Head of Sales Engineering

Job Description

This opportunity is for Nielsen’s Gracenote division - the premier entertainment metadata company in the world, powering the search, discovery, and navigation systems for the globe's biggest tech, automotive, and media giants.  

As entertainment becomes more fragmented and AI reshapes the way people discover and engage with content, trusted data and technology are powering the future and are the foundation for better experiences.  In partnership with our clients, and fully embracing AI, we are reinventing the business, products and teams to capture a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which will significantly impact the media and entertainment ecosystem as a whole.  

In order to grow partnerships with our top clients, Gracenote is committing to a deeper, more consultative technical enterprise sales cycle that identifies these clients’ needs and then rallies our organization to develop solutions that make technical and economic sense (for the client and Gracenote).

We are moving beyond the traditional “build and sell” model with these clients to a partnership model that thrives on greater depth and transparency and going to market together to solve tomorrow’s biggest consumer problems

In order to deliver on our transformation strategy we have created several senior positions. One of these pivotal roles is a strategic Head of Sales Engineering who will build and lead a team of sales engineers- as well as directly leading engagements themselves. This team will drive the future of our relationships with our largest customers and future prospects. This role will be key in strategically positioning Gracenote to support our major clients and enhancing our collective knowledge of our organizations and business direction. As a critical team member, you will partner with our Global Account Leads to generate a pipeline of opportunities based on the customer's vision. Jointly develop a roadmap with clients, strategic industry partners, and internal stakeholders. You will be at the heart of our technical solutioning strategy, owning the technical partnership roadmap for our product suite in close collaboration with the rest of the team focused on our most strategic customers. Measurements of success will include leads, pipeline, and ultimately revenue.This role thrives on understanding complex user problems, leveraging unique data assets, and working cross-functionally to build products that level-up our business & partnership with identified key clients.

Responsibilities:

• Partner with Global Account Leads to own the technical discovery and solutioning phase of the sales cycle, and deliver all technical-win criteria necessary to close deals

• Help uncover new areas and relationships within these complex customers’ businesses that could benefit from Gracenote data, products and services

• Own and champion the pre-sales technical strategy and solution roadmap for Gracenote's products with the customer, transitioning to the CSM team upon deal. closure for post-sales execution, but retaining ownership to ensure successful execution.

• Work in extremely close collaboration with Product and Post-Sales Customer Success Manager (CSM) teams to ensure the technical solution sold is fully achievable and to execute a seamless technical handoff upon contract signing.

• Act as the primary customer advocate, deeply understanding the challenges of our Consumer Electronic, Digital, and Pay TV clients.

• Work with Global Account Leads to provide the technical foundation and vision for the strategic 2-5 year account plans, ensuring proposed solutions align with Gracenote’s product roadmap and technical capacity.

• Collaborate with teams across the organization—including Product Owners, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, and Video Product counterparts—to create a tightly integrated, differentiated solution that leverages Gracenote's unique combination of technology & metadata.

• Partner with Product and Product Marketing to help inform new product GTM strategy, messaging and value prop development for our most strategic customers. 

• Author clear and comprehensive documentation for the client on product implementation and best implementation methods based on personal experience, may include on-site technical implementations. 

• Translate client needs into detailed requirements, epics, and user stories for our Product Owners and Engineering teams.

• Define and analyze success metrics to measure the impact of our products, using data to inform priorities and future iterations.

• Must have the ability and willingness to travel for client meetings, industry events, and team collaboration. Expectation is to be onsite or remote with the customer 2x per month at a minimum. 

Measures of Success:

• Partnership Growth: Drive structured and process-oriented approaches to the sales cycle, resulting in value to the clients and revenue growth to Gracenote.

• Leading Indicators, such as Sales Pipeline: Generate a high volume of technically qualified opportunities (leads) and significantly accelerate the speed at which these opportunities progress through the technical discovery and solutioning stages of the sales cycle (pipeline).

