You might be Aula’s next Sales Engineer if you’re a natural collaborator and problem-solver
Like many of my coworkers, I made my way to Aula through my background in education: I started off my career as a secondary maths teacher. While teaching, I met one student who might be even more specifically the reason why I am here. For the purpose of this blog, I’ll call that student “Sarah”.
Sarah was one the brightest students I’d ever had — incredibly high-scoring and incredibly talented — but she never considered that university might be in her future, because she didn’t think that university was for people like her. Everyone in Sarah’s family worked at one of the factories down the train line, and she’d rarely been more than 15 miles away from the home where she grew up. Sarah opened my eyes to the risk that a lack of access to higher education posed. Because of the ‘norms’ of where she grew up, the opportunity to attend university just didn’t present itself, despite the fact that Sarah would benefited enormously from the experience and the university would have been made better by having a student like Sarah attending. She had the kind of brain that would have soaked up everything university has to offer. It’s Sarah’s story that motivates me in my job every day.
Many of us at Aula have similar stories: after teaching, I worked in higher education access, helping socioeconomically disadvantaged people gain access to higher education. But during that work, I found that there are significant gaps in the way that universities are able to serve those communities — both in reaching out to recruit students and in supporting them once they’re at university. In both the UK and the US, we see examples of a system of incredibly high-quality higher education and yet still a growing gap in opportunity between the wealthy and the poor. And, when students like Sarah do seize the opportunity to go to university, all too often they are faced with the challenges commonly experienced by first-generation, under-represented and economically disadvantaged students. These challenges lead to wonderful minds like Sarah’s ultimately feeling alone, unsupported, under-prepared, and like the best option may just be to drop out.
At Aula, we’re focused on empowering all learners to reach their full potential. We are the Learning Experience Platform for higher education. We improve outcomes for students by making it easy for educators to create community-first learning experiences. In contrast to the content-first learning experiences that dominate higher education today and can leave students feeling disconnected and isolated in their learning journey, a community-first learning experience is as much about meaningful connection as it is about academic challenge.
What really drew me to Aula was simple: if Aula was creating a platform that made the learning experience better for all students — enabling universities to offer more flexible learning options while ensuring students remain connected to their peers and educators — then I could help in leveling the playing field for every student.
At Aula, I’m the UK Implementation Lead. We’re responsible for holding and expanding the relationships with our existing university partners. That means I’m accountable for the successful rollout of Aula to tens of thousands of students and educators.
My work doesn’t involve designing the training tools themselves; instead; I make sure that those undergoing training on the Aula platform enjoy their experience. I set them up for success by creating the conditions that allow them to get the most out of their training experience and walk away feeling excited about the potential of this change.
The most forward-thinking universities around the world are investing in the digital learning experience for the purposes of improving reach, flexibility and accessibility. Through digital learning, universities can serve more students without the expensive burden of adding space on campus; they can offer more flexible learning options to students who struggle to consistently attend in-person classes for myriad reasons; and, digital learning provides the opportunity for universities to offer lower-cost degree options for students who otherwise could not consider university because of the cost alone.
The opportunity is immense — which is why we are growing at Aula. I’m looking for a Sales Engineer who will be able to coordinate the technical elements of Aula implementations. The best way to think of the role is to compare it to a coordinator of technical crew members in a theatre production. Our SE will be responsible for making sure that everything is running smoothly backstage so that the production — in this case, the learning experience — is set up correctly. Your actors (students and educators) need to be in the right place at the right time, which means you need to ensure that the right systems are talking to each other so data can flow properly between Aula and the university. The SE makes sure lighting and sound are running properly so that the actors can perform without having to worry about the nuts and bolts of putting up a theatre production.
I’m also looking for a partner and brilliant communicator: In an SE, I need someone who can seamlessly move between communications with a product manager and a CTO. But, above all else, I need someone who is excited about the idea of being a partner to the universities with whom we work. Because, even if their systems are dated and challenging — and they frequently are — it takes collaboration with, quite often, already stretched teams to make the implementation work. The SE I’m looking for looks at a partner’s data infrastructure and how its different to ours and says, “Here’s how we adopt new processes to make our product meet your needs.” It’s all about nailing the backstage.
Aula has three crystal-clear virtues: uncomfortable focus, silly ambition, and transparent-by-default. What that means is, we’re not afraid to say no to things; we’re not afraid to ask ‘how can we make it work?’ rather than ‘what’s possible?’; and we practice radical candor, giving one another feedback all the time.
My team, of course, is commercially focused. Our success is measured by how well we expand our relationship within partner institutions. However, our background is a bit different from a typical sales team — we all, more or less, came to Aula through roles in education. Outcomes matter, certainly — but so do the pressures and pain that our university partners are under. The right SE will navigate this line with grace. It’s a very difficult change management line to tread, and I need someone up to the challenge of treading it.
Ideally, we want our partners to feel that we have taught them what it means to be an innovation partner. The Sales Engineer will help solve the challenges faced by the institution by sitting on their side of the table, investing time, understanding their needs, and meeting them where they are by being proactive and positive in the way we guide and support them.
What we’re doing is hard: there isn’t a competitor in our market quite like us, we’re trying to create radical change at institutions that are not often equipped to change quickly, and, we’re driving that change at scale and at pace. Plainly, what we’re doing is revolutionary in higher education.
If offering a better learning experience to all students — one that cares as much about meaningful connection as it does about academic challenge — excites you as much as it does me, I encourage you to apply to this role.
