VP, Salesforce Solutions

About the role

The VP, Salesforce Solutions is a senior pre-sale and solutioning leader within Merkle's Customer Data Solutions business, bringing to bear the full depth of Merkle's Salesforce Data Cloud and Agentforce capabilities, along with our core Data Engineering and Merkury capabilities to solve client and prospective client business challenges in ways that drive measurable CX and commercial outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Owning the solutioning process for Salesforce Data Cloud and Agentforce pursuits — from initial discovery through final proposal — ensuring that every architecture recommendation is technically defensible, commercially structured, and directly responsive to the client's stated and unstated business objectives.
• Developing and maintaining Merkle's strategic and technical point of view on Salesforce Data Cloud and Agentforce, including how these platforms integrate with Merkle's Merkury identity graph and Snowflake data infrastructure to create architectures that competing SIs cannot replicate.
• Serving as Merkle's senior technical authority in client-facing pursuit settings — translating complex architecture decisions into business-relevant narratives, building confidence with VP and C-suite stakeholders, and establishing the credibility that earns long-term advisory relationships.
• Collaborating with Salesforce's partner and co-sell teams to position Merkle as the preferred SI for Data Cloud and Agentforce implementations — participating in joint GTM planning, maintaining best-practice currency, and representing Merkle in partner-facing forums and events.
• Building and maintaining a library of repeatable pre-sales assets — architecture frameworks, discovery playbooks, demo environments, RFP response modules, and proposal templates — that systematically elevate the practice's ability to pursue and win Salesforce Data Cloud and Agentforce opportunities at scale.
• Leveraging Merkle's Merkury identity platform and first-party data capabilities as native inputs to Salesforce Data Cloud architectures — ensuring identity resolution, consent management, and audience activation are woven into every solution design as differentiating infrastructure, not add-on services.
• Defining Merkle's approach to Agentforce solutioning — including how data readiness, identity resolution, and customer 360 infrastructure are prerequisites for production-grade AI agent deployment — and translating that framework into client-ready discovery conversations and proposal narratives.
• Contributing to CDS capability development by informing Salesforce-related hiring profiles, certification strategy, and delivery team enablement.
• Generating external thought leadership — conference presence, written content, LinkedIn — that builds Merkle's market credibility within the Salesforce ecosystem.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university; advanced degree or relevant certifications (Salesforce Data Cloud Consultant, Salesforce AI Associate/Specialist, or equivalent) strongly preferred
• 10+ years of experience in customer data, MarTech, or data platform strategy and architecture roles, with substantial hands-on experience architecting or advising on enterprise CDP, identity resolution, or customer 360 solutions
• Deep, real-world Salesforce Data Cloud expertise — not just familiarity, but hands-on experience designing production-grade Data Cloud architectures including data ingestion, identity resolution, unified profiles, and audience activation across enterprise environments
• Demonstrated Agentforce or AI solutioning experience — including the ability to frame data readiness requirements, articulate appropriate agent use cases (service triage, next-best-action, suppression, agentic resolution), and position AI capability as an outcome of sound data infrastructure
• Proven pre-sales or solutioning track record: experience presenting to C-suite audiences, shaping large-scope proposals, and directly influencing enterprise purchase decisions in a competitive evaluation context
• Deep fluency in first-party data strategy — identity resolution, consent and privacy management, data clean rooms, and omnichannel activation — with the ability to translate these concepts into client-ready business narratives
• Excellent executive presence and communication skills; must be able to simplify complex architecture without losing technical credibility
• Prior experience at a consulting, systems integration, agency, or MarTech vendor environment — with demonstrated ability to manage multiple client and pursuit contexts simultaneously
• Broad multi-platform fluency: working knowledge of Snowflake, Tealium, Adobe Experience Platform, or comparable data infrastructure — sufficient to design cross-platform architectures and position Merkle's ecosystem partnerships as integrated advantages
• Familiarity with Merkle's competitive landscape: Publicis Sapient / Epsilon, Accenture Song, IBM iX, and boutique Salesforce SI partners — with a point of view on where Merkle wins and why
• Experience working with or positioning a proprietary identity resolution platform (Merkury, Acxiom, LiveRamp, or equivalent) as infrastructure within a Salesforce or CDP architecture
• Demonstrated external thought leadership — speaking, writing, or recognized expertise within the Salesforce, CDP, or marketing data ecosystem
• Familiarity with AI agent deployment patterns, LLM integration in CX workflows, and the data prerequisites for agentic personalization at enterprise scale