Manager, Field Engineering (Pre-Sales) – Benelux Named Accounts

(FEQ427R544) Role Summary As a Field Engineering Manager, you will lead a high-performing team of technical pre-sales Solutions Architects (SAs) dedicated to enterprise Named Accounts across the Benelux region. You will operate at the intersection of deep technology and business strategy, driving platform adoption and enterprise AI initiatives. As a technically credible coach and AI builder , you will spend meaningful time in the field (~30-40%) partnering with customer executives and internal Sales counterparts. You will lead by example to instil an AI-Builder Mindset across your team, establish rigorous operational inspection cadences, coach SAs through complex architecture designs without taking the pen, and decisively build an elite pre-sales organisation. The Impact You Will Have • Build & Scale Elite Teams: Hire, mentor, and retain exceptional Solutions Engineers/Architects in the Benelux region, establishing high standards for technical excellence, inclusive leadership, and decisive performance management. • Drive AI Adoption & Capabilities: Lead by example as an AI practitioner, embedding AI tools into team workflows and driving scalable capability across the organisation. • Act as a Customer Advisor: Build trusted relationships with C-level and senior technical executives across customer accounts. Translate complex platform capabilities into measurable business ROI (e.g., predictive maintenance, yield optimisation, supply chain resilience). • Drive Operational Execution: Co-own regional consumption and growth targets with Sales partners. Maintain rigorous inspection cadences across pipeline health, technical validation, and account strategy. • Technically Coach the Field: Serve as an architectural sounding board for your team. Diagnose platform designs, spot failure modes in distributed systems or AI infrastructure, and coach SAs to refine architectures independently. • Expand Benelux Presence: Serve as a key regional leader helping build Databricks' brand and market presence across enterprise accounts. What We’re Looking For • Technical Pre-Sales Leadership: Track record of managing or leading technical pre-sales or consulting teams in Cloud Data Platforms, Enterprise Software, or AI/ML ecosystems. • AI-Builder Mindset: Hands-on experience leveraging modern AI tools personally and a demonstrated ability to drive AI capability and productivity across an engineering team. • Domain Credibility: Deep understanding of data challenges within relevant industries. • Customer Advisor Presence: Ability to build direct relationships with VP/C-level stakeholders and frame technical decisions around commercial value and consumption growth. • Architectural Coaching Capability: Hands-on foundation in data engineering, distributed systems, cloud architecture (AWS/Azure/GCP), or enterprise ML/AI pipelines, with the discipline to coach SAs rather than taking over technical delivery. • Execution & Rigour: Experience managing against consumption/usage business models, running structured deal inspection cadences, and redesigning sub-scale operational processes. Basic Qualifications • Experience managing or leading a technical customer-facing team. • Experience partnering with Sales and cross-functional teams through complex, multi-stakeholder customer engagements. • Experience in data platforms, analytics, AI, cloud, software, technical consulting, or a related technical domain. • Strong written, verbal, presentation, and stakeholder-management skills. • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Preferred Qualifications • Experience with Databricks or comparable data and AI platforms. • Experience building trusted relationships with senior technical and business stakeholders. • Experience using data, automation, or AI-enabled tools to improve team effectiveness. • Experience supporting customers across multiple use cases, technical environments, or business functions. • Fluency/business-level proficiency in Dutch is preferable. #LI-hybrid