Lead Demo Engineer

Here at Appian, our core values of Excellence and Intensity define who we are. In short, this means we constantly seek to understand the best for our customers, we go beyond completion in our work, we strive for excellence with intensity, and we embrace candid communication. These values guide our actions and shape our culture every day. When you join Appian, you'll be part of a passionate team that's dedicated to accomplishing hard things.

SC 2.0 is the engine powering our vision. Appian's Sales Solutions Consulting team is in the midst of an exciting transformation -- redefining what it means to be a trusted advisor in today's fast-paced, mission-driven environment. Our SCs don't just demo features -- they tell stories, co-create with customers, and help shape strategy with technical credibility and business insight. Read More About SC 2.0 Here

You can listen to our Global SSC leader, Gregg Aldana discuss SC 2.0 here.

The SPEAR Team (Strategic Presales Execution and Readiness) is the operational engine behind Appian's global Presales organization -- the team that builds the tools, assets, governance, and infrastructure that let Solutions Consultants do their best work. As Lead Demo Engineer on SPEAR, you are not on the sidelines of SC 2.0 -- you are leading one of the teams that makes it possible at scale.

The Role

Are you a seasoned Appian developer with a passion for crafting impactful technology solutions and mentoring others? As the Lead Demo Engineer for Appian's SPEAR Team in Chennai, you'll take on a dual role: leading the day-to-day operations of the Chennai Demo Engineers and serving as a senior individual contributor yourself. You'll play a critical part in scaling Appian's global Presales organization by managing team workflows, providing technical guidance, and personally delivering the highest-quality demo assets that fuel hundreds of sales engagements each year.

In this role, you'll act as both a manager and a technical lead. You'll oversee the daily activities of the team, monitor progress, ensure work is completed on time and to a high standard, and serve as a key resource for technical guidance when Demo Engineers run into challenges. You'll also continue to do the work yourself -- de-branding prospect demos, modernizing aging assets with the latest Appian capabilities, contributing to DemoHub (Appian's centralized demo catalog and governance system), and producing polished clickable demos, walkthrough videos, and scripts. By fostering a collaborative and supportive environment, you'll empower your team to excel while ensuring alignment with global SPEAR priorities and deadlines.

You will report directly to the US-based Area Vice President of Solutions Consulting, who leads the SPEAR Team. This reporting structure gives you a direct line into the strategy and priorities of Appian's global Presales organization, and positions you as the on-site Chennai leader and primary liaison between the Chennai team and stakeholders worldwide.

This role combines leadership, deep technical expertise, and strategic oversight, offering you the chance to make a significant impact both as a contributor and as a mentor. If you thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment and are ready to elevate the capabilities of your team while showcasing the power of Appian's platform, this role is for you.

What you'll be doing...

• Team Leadership: Manage and mentor a team of Demo Engineers in Chennai, ensuring smooth day-to-day operations, clear priorities, and alignment with global Presales strategy.

• Technical Oversight: Provide senior technical guidance on capturing, refining, and expanding product demos, ensuring all outputs are reusable, impactful, and aligned with current Appian capabilities and industry trends.

• Operational Excellence: Own the cataloging and ingestion of product demos into DemoHub, maintaining high standards of quality, consistency, and discoverability across hundreds of assets per year.

• Senior Technical Contribution: Personally de-brand prospect-specific demos, enhance them with advanced new Appian features, and prepare them for broader organizational use -- setting the technical bar for the team's work.

• DemoHub Application Development: Lead and contribute to ongoing development and maintenance of the DemoHub Appian application itself -- the platform that stores, governs, and surfaces demo content to the global SC team. This includes building new features, fixing bugs, and improving usability.

• Clickable Demo Production: Oversee and personally contribute to the recording, editing, and continuous updating of interactive clickable demos in a commercial third-party demo platform, ensuring our self-service and accelerated demo experiences stay accurate, on-brand, and current.

• Demo Artifact Creation: Produce and oversee production of supporting artifacts including walkthrough videos, demo scripts, talk tracks, and quick-reference guides that help SCs adopt and adapt assets quickly.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Act as the primary liaison between the Chennai team and global stakeholders, including the US-based SPEAR Team and Presales leadership, ensuring seamless communication, project execution, and knowledge transfer across time zones.

• Continuous Improvement: Develop and implement processes that improve the efficiency, quality, and throughput of demo ingestion, refinement, and maintenance workflows.

• Mentorship: Provide technical mentorship to Demo Engineers, fostering skill development, career growth, and a strong engineering culture within the team.

• Additional SPEAR Initiatives: Lead or contribute to other Presales enablement and readiness initiatives as the SPEAR Team's portfolio evolves.

Who you are...

• Strong, senior-level experience with Appian or a similar low-code application development platform, including design, development, and debugging of complex applications.

• Proven ability to manage and mentor technical teams, with demonstrated leadership and people management skills.

• Excellent technical and programming skills, with concrete examples of delivering polished, impactful work that others have used as a benchmark.

• Highly organized, with a track record of managing multiple projects and priorities in a high-volume, dynamic environment.

• Skilled in cross-functional collaboration, with solid verbal, written, presentation, and interpersonal communication abilities -- including the ability to communicate clearly across global teams and time zones.

• Familiarity with interactive demo platforms (Storylane, Reprise, Navattic, Walnut, or similar) is a strong plus.

• Familiarity with video recording and editing tools for producing walkthrough content is a plus.

• Self-motivated, driven individual with a proactive approach to problem-solving and a strong sense of urgency.

• B.S. or M.S. in Engineering, Computer Science, or related fields, or equivalent work experience.