Job Description - Lead Solutions Engineer
The Lead Solutions Engineer is a technical expert and trusted advisor driving Acquia’s growth across the Japan market. Operating at the intersection of business strategy and technical architecture, this role is primarily focused on winning new-logo business, while also driving cross-sell and expansion across the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) portfolio. Working hand-in-hand with Account Executives and, critically, Acquia’s partner ecosystem — through which nearly all new business in Japan is sourced — the Lead Solutions Engineer turns customer challenges into compelling solutions that deliver demonstrable business value and substantial revenue growth.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Account Growth & Cross-Sell
New Logo Acquisition: Be the technical lead partnering with Account Executives and channel / SI partners to identify, qualify, and win new-logo opportunities across Japan — the primary focus of the role.
Cross-Sell & Expansion: Identify and accelerate cross-sell and expansion opportunities within strategic accounts where Solutions Engineering support adds value, mapping Acquia’s DXP portfolio to each client’s future-state digital roadmap.
Business Value Alignment: Drive a value-based approach by translating solutions into clear, quantifiable business outcomes and return on investment for both technical and business stakeholders.
Trusted Technical Advisor: Serve as the technical contact for client stakeholders, providing guidance on digital strategy, cloud adoption, and DXP trends across their technical and business teams.
Solutions Architecture & Governance
Technical Discovery: Lead the technical discovery, design, and presentation of DXP solutions tailored to each customer’s context and business priorities.
Custom Proofs: Design and execute impactful custom demonstrations and Proof-of-Concepts (PoCs) that clearly illustrate the business value of the Acquia platform.
Competitive Positioning: Position Acquia against key competitors through strong discovery and a clear point of view on fit, reinforcing Acquia’s unique value.
Partner Enablement & Market Presence
Partner Enablement: Enable partners at the pre-sales layer — coaching their teams to position and present Acquia products confidently in their own pitches, both one-to-one and at events.
Market Presence: Represent Acquia at industry events, webinars, and community gatherings, proactively creating opportunities and visibility across the Japan market.
Product Feedback Loop: Serve as a feedback loop to Acquia’s Product and Engineering teams, synthesizing insights from the Japan market to help shape positioning and priorities.
Skills and Qualifications
Required
Experience: Proven experience in a Solutions Engineering, Sales Engineering, or pre-sales role, or a strong, deeply technical Account Executive ready to operate in a Solutions Engineering capacity. What matters most is the ability to understand a customer’s business and translate it into the right solution.
DXP Expertise: Experience selling or pre-selling an enterprise CMS / DXP, or a comparable SaaS platform — vendor-agnostic. Strong understanding of CMS, personalization, and modern digital experience concepts (Drupal a plus, not a requirement).
Technical Foundation: Solid working knowledge of modern web architectures and how DXP / web applications are deployed on a major public cloud (AWS, Azure, or GCP), including APIs and security fundamentals.
Partner & Channel: Proven ability to work with and through partners / channel to source and win business — central to this role, as nearly all new-logo ACV in Japan is partner-sourced.
Communication: Strong presentation and demonstration skills, with the ability to lead both the technical and the business conversation with customers and partners.
Language: Native-level Japanese and business-level English — leading customer and partner discussions in Japanese (including written RFP / PoC work) and collaborating with a UK / EMEA-based team in English.
Ways of Working: A self-starter who works with autonomy as the dedicated Solutions Engineering presence for the region, acting on sound judgment while maintaining strong visibility with manager and team, and with a genuine appetite for continuous learning.
Desired (Extra Credit)
Proven track record of success working within a named global or strategic account program.
Experience with a major programming language and hands-on ability to build technical prototypes.
Published articles, white papers, or presentation experience at major industry conferences.
Acquia DNA & Culture
This is a remote, Japan-focused role for a self-starter who thrives on high-impact work and enjoys operating with autonomy. The ability to work across time zones with a collaborative, virtual team is essential. Occasional travel within Japan to engage customers and partners is expected; coverage beyond Japan is possible as an upside but is not a requirement.
Acquia empowers global brands to create digital customer experiences using its Digital Experience Platform (DXP) built on open source Drupal. The platform enables marketers, developers, and IT operations teams at thousands of organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that engage customers and enhance conversions. Acquia's Unified AI-Native Cloud Platform provides native integration of edge services and security capabilities, positioning security and performance as core pillars of its infrastructure. The company serves as a market leader in digital experience and cloud platform solutions.
