal paid parental leave
• Professional development supported by formal career pathing, learning platforms, and a yearly learning stipend
• A curated in-office employee experience, designed to foster community, team connections, and innovation
• Opportunities to give back to your community, including an annual company-wide Volunteer Week and donation matching
• Employee Resource Groups that provide supportive communities within Braze
• Collaborative, transparent, and fun culture recognized as a Great Place to Work®

ABOUT BRAZE

Braze is the leading customer engagement platform that empowers brands to Be Absolutely Engaging™ Braze helps brands deliver great customer experiences that drive value both for consumers and for their businesses. Built on a foundation of composable intelligence, BrazeAI™ allows marketers to combine and activate AI agents, models, and features at every touchpoint throughout the Braze Customer Engagement Platform for smarter, faster, and more meaningful customer engagement. From cross-channel messaging and journey orchestration to Al-powered decisioning and optimization, Braze enables companies to turn action into interaction through autonomous, 1:1 personalized experiences.

The company has repeatedly been recognized as a Leader in marketing technology by industry analysts, and was voted a G2 “Best of Marketing and Digital Advertising Software Product” in 2025.

Braze was also named a 2025 Best Companies To Work For by U.S. News and World Report, a 2025 America’s Greatest Companies by Newsweek, and a 2025 Fortune Best Workplace in Technology™ by Great Place To Work®, among other accolades. Braze is also proudly certified as a Great Place to Work® in the U.S., the UK, Australia, and Singapore.

The company is headquartered in New York with offices in Austin, Berlin, Bucharest, Chicago, Dubai, Jakarta, London, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Singapore, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo.

BRAZE IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

At Braze, we strive to create equitable growth and opportunities inside and outside the organization.

Building meaningful connections is at the heart of everything we do, and that includes our recruiting practices. We're committed to offering all candidates a fair, accessible, and inclusive experience – regardless of age, color, disability, gender identity, marital status, maternity, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a protected veteran. When applying and interviewing with Braze, we want you to feel comfortable showcasing what makes you you.

We know that sometimes different circumstances can lead talented people to hesitate to apply for a role unless they meet 100% of the criteria. If this sounds familiar, we encourage you to apply, as we’d love to meet you

OUR AI-POWERED BRAZE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

At Braze, we’re committed to a fair and transparent candidate experience. To help our recruitment teams focus on what matters most — the person behind each application — we use AI-assisted tools at certain stages of our recruitment process.

This includes using AI to analyze the experience, skills and qualifications in your application materials to help with screening and prioritizing candidates. Such screening may amount to a form of solely automated decision-making. We also use AI for administrative support, like scheduling and recording interviews and summarizing interview notes. Our recruiting teams remain responsible for all hiring decisions and are involved throughout the process.

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