CRAIG CARES
Rockwall
Summary
Pre-sales and technical sales executive with more than 20 years of experience building, scaling, and leading global and Americas Solutions Engineering organizations. Known for strengthening alignment between Sales, Product, and Engineering, while putting in place operating discipline that improves win rates, increases deal size, and sharpens forecast confidence.
I’ve spent my career turning SE teams into reliable revenue engines—raising execution standards, improving how value is articulated to executives, and ensuring technical engagements stay grounded in real business outcomes.
Overview
24
24
years of professional experience
13
13
Certifications
Work History
Vice President, Solutions Engineering – Americas
Trellix
01.2024 - Current
- Lead a 38-person Solutions Engineering organization across the Americas, including managers, architects, and field SEs.
- Responsible for technical strategy, field execution, enablement, talent development, and alignment to the company’s GTM and revenue objectives.
- Partnered with sales leadership to reshape technical engagement in the field, resulting in $150M in newly qualified pipeline and a 20% improvement in win rates.
- Built an SE competency and career framework that reduced voluntary attrition 15% and increased internal promotions 40%.
- Increased average deal size by 25% by operationalizing value selling and value realization practices, shifting execution from feature-led demos to quantified business outcomes and executive-level value narratives.
- Established a consistent value realization motion, enabling SEs to quantify cost reduction, risk mitigation, and productivity improvements tied to customer KPIs.
- Launched an on-demand demo library and quarterly enablement sessions to improve storytelling, depth, and consistency across the region.
- Embedded MEDDPICC and Trellix’s selling framework into SE execution, tightening qualification and deal discipline.
Head of Global Pre-Sales Strategy & Operations
McAfee Enterprise
2019 - 2024
- Led global pre-sales strategy, operations, enablement, and shared services for a worldwide organization of more than 400 Solutions Engineers.
- Shifted global training from in-person delivery to a cloud-based, on-demand model, reducing annual cost by $3.1M and supporting $40M+ in influenced sales wins.
- Designed and ran the global Red Accounts program, retaining $56M in at-risk revenue within 15 months.
- Built global SE career paths, promotion criteria, and competency standards adopted across regions.
- Strengthened alignment across Sales, Product, Engineering, and Marketing on roadmap priorities, cross-sell initiatives, and field requirements.
- Led SE Summits, global bootcamps, graduate rotation programs, and executive workshops.
Principle Channel Architect
McAfee
Dallas
08.2015 - 2019
- Led pre-sales enablement for McAfee’s top strategic partners, supporting partner SEs and architects globally.
- Achieved 117% of quota; recognized as SE of the Year.
- Designed and delivered the global SIEM enablement curriculum.
- Built the global pre-sales operations portal to improve deal governance and partner execution.
Managing Director, Business Development
Hiperos (Third-Party Risk & Governance)
02.2015 - 08.2015
- Responsible for Sales, Pre-Sales, and Technical Account Management for the Third Party Network business.
- Closed the first multi-year enterprise contract for the network with Kellogg.
- Delivered over $1M ACV in first 6 months while exceeding renewal and retention targets.
Principal Technical Sales Leader
IBM – Risk & GRC Division
2012 - 02.2015
- Led North American pre-sales for IBM OpenPages and the broader IBM risk portfolio.
- Closed $6.5M in new enterprise deals; three-time IBM 100% Club achiever.
- Influenced the creation of a holistic IT Governance offering, unifying analytics, SIEM, and operational risk data into an integrated platform adopted across key enterprise accounts.
- Partnered closely with Product Management and Sales leadership on enterprise solution strategy and roadmap direction.
Principal Solutions Architect / Pre-Sales & Customer Success Leader
Blazent – Enterprise IT Intelligence
2006 - 2012
- Managed global SE and TAM teams supporting large enterprise evaluations, pilots, and deployments.
- Influenced $30M+ in strategic wins; consistently achieved 150–220% quota.
- Presidents Club every year from 2007 to 2011.
- Expanded the ITO partner channel, generating $19M+ across more than 40 accounts.
Earlier Career
(Condensed)
Dallas
- RightNow Technologies – Lead Solution Consultant (On-Demand CRM)
- Ariba – Senior Solution Strategist (Spend Management / Procurement SaaS)
- Raytheon • McDonnell Douglas • Boeing – Engineering Leadership Roles
Education
Bachelor of Science - Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science & Information Systems
California State University, Long Beach
Long Beach, CAAssociate of Science - Pre:Engineering
El Camino College
Torrance, CASkills
- Global and Americas SE leadership
- Technical strategy
- Value selling and realization
- Business case development
- Capacity and coverage strategy
- Point of view structure
- MEDDPICC methodology
- Go-to-market alignment
- Sales and product engineering
- Leadership development and succession planning
- Partner ecosystem enablement
- Executive customer engagement and communication
- Pre-sales operations management
- Talent development strategies
- Sales process optimization
Certification
ITIL v3 • COBIT 5 • MEDDPICC • Command of the Message • Demo2Win
Value Selling & Value Realization Frameworks
Value Selling & Value Realization Frameworks