Cresta unlocks the true potential of the customer experience, turning every conversation into a competitive advantage. Cresta’s unified AI platform combines conversational AI agents, real-time human agent augmentation, and comprehensive conversation intelligence to drive revenue and efficiency gains across every channel. The world’s leading companies, including United Airlines, Cox Communications, and Marriott, use Cresta to power world-class customer experiences every day.
Born from the Stanford AI Lab, Cresta has raised more than $270 million from the world’s leading investors, including a16z, Greylock, and Sequoia. Cresta’s leadership includes some of the leading minds in AI today. Our CEO, Ping Wu, founded and led Google's Contact Center AI and Vertex AI platforms before joining Cresta to build the future of AI-driven customer experiences.
Over the next few years, AI is going to redefine how people all over the world interact with businesses every day. Come build that future at Cresta.
As the Manager, Demo Engineering & Design at Cresta, you will lead a high-impact team responsible for bringing our AI-powered platform to life in pre-sales environments. This includes overseeing the development of scalable demo infrastructure and tooling, building rich out-of-the-box demo environments, and personalizing experiences to showcase the full value of Cresta’s capabilities - across conversation intelligence, real-time coaching, analytics, and AI agents.
This role sits at the intersection of technology, storytelling, and go-to-market strategy. You will manage and grow a team of Demo Engineers within the Solutions Team and partner closely with Solutions Engineering, Conversation Designers, Product, and Engineering to ensure Cresta delivers compelling, technically sound, and differentiated demo experiences.
You’ll be responsible not just for execution, but for defining the vision, standards, and operating model for demo engineering at Cresta - ensuring we scale high-quality, repeatable, and innovative demo experiences across industries and buyer personas.
- Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team of Demo Engineers, fostering a culture of ownership, creativity, and technical excellence.
- Define and execute the roadmap for demo engineering, aligning with GTM priorities, product evolution, and key industry verticals.
- Establish best practices, standards, and operating processes for demo environments, POCs, and pilots to ensure scalability and consistency.
- Partner with Solutions Engineering leadership to ensure cohesive, high-quality storytelling across technical demos and conversational experiences.
- Oversee the architecture, scalability, and reliability of demo environments, including virtual agents, agent assist, analytics, and end-to-end workflows.
- Drive the development of reusable, modular demo frameworks that can be rapidly customized for different industries and use cases.
- Ensure demo environments are always production-grade, stable, and ready for customer-facing engagements.
- Guide the development of integrations, automations, and tooling (e.g., CCaaS/CRM connectors, AI workflows, custom apps) to expand demo capabilities.
- Champion the use of modern AI-native tooling (e.g., LLM workflows, agents, prompt frameworks) to enhance demo realism and impact.
- Partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Enablement teams to rapidly operationalize new feature releases into demo-ready assets, tooling, and environments—ensuring the field can effectively showcase the latest capabilities with clarity and confidence.
- Collaborate with Product and Engineering to influence roadmap priorities based on pre-sales learnings and technical gaps.
- Partner closely with Solutions Engineering and Sales to support strategic deals, ensuring demos and POCs are tailored, differentiated, and impactful.
- Collaborate with Enablement to equip GTM teams with scalable demo assets, narratives, and technical training.
- Work cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Enablement to continuously translate new product innovations into compelling demo scenarios, reusable assets, and technical playbooks for the field.
- Establish feedback loops to capture insights from the field and translate them into improvements in product, demos, and workflows.
- Define and track success metrics for demo effectiveness, environment reliability, and team productivity.
- Implement processes for rapid issue triage and resolution to minimize risk in customer-facing moments.
- Drive continuous improvement in demo quality, speed, and scalability across the organization.
- 5–8+ years of experience in engineering, solutions architecture, technical pre-sales, or related roles, with 2+ years in a leadership or management capacity preferred.
- Strong technical foundation, including APIs, integrations, authentication, data systems, and scripting (Python, JavaScript, etc.).
- Proven ability to build and scale technical teams, processes, and systems in fast-paced, high-growth environments.
- Experience owning complex, customer-facing technical initiatives such as demos, POCs, or pilots.
- Excellent cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to influence across Product, Engineering, and GTM teams.
- Strong strategic thinking combined with a hands-on, execution-oriented mindset.
- Experience with CCaaS platforms (Twilio, Amazon Connect, Five9, etc.) and CRM systems (Salesforce).
- Familiarity with conversational AI, virtual agents, and contact center workflows.
- Experience partnering closely with conversation design or UX teams to deliver end-to-end customer experiences.
- Experience leveraging modern AI tools (e.g., LLMs, agents, prompt engineering frameworks) in technical workflows.
- Background in high-growth SaaS or enterprise AI companies.
$140K - $170K + Variable + Equity (based on experience will vary)
Similar Jobs
What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene
Key Facts About San Francisco Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
- Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
- Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
