Solutions Engineer

About Appen

Appen is a leader in AI enablement for critical tasks such as model improvement, supervision, and evaluation. To do this we leverage our global crowd of over one million skilled contractors, speaking over 180 languages and dialects, representing 130 countries. In addition, we utilize the industry's most advanced AI-assisted data annotation platform to collect and label various types of data like images, text, speech, audio, and video.

Our data is crucial for building and continuously improving the world's most innovative artificial intelligence systems and Appen is already trusted by the world's largest technology companies. Now with the explosion of interest in generative AI, Appen is helping leaders in automotive, financial services, retail, healthcare, and governments the confidence to deploy world-class AI products.

At Appen, we are purpose driven. Our fundamental role in AI is to ensure all models are helpful, honest, and harmless, so we firmly believe in unlocking the power of AI to build a better world. We have a learn-it-all culture that values perspective, growth, and innovation. We are customer-obsessed, action-oriented, and celebrate winning together.

At Appen, we are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Position Summary 

Appen is seeking a talented Solutions Engineer to join our Solutions team which supports our Salesorganization. As a Solutions Engineer you will play a vital role in driving the technical pre-sales engagement with prospective customers.  This is a hands-on technologist role, and you will "wear many hats".  You will not just be presenting slides and giving demos. You will be architecting Enterprise data enrichment solutions for large organizations and explaining our data annotation platform, through your work, to data science and machine learning teams.  Experience seeing the entire sales lifecycle, from conception to design to technology evaluation through to closing the deal is crucial. An ideal candidate possesses both technical depth and strong interpersonal skills to partner with internal and external teams to develop scalable, flexible, and cutting-edge solutions. Solutions Engineers collaborate with operations and business development to help craft solutions to meet customer business problems.  

Responsibilities 

- Use case discovery. Work with customers and prospects to deeply understand the proposed use case and propose solutions using the Appen data annotation platform and supporting technologies.    

- Demo expert.  Deliver in-depth technical product demos to customers and prospects at all levels within an organization. 

- Technical subject matter expert.  Support the sales cycle through the elimination of technical objections and build rapport with the data science and engineering teams at prospective customers. 

- Prove customer value.  Where necessary deliver proofs of concept and pilots to demonstrate the value of the Appen data annotation platform. 

- Multi-tasking and prioritization.  Balance supporting multiple Account Executives and multiple sales cycles. 

- Product Mastery. Continually act as a liaison with Appen Client Services, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales teams to provide input from customers, as well as be educated on new advancements in products and programs. 

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities 

- Hands-on, technical, problem solver. 

- Working knowledge of scripting and coding, database querying, and web development (e.g. Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and SQL). 

- Knowledge of ETL and ETL workflows. 

- Experience with AWS. Proficient in using AWS services such as S3, Lambda, EC2, DynamoDB, and Bedrock. 

- Custom API Development. Skilled in dealing with custom APIs, including building and integrating them. 

- Comfortable working with customers and public speaking (there will be some customer / conference travel for this role). 

- Strong communication skills, including the ability to relate complicated concepts to both non-technical and technical audiences.

- Minimum 5 years of experience in a technology company and demonstrable success working in a customer-facing role REST API development experience. 

- Experience working in the AI & ML domains is preferred and if this includes working with clients in the Search, Natural Language Understanding or Computer Vision space. 

- Experience in working with Large Language Models (LLMs) through both user interfaces and scripts. Comprehensive understanding of LLM evaluation, development, and maintenance to ensure safety and reliability. 

- Desire to learn continuously about new ideas and concepts in data science. 

Appen is the global leader in data for the AI Lifecycle with more than 25 years’ experience in data sourcing, annotation, and model evaluation. Through our expertise, platform, and global crowd, we enable organizations to launch the world’s most innovative artificial intelligence products with speed and at scale. Appen maintains the industry’s most advanced AI-assisted data annotation platform and boasts a global crowd of more than 1 million contributors worldwide, speaking more than 235 languages. Our products and services make Appen a trusted partner to leaders in technology, automotive, finance, retail, healthcare, and government. Appen has customers and offices globally.