• Technical Partnership Roadmap: Successfully collaborate with clients and internal stakeholders to develop and secure agreement on a multi-year technical partnership roadmap that ensures deep, long-term adoption of the Gracenote product suite.

• Solution Integrity & Seamless Handoff: Ensure all proposed technical solutions are fully achievable and aligned with Gracenote's product roadmap, culminating in a seamless, well-documented technical transition to the Customer Success Management (CSM) team post-contract signing.

Qualifications

​​​​​Desired Skills/Experience:

• 10 years of experience in leading a technical sales engineering team with a proven track/growth record of managing B2B data clients, both as an individual contributor sales engineer and as a leader 

• Deep domain experience in Communications, Media Entertainment and Gaming is essential with experience in relevant industries such as OTT, streaming, Connected TV (CTV), or broadcast media

• A genuine passion for and knowledge of the TV, Movie, and Sports media landscape

• Proven ability to write detailed product requirements, user stories, and comprehensive product documentation (MRDs, PRDs) that drive clarity and execution for technical and non-technical teams

• A strong understanding of the complex data structures inherent in metadata and the ability to envision how they integrate with video metadata to create compelling user experiences

• Demonstrated experience in developing solutions that solve content discovery challenges or create engaging user experiences on media platforms

• An exceptional and dynamic communicator, comfortable and skilled in presenting to both small client groups and larger audiences. You are an open, collaborative, and enthusiastic influencer who builds relationships and consensus with ease.

• A strategic thinker with experience in market analysis and identifying opportunities for product differentiation beyond competing on price

• Experience in sales methodologies including pipeline, ROH, and Salesforce

• Experience working directly with clients to translate their needs into product requirements

• The leadership, professionalism, and temperament required to motivate a company to go a direction they hadn’t planned on, or resourced for, in effort to drive the client partnership to the next level or fulfil a supersized opportunity

Preferred Skills/Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in computer science, or other technical field
  Supplementary education or experience in a business-related field is a plus.

• Familiarity with modern product development, including Agile/Scrum methodologies and working with technical teams on APIs or large-scale datasets

• Familiarity with JSON, XML and APIs and SQL knowledge

• Development experience with Gracenote, TMS, ROVI, or other structured entertainment or Sports data companies is a plus.

• Understands media-specific data supply chains, including ingestion, taxonomy, rights and licensing, and delivery through API, batch, or MCP patterns

• Still wants to carry deals personally rather than only managing from above

• Has personally scoped and priced a technical POC or pilot, ideally one tied to usage or outcomes rather than a simple flat-license structure

• Has personally sat across from engineering-level buyers such as a Head of Data Science or VP Engineering and defended an architecture choice in real time

• Has hired and developed pre-sales talent specifically, which is a distinct management capability from leading engineering or product teams

Leadership Expectations:

• Build and prove out the operating model for Sales Engineering as a distinct function

• Coach and develop the current team while raising the technical and commercial bar

• Partner with Sales on strategic deals, qualification, and technical win strategy

• Create a plan for scaling the team in 2027

• Help define what strong technical pre-sales looks like at Gracenote

Additional Information

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Enabling your best to power a better media future.

Holistic Rewards: We are committed to an inclusive benefits package that supports our employees and their families. This includes comprehensive health and wellness plans, a 401(k) with a Nielsen company match, and a generous paid time off policy. Depending on the role, additional benefits may include a company-provided vehicle and/or discretionary incentive/bonus eligibility.

Compensation Transparency: The posted base salary range is a reasonable estimate that  may be adjusted based on the final work location of the selected employee. Individual pay within the range is determined by factors such as experience, training, geography, certifications, and business needs. Beyond base salary, this role may be eligible for bonuses, equity, or other incentives.

Nielsen makes hiring decisions without regard to disability status, protected veteran status, or membership in any other protected class.

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Compensation: 251000 to 467000 (USD) (YEARLY)