Senior Sales Engineer · Actian

Ricardo Fuentes

20+ years selling enterprise technology and architecting it into production – from telecom to modern data platforms.

20+: Years Experience
3: Languages: EN · DE · ES
DACH: EMEA · Latin America
: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

About Me

Senior Sales Engineer with a rare double life: 20+ years selling enterprise technology and architecting it into production. From multi-million telecom RFQs at Siemens and Amdocs to modern data platforms at Actian, I've deployed what I demo: databases, data catalogs, data quality, data observability, data warehouses and ETL pipelines – earning trust in three languages across DACH, EMEA and Latin America.

Specialties

PreSales
Discovery
RFI / RFP / RFQ
Demos / POCs
Competitive Strategy
MEDDICC / BANT
ROI / TCO
Databases
Data Catalogs
Data Quality
Data Observability
Data Integration / ETL
BI / Analytics
AI Analytics
Analytics Engines
Azure / GCP
AI Tools
DACH / EMEA

Experience

20+ years of driving innovation and excellence

2022 – Present

Spain · Remote

Senior Sales Engineer · Actian

Drove the full presales cycle (discovery → demo → POC → business case) for data platform deals, improving YoY results, influencing ARR and consistently achieving sales targets.
Used sales methodologies and tools effectively: MEDDICC/BANT, Salesforce, LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Enabled account teams with repeatable demo assets and value narratives, increasing qualified pipeline across the DACH and CEE regions.
Collaborated with cross-functional teams (Slack, Jira, Confluence) to align solutions with customer goals, improving satisfaction and retention.
Represented Actian at industry events such as Big Data and AI conferences.

Feb 2014 – Sep 2022

Llucmajor, Spain · Remote

Solution Architect · Amdocs

Successfully led 10+ complex telecom implementations worldwide.
Directed a technical team of ~5 people.
Handled escalations, UAT with key users, and handovers.
Delivered 6+ bootcamps, training 40+ new hires.
Selected win: re-architected the solution at Telefónica Germany from a monolith to microservices, modernizing the platform with cloud-native technologies such as containers, Kubernetes, Helm, Prometheus and Grafana.

Jul 2011 – Jan 2014

Munich, Germany · On-site

Sales Engineer · Actix GmbH

Led technical responses to RFQs, product demos and proofs of concept.
Steered technical negotiations.
Selected win: within my first 6 months, won a multi-million, 3-year deal with Telefónica Germany.
Selected win: a multi-million, 3-year deal with Telia covering 5 Nordic countries – my final demo at the RFQ defense meeting was instrumental to the win.

Sep 2008 – Jul 2011

Munich, Germany

Software Solutions Consultant · Seapine Software Europe GmbH

Managed the complete presales cycle – from presentation to demo, PoC and contract win – for DACH, France, the Nordics and Southern Europe.
Delivered weekly public demos, generating 20+ leads.
Performed technical training and professional services.
Selected wins: large license deals with Siemens AG, EA Sports, Maersk, Crédit Agricole and Richemont, bringing in more than €2M in revenue per year.