Customer Solutions Architect - remote

Zipline
Posted 3 years ago
Hi. We’re Zipline. We’re helping put technology into the hands of those that need it most - - field teams in retail, healthcare, banking, and other built-world industries. If you have ever worked outside of HQ, you know the drill. You’re taking care of customers, putting up signage, and trying to do the 30 tasks that HQ wants you to do. Some pertain to you. Some don’t. But that’s for you to figure out… all while putting out fires and keeping things tidy.

That’s where we come in! We turn the grind of day-to-day work for field teams into a calm, zen state of mind. Zipline is the only operations excellence platform purpose-built to power field team success. By connecting our best-in-class field execution technology with the leading systems that frontline teams rely upon, like Kronos, Workday, Box, and more, we’ve created the ultimate one-stop-shop for field teams. Backed by an AI-like approach and real-time insights, Zipline helps field teams understand company priorities and take action on urgent initiatives, while also surfacing data that coaches employees to better performance.

With Zipline, employees feel more connected, understand the role they play in the brand’s mission, and can feel good about the work they’re doing. We love helping field workers love their jobs because we know how much better life is when you love your work. This year, Retail Zipline became “Great Place to Work-Certified”. 97 percent of our employees say Zipline is a great place to work, compared to 59% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company. What’s even more impressive is that 100% of employees say, “I can be myself around here”, “I am treated as a full member here regardless of my position” and “People here are willing to give extra to get the job done.” 100 percent! You can’t beat the Zipline culture.

This role calls for an individual who can assess, define, implement, and - perhaps most crucially - communicate Zipline architectures to both technical and non-technical audiences. Your ability to communicate solutions to complex problems to varied audiences in ways that are empathetic, friendly, and approachable will be mission-critical.

You will be working with our sales team and our prospective clients to understand their hierarchy and needs, and consequently design and deliver solutions that leverage the value of the Zipline application, in turn fundamentally enabling change for our client's businesses.

A key indicator of your success will be your ability to put the customer first and tailor a solution that meets their needs while expanding our Zipline footprint. You know the difference between the right answer and the best answer. It is essential that you ensure our technology standards are followed, and that you provide guidance to evolve those same standards when it is called for. This role will be responsible for providing technical guidance, from inception through the close of a project, tailoring your presence to ensure successful delivery while enabling the rapid growth of team members.

  • A solution leader who is passionate about enabling teams to leverage Zipline capabilities to design solutions driving business value
  • Strong technical acumen
  • Working closely with sales and business stakeholders, lead engineers and product managers to design solutions through the full life cycle from conception to pilot launch
  • Demonstrating thought leadership by leveraging Zipline solutions combined with industry standards, and have a passion for best practices (approach, SDLC methodologies, DevOps)
  • Comfortable talking about technical things with business people and business things with technical people;able to express complex concepts in plain language to reach broader audiences
  • Working closely with a team of consulting and sales representatives to identify opportunities, develop and pitch solutions based on a business case, and work closely with clients to generate business
  • Adaptable to frequent change and comfortable with decision making with limited information in dynamic situations
Requirements

  • Ability to define implementation scope and provide estimates on the effort required to build the solution
  • Has delivered Architecture documents on solution technical design, application design, Integration, non-functional requirements, deployment approach
  • Experienced in interacting with sales teams in designing and estimating solutions, software, or services
  • 5+ years of architecture and design of complex applications, particularly Enterprise SaaS Applications
  • Good working knowledge of at least one major cloud platform
Nice to have

  • We are for retail, by retail. Having a background either working in retail or building software for retailers has been an important key to our product’s success. It’s not required, but if you do have retail experience it will bring a ton of value to our customers and business.
  • Proficient in productivity applications such as Basecamp, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Slack, etc
  • Ability to effectively communicate to, present to, influence or befriend all levels within an organization. Great at asynchronous communication.
  • Outstanding listening and writing skills, and a keen ability to translate complex concepts into simple, persuasive language.
  • Team player with excellent collaboration skills to build relationships across the company with both ours as well as our prospective customers.
  • Self-motivated, dependable, and dedicated.
The ideal candidate:

  • Willingness and ability to travel, the role is expected to travel up to 75%
  • Is passionate about retail and/or understands the fundamentals of retail operations: Bonus points if you’ve worked in Retail Store Operations before!
  • Is tech-savvy and proactive: Keeps up to date with new technologies, specifically those around Web Development, Mobile Web Development, Responsive UI/UX, and real-time data validation.
  • Has baseline design skills/good design aesthetic: You should know your way around PowerPoint, Keynote, Photoshop, and InDesign. You don’t need to be a graphic designer, but should be able to make decks easily, have an eye for detail, and recognize when fonts look wonky or logos look off.
  • Understands and appreciates UX and good product design: We’re looking for somebody who can see the big picture of where prospects are “getting stuck,” then translate that into tangible product suggestions for our development team.
What's In It for You!

  • Remote office: Join an effective remote team and work where you’re comfortable
  • Stock: Ownership in a fast-growing company.
  • Time Off: Flexible vacation policy to encourage people to get out and see the world
  • Benefits: 401k, and world-class medical, dental, and vision policies
  • Team Fun: Twice annual company off-sites in fun locations. We’ve done New York, Costa Rica, Whistler, Palm Springs, San Diego, and Mexico City (as COVID developments permit)
  • Learning: Sponsorship of meetup and conference attendance
  • Great team: Working with fun, hard-working, nice people who are committed to making a difference!
We value diversity of all kinds and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace where we learn from each other. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome people of all different backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives.

Got more time to learn about us?

How do we work? Remotely. We have been 100% remote since the company was founded and we have it down to a science - - a people science. We huddle as a team weekly and as a company 3 times a week. On Fridays, we come together to learn from each other. One week it might be about opossum rescue. Another week it might be an update on our product roadmap or the results of our customer satisfaction survey. We are all masters of Zoom and love the freedom of working from home - - or vans - - or sailboats.

Sound too good to be true? We haven’t even gotten to our customers! Think about the best brands, from your favorite tennis shoes to yoga pants. They’re customers. And, in addition to dozens of specialty retailers, this year we added grocery store, pharmacy, and convenience store brands. In fact, we more than doubled our customers in 2020 - - and there’s a huge market yet to tackle.

The word about Zipline is getting out. We are featured regularly in the press, mostly because of the results we get from our customers. Here’s a look at just some of the articles published recently. We also picked up some awards in 2020. CBInsights ranked us one of the 100 most promising B2B retail tech companies in the world. And, our CEO was a TechTrailblazer finalist. (Check out her articles on Forbes to see her passion for retail and solving its biggest challenges.)