Sales Solutions Architect Principal
About the job
- Nonprofit fundraising, financial, and/or operational experience is required.
- At least 6 years of experience working with Blackbaud solutions or equivalent industry experience.
- At least 4 years of Solutions Consulting experience.
- At least 5 years of experience presenting or managing complex solutions for nonprofit organizations.
- Ability to operate under minimal supervision while leading strategic, account-level deals.
- Strong listening skills and the ability to ask effective need-development questions.
- Ability to influence others through presentations, demonstrations, and written communication.
- Experience developing and delivering presentations to executive-level and working-level audiences.
- Ability to translate technical features into business benefits.
- Ability to recommend strategic workflows and policies related to product solutions.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with high attention to detail.
- Experience working within a solution-selling or consultative selling environment.
- Ability to travel as needed, up to approximately 25% of the time.
- Serve as a strategic and technical resource for the Sales and Solutions Consulting teams, leading pursuit of large or strategic sales opportunities requiring creative, complex solutions.
- Act as a trusted advisor during the sales cycle through consultation and recommendations grounded in industry and technology expertise.
- Demonstrate expertise in consultative selling, company solutions and third-party solutions, industry and technology trends, the competitive landscape, and key plays within the specialized area or vertical.
- Coach others on mapping customer business needs to outcomes and aligning them with appropriate solutions and services.
- Develop executive-level relationships with customers and prospects to advance sales and grow account revenue using a consultative selling approach.
- Define technical sales strategy, including assembling and directing key contributors from other departments to support pursuits and solution presentations.
- Lead discovery and assessment workshops to understand, define, and document customer requirements.
- Conduct solution development sessions with the pursuit team to identify best-fit solutions, including partner or third-party solutions, customizations, or process recommendations.
- Project how product ideas will perform based on customer and market awareness.
- Document proposed solutions, including solution diagrams, ensuring they meet technical and business requirements and integrate with the customer's environment.
- Present proposed solutions and articulate business value and return on investment in collaboration with the broader pursuit team.
- Communicate data-driven goals, interests, and positions during negotiation or conflict situations.
- Identify when shifts in strategy or direction are needed and respond to technological and market changes.
- Partner with Customer Success to gather requirements and prescribe custom services solutions that meet customer needs.
- Advise Account Executives and Solutions Consultants on strategic pursuits outside direct involvement.
- Maintain expert-level knowledge of consultative selling, company solutions and third-party offerings, competitor information, industry trends, and vertical markets.
- Document and share best practices and case studies.
- Work with Sales and Marketing on business development activities, including go-to-market strategies, integrated solution planning, lead generation, and long-term account strategy.
- Partner with Product Management to help drive product enhancements and roadmap changes that support market and customer needs.
- Advocate for the company to address customer needs and capitalize on market opportunities.
- Represent the company through presentations to investors, partners, conference audiences, and user groups.
- Participate in thought leadership activities, including writing articles, creating marketing collateral, and authoring best-practice guides.
About the company
Cloud-based SaaS software for nonprofits, schools, and social good groups, with tools for fundraising, financial management, CRM, marketing, and analytics delivered on a subscription basis with optional professional services. The platform includes modules for donor management, fundraising campaigns, grant tracking, accounting, and data analytics in one integrated system. Its sector focus and end-to-end, nonprofit-tailored capabilities differentiate it from generic software solutions, serving charities, foundations, educational institutions, healthcare providers, and faith communities. The goal is to help clients operate more efficiently, engage donors more effectively, and maximize social impact while supporting corporate social responsibility and sustainability efforts.
Company Size
1,001-5,000
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Charleston, South Carolina
Founded
1981
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- July 29, 2026 revenue rose 3.0%, and management raised FY26 guidance to upper half.
- Sept. 29, 2026 BILL partnership speeds nonprofit vendor payments inside Financial Edge NXT.
- Aug. 31, 2026 Hyderabad’s second office expands delivery capacity for AI and customer operations.
What critics are saying
- Blackbaud’s 2026 renewal cohort is 40% larger, pressuring gross retention through 2026.
- Database view ends Sept. 15, 2027, forcing Raiser’s Edge NXT customers into web-view workflows.
- Lantern and Platform for Good concentrate Blackbaud’s value proposition on responsible AI trust, accuracy, and privacy.
What makes Blackbaud unique
- Sept. 29, 2026 Platform for Good unifies Blackbaud’s fundraising, finance, and CSR products.
- Lantern uses forty years of fundraising data and Databricks, not internet-trained AI.
- Blackbaud serves 100+ countries and powers over $100 billion yearly through its platforms.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
401(k) Retirement Plan
401(k) Company Match
Remote Work Options
Flexible Work Hours
Unlimited Paid Time Off
Generous Parental Leave
Pet Insurance
Tuition Reimbursement
Company News
Blackbaud has unveiled Lantern, the first domain-specific language model purpose-built for fundraising. Developed in collaboration with Databricks, Lantern addresses a gap where 85% of social impact professionals use AI, but only about 10% of organisations see significant returns. The model is trained on more than 40 years of fundraising data and Blackbaud's Social Impact Signal Graph. Unlike general-purpose AI models that learn from the internet, Lantern is designed to understand giving behaviour, donor dynamics, and nonprofit priorities specific to philanthropy. Blackbaud processes over $100 billion raised, granted, or managed through its platforms annually. Lantern will be integrated into Blackbaud's Platform for Good, with initial deployment planned for Raiser's Edge NXT and Agents for Good capabilities in 2027.
