Solutions Architect Cambridge, MA

Solutions Architect

Cambridge, MA | Hybrid (Mon, Wed, Thu in-office) Reports to: Head of Customer Experience

About Proton.ai

Proton.ai builds AI-native software for the distribution industry — an $8 trillion market that tech forgot. We're not bolting AI onto legacy software. It's in every product from day one.

We've built an AI-powered CRM that distributors actually use, and we're expanding fast. 120%+ NDR, 93% logo retention, $20M Series A from Felicis and Battery Ventures, and a 70-person team in Cambridge.

If you want to work on hard problems in a market where AI genuinely changes how businesses operate, this is it.

The Role

We're hiring a Solutions Architect to sit at the intersection of our technology and our customers' operations. This isn't a post-sale support role. It's a creative, strategic position where you figure out how Proton fits into the way a distribution business actually runs — and then make the case for it.

You'll work deals from the pre-sales stage through customer onboarding, designing workflows and technical solutions that connect Proton's platform to how our customers buy, sell, and service accounts. You'll spend a lot of time with prospects and customers: asking good questions, listening hard, and translating what you learn into solutions that stick.

If you don't get excited when a prospect walks you through a gnarly ERP integration or a weird edge case in their reorder workflow, this probably isn't the right fit. If you immediately start thinking about how to solve it — great, let's talk.

One more thing: we're serious about AI. Not as a buzzword, as a working tool. If you can't tell us specifically how you've used Claude (or another model) to do your job better, we'll have a hard time moving forward.

What You'll Do

• Partner with Sales to understand prospect needs and design solutions that map Proton's capabilities to their business workflows
• Build and present technical proposals, workflow diagrams, and architecture recommendations tailored to each customer's operations
• Lead discovery sessions with prospects and customers to surface integration requirements, data flows, and operational constraints
• Own solution design through the sales cycle, then hand off cleanly to Implementation with full context
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering to communicate patterns you're seeing in the field and influence the roadmap
• Serve as a trusted technical voice for customers post-launch when new use cases emerge

What We're Looking For

• 4+ years in a Solutions Architect, Sales Engineer, or technical pre-sales role at a SaaS company
• Comfortable with API integrations, data modeling, and explaining technical concepts to non-technical buyers
• Experience working with ERP or distribution systems is a plus, but intellectual curiosity about operations matters more
• Strong communicator who can run a discovery call, build a compelling demo, and write a clear solution brief
• You've used AI tools — specifically Claude or comparable models — as a real part of your workflow. You have a specific, concrete answer when asked how.
• Low ego, high ownership. You'll be early in building this function and that means figuring things out as you go.
• Unlimited PTO + 10 company holidays
• 401(k) with 3% employer contribution
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 12 weeks paid parental leave
• Professional Growth Fund

NOTE: If you are in the US, please include your state. If outside the US, we will consider candidates from around the world in accordance with the World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index. We unfortunately cannot consider applications from anyone located in the following countries: China, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Belarus, or Iran.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, protected disability status, or any other status protected by law.