Principal Solution Engineer, Global Private Equity & Startups Practice

Overview

AI is reshaping how capital is deployed, how companies scale, and how value is created, and nowhere is that shift moving faster than in private equity and the startup ecosystem. The Global Private Equity & Startups Practice (PE & Startups) is one of Salesforce's most strategic go-to-market initiatives.

We partner with the world's leading PE firms, their portfolio companies, and the most ambitious high-growth and AI-native startups to help them become agentic enterprises.

As a Solution Engineer in PE & Startups, you'll work where enterprise technology, investment strategy, and executive advisory meet. You'll help investors and operators turn AI from a boardroom talking point into measurable results, using Agentforce, Data 360, and the Salesforce platform to redesign how deals are sourced, how portfolios are run, and how companies grow.

This is not a traditional SE role. You'll advise Operating Partners, founders, and C-suite leaders, build solution narratives that move at deal speed, and help define what an AI-first operating model looks like across entire portfolios.

Why This Role Stands Out

You'll be at the forefront of agentic AI adoption. PE firms are under pressure to show AI-driven value creation across their portfolios, and startups are building AI into their businesses from day one. You'll help both.

You'll have outsized, portfolio-level impact. One successful engagement with a PE firm can shape the technology strategy of dozens of portfolio companies. One win with a fast-growing startup can grow into a long-term enterprise partnership.

You'll work with sophisticated, fast-moving leaders

Managing Partners, Operating Partners, founders, CFOs, CROs, and CIOs who expect sharp thinking and fast results.

You'll join a specialized, high-visibility team aligned to Salesforce's most strategic PE-backed and high-growth accounts, and you'll help shape the practice's point of view on AI in private markets.

What You'll Do

• Advise on agentic transformation.
• Serve as the primary technical and strategic advisor to PE firms, their portfolio companies, and high-growth startups, guiding them through multi-cloud Salesforce and Agentforce solutions for deal flow, LP relations, portfolio operations, and revenue growth.
• Lead executive conversations.
• Run discovery and value-framing sessions with Managing Directors, Operating Partners, founders, CFOs, and CIOs, connecting AI and data strategy directly to investment theses, EBITDA improvement, and growth goals.
• Show the future, not slides.
• Design and deliver highly tailored demos, prototypes, and proofs of concept that show AI agents working alongside people: automating sourcing and diligence workflows, improving portfolio visibility, scaling sales and service, and unlocking digital labor.
• Drive portfolio-wide value creation.
• Articulate how Salesforce accelerates revenue growth, operational efficiency, and exit readiness, and help firms build repeatable AI and data playbooks they can roll out across their portfolios.
• Partner with startups built for scale.
• Help AI-native and venture-backed companies build a platform that grows with them, from early go-to-market motions to enterprise-grade operations.
• Orchestrate the best of Salesforce.
• Work with the PE & Startups Relationship Management team on account strategy, executive mapping, and deal orchestration, and bring in specialists (industry SEs, solution architects, Agentforce and Data 360 experts) where they add the most value.
• Stay ahead of the curve.
• Build deep expertise in Agentforce, Data 360, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Revenue Cloud, Slack, Tableau, and MuleSoft, and track how agentic AI, data strategy, and AI governance are changing private markets and scaling companies.
• Shape thought leadership.
• Co-create point-of-view assets, reference architectures, demo environments, and enablement content for PE & Startups personas, including emerging use cases such as AI-assisted due diligence, portfolio intelligence, and agent-powered go-to-market.
• Be the face of Salesforce in the ecosystem.
• Represent Salesforce at high-profile PE & Startups events, operating partner summits, founder forums, roundtables, and executive dinners.
• Elevate the broader SE community.
• Mentor and enable fellow SEs on PE & Startups narratives, methods, and AI-driven deal approaches.
• Keep learning.
• Maintain relevant certifications and stay current on Salesforce innovation, AI market developments, and private markets trends.
• Travel as needed to engage PE firm headquarters, portfolio company sites, and startup hubs across the US.

What You'll Bring

A strong track record in technical pre-sales, solution engineering, or solution consulting for enterprise software, ideally with executive-facing engagements

Business acumen and financial fluency: you understand how PE firms create value, how startups scale, and how technology decisions affect EBITDA, growth, and valuation

Hands-on curiosity about generative and agentic AI, and the ability to explain clearly where AI agents create real business value and where they don't

Confidence and credibility with senior investors, operators, and founders, and the ability to run complex, multi-stakeholder conversations on tight timelines

Strong storytelling, demo, and whiteboarding skills

Experience with Salesforce, CRM, data platforms, or AI solutions is a strong plus; experience in or alongside private equity, venture-backed companies, or financial services is highly valued

We hire based on demonstrated expertise and impact. If you're excited about helping the world's leading investors and fastest-growing companies make the leap to agentic AI, we'd love to hear from you.