Principal Pre-sales Solutions Consultant (Pharma/Life Science)

What Cognite is: Relentless to achieve

Cognite operates at the forefront of industrial digitalization, building AI, and data solutions that solve the world's hardest, highest-impact problems. With unmatched industrial heritage and a comprehensive suite of AI capabilities, including low-code AI agents, Cognite accelerates the digital transformation to drive operational improvements.

We thrive in challenges. We challenge assumptions. We execute with speed and ownership. If you view obstacles as signals to step forward - not backwards - you'll feel right at home here. Our Moonshot is bold: Unlock $100B in customer value by 2035, and redefine how global industry works. Join us in this venture where AI and data meet ingenuity, and together, we will forge the path to a smarter, more connected industrial future.

How you'll demonstrate Ownership

As a Principal Pre-sales Solutions Consultant, you lead the technical relationship as a new customer lands, from first discovery through initial validation and into initial adoption. You are a technical leader and a crucial bridge between customers, sales teams, and the product organization, driving mutual business value and ensuring solution integrity.

In Pharma and Life Science, you work on problems that decide how fast medicine gets made: transferring a validated process from R&D to a production site, scaling therapies from pilot to full production, and keeping quality steady across every site. You do this with the frontline engineers and operators who run these plants, and you turn their problems into working prototypes on their own data.

The Impact you bring to Cognite

Client Engagement and Solution Development

• You act as a technical liaison to key Pharma and Life Science clients, establishing trusted relationships and ensuring alignment on solutions, integration architectures, and technical roadmaps.
• You move clients from high-level strategy to live, functioning versions of Cognite's solutions through Fast AI Prototyping on Cognite Atlas AI™ and Cognite Data Fusion®.
• You lead the design and implementation of first-of-their-kind industrial agents and AI-driven applications. You use the Atlas AI workbench and Cognite Flows to automate complex workflows such as tech transfer, process monitoring, and quality investigations. You ground them in the contextualized data foundation of our Industrial Knowledge Graph, so they are technically feasible, scalable, and ready for regulated environments.
• You partner with Account Executives to prioritize strategic opportunities and act as the technical lead for complex engagements.
• You develop scalable, repeatable solutions adapted to specific client requirements, in collaboration with internal technical teams.

Client Education and Technical Representation

• You educate clients on Cognite Data Fusion® and related offerings, supporting successful adoption, solution integration, and value realization.
• You develop client-focused demos, reference architectures, and solution accelerators used by Cognite teams and customers.
• You represent Cognite in client meetings, workshops, and technical briefings, using your technical and Pharma expertise to build client confidence, from the plant floor to the C-suite.

Internal Collaboration and Product Alignment

• You act as a bridge between clients and Cognite's Product organization, translating client feedback and needs into clear, actionable product requirements.
• You ensure client-integrated solutions are technically feasible, scalable, and aligned with Cognite's broader product strategy. Cognite - Principal Pre-sales Solutions Consultant (Pharma/Life Science) 
• You provide continuous technical feedback and market insights from client interactions to inform product development and enhance competitive positioning in Pharma and Life Science.

Sales and Field Engineering Enablement

• You partner with other field engineering and sales teams to provide technical support on client opportunities, including technical account strategy, solution architecture, and use-case development.
• You serve as a technical escalation point for complex client engagements, offering guidance and assistance to the broader sales organization.
• You organize and manage client workshops and technical meetings, ensuring high-quality execution and alignment with client objectives.

Technical Leadership and Best Practices

• You develop and promote best practices, frameworks, and reference architectures to strengthen Cognite's position as a leader in client-focused industrial solutions.
• You mentor other Field Engineers, sharing technical expertise and best practices related to client engagement and solution development.
• You share insights and learnings from client interactions to enhance team effectiveness and responsiveness to market demands.

Required qualifications

• Extensive experience (7+ years) in technical presales roles, ideally in enterprise SaaS, cloud platforms, or industrial software.
• Hands-on experience in Python and working with REST APIs, with solid knowledge of GitHub for version control and collaborative development.
• Experience with graph databases (GraphDB) and building on graph data models.
• Hands-on experience in prompt engineering and in building agentic systems and workflows, including skills creation.
• Practical experience using AI coding tools such as Claude Code or Cursor to build and iterate on prototypes quickly.
• Strong client-facing skills, with experience building trusted relationships with technology partners, enterprise clients, and internal stakeholders to co-create solutions and drive joint opportunities.
• Expertise in industrial data, OT/IT convergence, and data integration patterns, with the ability to design scalable architectures that connect operational and enterprise systems.
• Good understanding of data platforms, APIs, and integration methods, including data pipelines, storage, security, and governance, particularly in cloud and hybrid environments.

Preferred qualifications

• Education or experience in Pharma, for example GxP, CPV, tech transfer, process improvement, and operational excellence.
• Knowledge of services and architectures provided by hyper scalers such as Azure, AWS and GCP.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical validations and solution accelerators that showcase the value of complex integrated solutions to partners and customers.
• Experience working closely with product and engineering teams, providing field feedback to shape product development and align solutions with customer and partner needs.
• Strong communication, presentation, and influencing skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into business value for diverse audiences including executives, partners, and technical teams.