RUSS ISLAMOV
Russ Islamov
About Me
Senior Solutions Engineer — AI-enabled CX, UCaaS/CCaaS, and FinTech. 20+ years building the playbooks that make pre-sales teams win.
I'm a pre-sales engineer who's spent two decades figuring out what actually wins enterprise deals — and then turning that into something a team can run.
My path started in quality engineering at Fiserv and moved through four roles over 11+ years there before I shifted into pre-sales consulting at Q2, solution architecture at Paymentus, solution services leadership at Eltropy, and senior solutions engineering at LinkLive.ai. Across all of it, the same pattern keeps showing up: I get into a sales motion, find what's broken or missing, and build the discovery, demo, and proposal practices that make the next deal easier than the last.
What I bring to a Solutions Engineering organization
Pre-sales execution that compounds. At LinkLive.ai I built the pre-sales engineering function from scratch — discovery frameworks, demo playbooks, proposal standards. The numbers tell the story: 80%+ win rates on assigned opportunities and ~85% demo-to-close ratios. Those aren't lucky streaks. They're what happens when the same engineer runs the same disciplined process across every deal.
Credibility in the room with executives. I've advised Tier-1 banks and credit unions with $1B–$30B+ in assets, run multi-stakeholder enterprise deals across procurement, compliance, legal, operations, and the C-suite, and closed 7-figure contracts in those rooms. Executive conversations are where I'm most useful — translating technical capability into outcomes a buying committee can actually defend.
AI fluency I earned the hard way. I lead pre-sales for AI-enabled IVA, UCaaS, and CCaaS solutions today. I also founded CallsAnswered.ai, a voice AI contact center product, which means I've sat on the operator side of voice AI — built it, positioned it, sold it. When AI buyers ask the hard questions, I've already had to answer them for my own product.
Mentorship and the systems behind a team. I've spent years doing the work that makes SE teams successful — even before formally leading one. Cross-functional Agile/Scrum delivery teams at Eltropy. SME across all business units at Fiserv. Mentoring engineers and project managers in every role I've held. Building the playbooks pre-sales teams actually run on. I'm ready for first-line leadership, and the work behind me makes the case.
Cross-functional partnership that holds. SE only works when product, customer success, marketing, and implementation are aligned. I've spent two decades building those bridges. I've also seen what happens when they break, which has made me careful about the kind of organization I join next.
What I'm open to
Senior individual contributor and first-line leadership roles in Solutions Engineering — Senior SE, Principal SE, Lead SE, or Manager of Solutions Engineering — at SaaS, CX, and AI companies serving enterprise customers, especially in regulated industries.
Beyond the work
I speak English, Russian, and Tajik — which has come in handy more than once in international deals and cross-cultural conversations. I'm also chasing a long-term goal of visiting all Seven Wonders of the World, slowly working my way through the list.
Education
Certifications
CSPO • CSM • MCP • FinTech: Foundations, Payments, and Regulations • Google AI Essentials