Krishna Desikan
Princeton
Summary
Seasoned sales engineering leader with over 20 years of experience spanning Solution Engineering, Consulting & Application Development with expertise in Observability, Performance Monitoring, Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing & Security. Proven ability to build and lead high-performing teams, drive technical sales strategy, and bridging the gap between customer business challenges and innovative solutions.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
Work History
Solution Architect Manager
Cisco Splunk
New Jersey
04.2021 - Current
- Build & lead a high-performing team of sales engineers supporting top-tier enterprise accounts across the Americas
- Collaborate closely with sales leadership, including VP of Sales, Area Directors, and Regional Directors, to develop and execute strategies that drive revenue growth
- Interpret complex business challenges and collaborated with customers, partners, and internal teams to deliver innovative, scalable solutions
- Align sales engineering strategy and execution with the broader sales organization to achieve revenue targets
- Oversee territory planning and ensure strategic coverage of key accounts
- Optimize team performance through mentorship, 1:1 coaching and career development plans
- Identify and address training needs to enhance team capabilities
- Serve as a key liaison between senior leadership and the sales engineering team, ensuring alignment on goals and priorities
- Evangelize Cisco & Splunk’s technology and vision across all architectures internally and with customers and partners
- Manage customer escalations, ensuring swift resolution and customer satisfaction
Systems Engineer
Cisco Systems
New Jersey
12.2017 - 03.2021
- Work with account team to develop strategic account plans
- Create compelling messaging and demonstrations
- Be the trusted advisor for enterprise customers
- Identify areas of expansion within existing customers
- Build new champions & strong working relationships
- Work closely with customers to identify business pains & impact
- Design solutions to address business pains
- Execute proof-of-value & ensure technical win
- Document success & work with business value consultants to demonstrate ROI
- Generated 10M in bookings every year
- Notable Enterprise Customers: Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, AIG, Johnson & Johnson, New York Life, Comcast and several others
Cloud Platform Specialist
Oracle America, Inc
New Jersey
02.2013 - 12.2017
- Presales Consultant with Technology focus on Oracle’s portfolio of systems management products
- Manage accounts for my territory
- Work with account team to develop and execute strategic account plans
- Work closely with customers to identify business pains & impact
- Execute proof-of-value / trials & ensure technical win
- Execute ROI analysis as needed
- Respond to RFI’s & RFP’s
- Work closely with inside sales to grow business for Oracle Digital
- Consistently generated bookings of 500k-$1M every quarter
- Supported Geo: Continental US
- Notable Enterprise Customers: Citibank, JP Morgan, Bristol Myers, CIBC, Rogers Communications, SEI, PPG, Wyndham Hotels, General Electric, Willis Towers Watson, Navy Federal Credit Union, State Street, UBS
Principal Sales Consultant
Oracle India Pvt Ltd
Bangalore
11.2006 - 02.2013
- Presales consultant with technology focus on Business Intelligence, Systems Management, Databases & Engineered Systems
- Engage with UK & EMEA customers to understand analytics reporting requirements
- Create data sets for building demos based on industry vertical & reporting needs
- Design solutions to fit requirements & success criteria
- Execute performance benchmarks on Oracle Engineered Systems
- Building custom demonstrations on manageability of applications, database & middleware
- Develop cross-product integrations
- Web Portal design & development
- Supported Geo: UK & EMEA
- Notable Enterprise Customers: Astra Zeneca, NHS (UK), MUFG, Vodafone, Credit Agricole
Software Engineer (BI & DW)
Satyam Computer Services
Hyderabad
06.2004 - 10.2006
- Analyze requirements from customers
- Build prototypes for new features & enhancements
- Design, build & maintain web sites
- Develop databases that support web applications
- Participate in code reviews
- Manage & prioritize backlog
- Database Performance Tuning, Upgrade, Migration & Patching
Education
Bachelor of Engineering - Electronics & Communication
University of Madras
01.2004
Skills
- UNIX
- Technical sales
- Sales strategy
- Customer engagement
- Cloud architecture
- Team leadership
- Stakeholder communication
- Containerization technologies
- Application modernization
- Serverless architecture
- Performance optimization
- Interpersonal skills
- Windows
- Kubernetes
- Openshift
- Python
- C#
- net
- Visual Basic
- Java
- SQL
- PL/SQL
- Tomcat
- Apache
- IBM WebSphere
- Weblogic
- JBoss
- AWS
- Azure
- Pivotal Cloud Foundry
- AppDynamics
- Splunk
- Oracle Enterprise Manager
- Oracle Management Cloud
- Shell Scripting
- Visual Studio
- Oracle
- SQL Server
- MySQL
- Business Objects
- Informatica
- Cognos
- Oracle Business Intelligence
Accomplishments
- Built high-performing sales engineering teams from the ground-up
- Originated & orchestrated sales campaigns resulting in multi-million dollar deals
- Executive presenter at global conferences
- Coached and mentored several early-career team members helping them transition to successful sales engineers
Locations
- New Jersey, NJ
- Toronto, ON
- Bangalore, KA
- Hyderabad, TG
Technology Skills
UNIX, Windows, Kubernetes, Openshift, Python, Microsoft Technologies (c#, .net, Visual Basic), Java, SQL, PL/SQL, Tomcat, Apache, IBM WebSphere, Weblogic, JBoss, AWS, Azure, Pivotal Cloud Foundry, AppDynamics, Splunk, Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle Management Cloud, Shell Scripting, Visual Studio, Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, Business Objects, Informatica, Cognos, Oracle Business Intelligence
Timeline
Solution Architect Manager
Cisco Splunk
04.2021 - Current
Systems Engineer
Cisco Systems
12.2017 - 03.2021
Cloud Platform Specialist
Oracle America, Inc
02.2013 - 12.2017
Principal Sales Consultant
Oracle India Pvt Ltd
11.2006 - 02.2013
Software Engineer (BI & DW)
Satyam Computer Services
06.2004 - 10.2006
Bachelor of Engineering - Electronics & Communication
University of Madras
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