Blackbaud has launched Platform for Good, described as the social impact sector's first unified operating system. The platform connects Blackbaud's entire product ecosystem through a shared architecture, allowing workflows to operate from unified intelligence. The system integrates existing products without requiring customer action, uniting data, AI capabilities and tools into a connected operating system. It incorporates embedded risk management and responsible AI practices whilst remaining extensible through a partner network. The announcement was made at bbcon, Blackbaud's annual customer conference. According to CEO Mike Gianoni, the platform builds on last year's shift from systems of record to intelligent action systems, creating an operating system that learns from interactions and improves with use. Customers can adopt new capabilities as they become available whilst continuing to use existing Blackbaud products and workflows. The platform aims to help organisations identify growth opportunities and expand capacity.
BILL and Blackbaud have partnered to streamline vendor payments for nonprofit and education finance teams. The collaboration embeds BILL's business payments network into Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT Payment Assistant. According to the Institute of Financial Operations and Leadership, nearly half of organisations spend 10 or more hours weekly processing invoices and payments. The new Payment Assistant tool uses intelligent automation to integrate tiered approvals, payment tracking, and reconciliation in one system. Financial Edge NXT customers will access BILL's network of 9 million businesses, enabling simplified vendor enrolment and faster payments. The solution aims to reduce manual work for finance teams managing limited resources, allowing more time for mission-focused activities.
Eleven startups showcase ai-powered innovation for Social Impact in Blackbaud's 2026 Social Good Startup pitch competition. Sep 18, 2026, 09:00 ET Founders share how their solutions can help nonprofits, educational institutions, grantmakers and socially responsible companies accelerate impact through the Blackbaud ecosystem CHARLESTON, S.C., Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world's leading provider of AI-powered solutions for social impact, recently hosted the annual showcase for its Social Good Startup Program, featuring live pitches from the startups in this year's cohort. The event, which is available to stream on demand, brought together Blackbaud customers, partners and leaders to explore emerging technologies designed to help organizations drive greater social impact through the power of AI. "Blackbaud is an industry leader in trusted, purpose-built technology that powers the social impact sector, and our Social Good Startup Program helps us bring even more innovation to the organizations we serve," said Kevin McDearis, chief technology officer, Blackbaud. "Through this program, our customers benefit from the creativity, speed and specialized expertise of emerging startups while remaining connected to the trusted ecosystem, scale and sector expertise they rely on from Blackbaud. Together, we're helping social impact organizations access the next generation of AI-powered solutions that can accelerate their missions." New Solutions for Social Impact - Vote for the People's Choice Winner Startups in the 2026 cohort are leveraging AI in unique ways to help purpose-driven organizations work more efficiently, make more informed decisions and amplify outcomes. During the showcase, founders shared how their innovative solutions address critical challenges across grantmaking, nonprofit operations, volunteer engagement, strategic planning, donor intelligence and mission delivery. The pitches highlighted solutions with real-world impact, including an AI-first, mobile-friendly form tool that simplifies form creation and form response; an AI social worker that helps agencies connect people more efficiently with potentially life-changing services; and a strategic planning platform that turns planning documents into living management systems, with one nonprofit raising $4.5 million after implementation. These solutions integrate with Blackbaud products like Raiser's Edge NXT(R) and others to help customers extend and scale outcomes within their existing Blackbaud solutions. A panel of Blackbaud judges evaluated each pitch, asked questions, and will select a winner. Blackbaud customers and the public now also have the chance to vote for the solution they think has the most potential to help social impact organizations overcome pressing operational and mission-related challenges. Both the Judges' Choice and People's Choice winners will be announced live on the main stage at bbcon 2026 on Oct. 1. Voting will remain open through 11:59 p.m. ET on Sept. 30. Winners will receive an exhibitor-level sponsorship for bbcon 2027 as well as dedicated marketing and executive coaching opportunities. The 2026 Program The 2026 Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program cohort includes: * AppsNXT, which helps nonprofits, educational institutions and healthcare organizations streamline fundraising and event management workflows. * Bridgit, which simplifies charity data management and integrations. * DonorAtlas, an AI-native donor intelligence platform designed to help fundraisers identify and engage prospective supporters. * Givalgo, which uses AI agents to automate grantmaking and due diligence processes. * Grasshopper Signup, which leverages AI to create and manage event registration experiences. * Kindora, which helps nonprofits identify and pursue funding opportunities through AI-powered grant discovery. * MatchNice, a platform designed to expand donor participation through real-time donation matching. * NetOutlook, which offers SwiftGrants and Aqueduct Analytics, solutions focused on grant management, reporting and analytics within the nonprofit sector. * PlanPerfect, an AI-assisted strategic planning and risk management platform. * Untapped Solutions, which supports organizations serving underserved populations through modern program management tools. * Vitalcy, which uses AI-powered engagement capabilities to strengthen nonprofit communities and donor relationships. Through the Social Good Startup Program, participating companies receive mentorship, market access, funding opportunities and accelerated pathways into Blackbaud's partner ecosystem and Marketplace, making it easier for customers to discover and adopt emerging technologies that address evolving needs. Since the launch of the Social Good