Value Engineer, Solutions Engineering - Cockroach Labs

Cockroach Labs exists to build what comes next — before the world requires it. We created CockroachDB to survive failures, scale without compromise, and adapt to changing conditions automatically. Now we’re helping define a future where complexity fades into the background and infrastructure simply works, no matter the scale.

The Role

The Value Engineer at Cockroach Labs is a strategic advisor embedded within our Solution Engineering organization, working directly with Account Executives, Sales Engineers, and Customer Success Managers to quantify and communicate the financial impact of adopting CockroachDB. You'll engage directly with customer IT Directors, CTOs, CFOs, and other senior executives, designing and delivering custom Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) models that translate complex technical advantages into compelling financial narratives.

This is a high-visibility, high-impact role that sits at the intersection of finance, technology, and consultative sales. You'll help customers across banking, payments, gaming, retail, and high technology make confident, data-driven decisions about their infrastructure investment, and you'll help build the Value Engineering practice at Cockroach Labs from the ground up.

What You Will Do

• ROI and TCO Modeling: Design and deliver custom, bottoms-up financial models that quantify the business value of migrating to or standardizing on CockroachDB. Models will account for infrastructure spend, operational overhead, licensing, developer productivity, and risk mitigation, calibrated to each customer's actual environment.
• Executive-Level Storytelling: Lead whiteboard sessions, executive presentations, and boardroom discussions that translate CockroachDB's technical advantages into financial narratives tied to P&L impact, capital efficiency, and long-term competitive advantage.
• Customer Discovery: Conduct meaningful discovery with senior customer stakeholders to understand how their current database landscape is creating cost drag, operational fragility, or scalability constraints, and how CockroachDB addresses those challenges.
• Field Enablement: Build and maintain the Value Engineering practice: customer discovery guides, technical-to-business pain taxonomy, ROI/TCO templates, champion decks, and win stories. Enable the broader SE and AE teams to apply the framework confidently and independently.
• Deal Support: Attend Global Evaluation Pit Stops to coach and validate business cases for active opportunities. Partner closely with Sales Engineers and Account Executives to accelerate deal velocity and expand strategic accounts.
• Product Feedback Loop: Serve as a conduit between customer conversations and the Product organization, synthesizing patterns in TCO and ROI discussions to provide direct input to the product roadmap.

Expectations

In your first 6 months

• Develop an engagement strategy and collaboration model with field teams (AEs, SEs, CSMs).
• Build the foundation of the Value Engineering practice: customer discovery guides, TCO/ROI templates, pain-to-value taxonomy, and champion decks.
• Produce at least one piece of Value Engineering thought leadership for external publication.
• Enable the broader field on Value Engineering methodology and early customer win stories.
• Attend Global Evaluation Pit Stops and begin contributing to live deal business cases.

In your first year

• Own the full Value Engineering motion, from customer discovery through executive presentation and deal close.
• Establish Cockroach Labs as a credible voice on database TCO and infrastructure economics.
• Build a repeatable, scalable playbook that the broader field team can leverage independently.
• Contribute meaningful product feedback based on patterns from customer ROI and TCO conversations.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in value engineering, financial consulting, technology consulting, or a related field, ideally in enterprise software, SaaS, or cloud infrastructure.
• Strong financial modeling skills: bottoms-up cost analysis, ROI/NPV frameworks, and IT portfolio economics.
• Technical fluency sufficient to engage in substantive discovery with engineering and infrastructure leaders; familiarity with database architecture, distributed systems, or cloud cost structures is a strong plus.
• Proven ability to lead executive-level presentations and translate complex technical concepts into financial narratives that drive decisions.
• Experience working in a consultative capacity alongside enterprise sales and technical teams.
• Polished written and verbal communication skills; equally comfortable in a boardroom and a working session.
• A demonstrated practice of integrating AI tools into your daily workflow to improve speed, quality, and decision-making.
• Fluency with AI across core tasks (research, drafting, analysis, planning) used as a default, not an exception.
• A builder's mindset: this is a practice-building role. You'll create the playbook, not follow one.

Work Model

Cockroach Labs has a hybrid work model, with team members local to one of our offices coming in on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and working flexibly the rest of the week.

Benefits & Compensation

• Annual Base Salary Range (US): $145,000 — $190,000 USD (plus commission eligibility)
• Stock Options
• Medical, Vision, and Dental Insurance
• Life and Disability Insurance
• Professional Development Funds
• Flexible Time Off, 11 Paid Holidays, and 10 Paid Sick Days
• Paid Parental Leave
• 401(k) Plan
• Mental Wellbeing Benefits