Acuity Brands engineer Claribel Solis turns lighting expertise into leadership

Claribel Solis, an architectural technical sales lead at Acuity Brands, is using power-systems engineering experience to support complex lighting projects and mentor emerging professionals. Her profile highlights both the technical demands of modern lighting and the barriers women still face in engineering careers.

Why it matters: - Claribel Solis works at the intersection of electrical engineering, architectural lighting, and technical sales. - Her role shows how specialized engineering skills are being applied to complex lighting systems across design and installation. - Her story also reflects persistent barriers for women in technical fields and the value of mentorship and self-advocacy.

What happened: - Influential Women featured Claribel Solis, an electrical engineer and Architectural Technical Sales Lead at Acuity Brands. - Solis supports complex lighting projects across Acuity Brands’ portfolio of nearly 18 to 19 brands. - Her work includes technical support for a traveling field team, shop drawing review, product application guidance, and customer problem-solving. - The profile was published with a link to Claribel Solis' Influential Women profile.

The details: - Solis specializes in power, lighting and controls systems. - Her project work includes outdoor architectural lighting, underwater-rated fixtures, DMX-controlled RGBW color-changing systems, and architectural linear luminaires. - She says her career path shifted from an original focus on power plants, transmission systems, and SCADA operations into lighting. - Solis also holds a Real Estate Construction Project Management Certificate from NYU School of Professional Studies. - She earned a Lighting Design Certificate from the University of Colorado Boulder Rocky Mountain Lighting Academy. - Those credentials support her work in project coordination, design integration, and cross-functional communication. - Colleagues describe Solis as approachable, highly competent, and collaborative. - She is known for staying solution-oriented under pressure in high-specification architectural applications.

Between the lines: - Solis’ path shows how engineering careers can evolve into hybrid roles that blend technical depth with customer-facing leadership. - Her emphasis on precision and preparation reflects the reality that women in technical environments often have to prove expertise repeatedly. - She views gratitude for opportunity and awareness of structural barriers as parallel truths, not competing ideas. - A 2012 relocation decision, which led to a promotion and salary increase, reinforced her belief that persistence and evidence-based advocacy can change career outcomes. - Her account also suggests that recognition in technical workplaces can still be filtered through managerial credit-taking and bias.

What's next: - Solis is focused on mentoring younger professionals, especially young women in engineering and technical sales. - Her guidance centers on speaking in business terms, preparing thoroughly, and using data and confidence to advocate for themselves. - She continues to support lighting projects while building a leadership style grounded in technical accuracy and human impact.

The bottom line: - Claribel Solis’ profile presents technical sales as more than a support function: in complex lighting, it is a high-stakes engineering role that shapes both project outcomes and the next generation of talent.