Startup Program in 2020, Blackbaud has supported more than 95 startups through 12 cohorts, helping bring more than 40 new integrated app solutions to the Blackbaud Marketplace and fostering innovation across the social impact technology landscape. The Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program has seen an impressive 84% success rate, with 80 of the 95 startups still operating today. About the Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program The Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program is a year-long technology accelerator designed to help early-stage software companies scale solutions that address challenges facing nonprofits, educational institutions and socially responsible organizations. Participants receive access to Blackbaud resources, mentorship, funding opportunities and connections to customers and partners across the social impact sector. Companies selected for the program are fast-tracked into Blackbaud's partner ecosystem, creating opportunities for integration and collaboration that extend innovation throughout the social impact community. About Blackbaud Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the world's leading provider of AI-powered solutions for social impact. Serving nonprofits, educational institutions, companies committed to corporate social responsibility, and individual change makers, Blackbaud propels impact at scale with the sector's most intelligent solutions for fundraising and engagement, education solutions, financial management and CSR and grantmaking. With the deepest expertise powered by the world's largest philanthropic data set, the most connected workflows, and the most powerful impact network, Blackbaud's solutions are building a future where resources are unleashed at the speed of need. Blackbaud has been recognized by Fast Company, Newsweek, Quartz, Forbes and more for AI innovation, responsible leadership and workplace excellence. Blackbaud has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India and the United Kingdom, supporting users in 100+ countries. Learn more at www.blackbaud.com or follow us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. Forward-looking Statements Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations and assumptions contained in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding expected benefits of products and product features. Although Blackbaud attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based. In addition, other important factors that could cause results to differ materially include the following: general economic risks; uncertainty regarding increased business and renewals from existing customers; continued success in sales growth; management of integration of acquired companies and other risks associated with acquisitions; risks associated with successful implementation of multiple integrated software products; the ability to attract and retain key personnel; risks associated with management of growth; lengthy sales and implementation cycles; technological changes that make our products and services less competitive; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for Blackbaud, copies of which are available free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or upon request from Blackbaud's investor relations department. All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc. SOURCE Blackbaud
Blackbaud recognized as an Impactful Global Capability Center (GCC) of India at the ET Edge GCC Summit. September 15, 2026 The recognition highlights Blackbaud's continued growth in India and the role its teams play in collaborating on innovation, customer success, and business outcomes across the global organization. Blackbaud has been recognized as an Impactful GCC of India at the 13th Edition of the ET Edge GCC Summit in Hyderabad. The recognition is part of ET Edge's initiative to spotlight organizations contributing to enterprise growth, innovation, operational excellence, workplace culture, and the continued evolution of India's GCC ecosystem. The recognition comes during a period of continued growth and investment for Blackbaud in India. Over the past year, the company expanded its Hyderabad presence with the opening of a second office in the Financial District, strengthening capacity for future growth and collaboration across Blackbaud's global operations. Blackbaud also welcomed its first Early-in-Careers cohort in India, expanded customer-facing capabilities, and continued investing in talent development and long-term capability building. Blackbaud's commitment to India has also extended beyond its own operations. Earlier this year, the company launched its Social Good Startup Program in India, bringing its global initiative for mission-driven startups to the country and supporting innovators working to address social challenges through technology and entrepreneurship. "This recognition reflects the talent, expertise, and commitment of our teams and the strong foundation they have built over the years," said Kevin Gregoire, chief operating officer, Blackbaud. "Blackbaud India has evolved into a strategic center, contributing across innovation, customer success, and business operations. As we continue to grow, our teams in India are partnering closely with colleagues and leaders around the world to help strengthen Blackbaud and advance our mission. This recognition belongs to our people and is a testament to what we have achieved together and the role our teams continue to play in shaping Blackbaud's future." Rajiv Gajria, vice president and managing director, Blackbaud India, accepted the recognition at the summit and also participated as a panel speaker, joining industry leaders from organizations including Viatris, Align Technology, and Charles Schwab India for a discussion on "The AI Mandate: How GCCs Are Turning AI Capability into Global Enterprise Ownership." The conversation explored how global organizations are using AI to drive innovation, scale operations, build future-ready talent, and create greater business value. During the discussion, Gajria highlighted the importance of focusing on business and customer outcomes rather than adopting technology for its own sake, emphasizing that AI delivers the greatest value when applied to solve meaningful challenges at scale. The ET Edge GCC Summit is a leadership platform from ET Edge, an initiative of The Times Group, that brings together GCC leaders, enterprise executives, policymakers, and industry experts to discuss trends shaping innovation, enterprise transformation, talent, and the future of global capability centers.