Senior Sales Engineer
At a glance
Senior Solutions & Sales Engineering role at DDN. Santa Clara · full-time · $250,000–$300,000 base.
growthroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Turn customer data challenges into storage designs for AI training, HPC simulations, analytics and GPU-based workloads
- Build system architectures, bills of materials and proposals for complex RFPs
- Show how solutions perform through live demos, proof-of-concept work and benchmarks
- Guide customers on technical decisions throughout the sales process, then share field insights with Product and Engineering
What you bring
- At least eight years in pre-sales, solution architecture or technical consulting
- A track record designing storage or infrastructure solutions, with hands-on enterprise storage experience
- Working knowledge of parallel storage technologies and architectures such as SAN, NAS or object storage
- Ability to explain technical concepts clearly to engineering teams and executives
Who this fits
This senior, customer-facing role suits someone who can pair storage expertise with technical sales work and communicate with both engineers and executives. The position is hybrid in Santa Clara.
From the employer
About DDN
DDN powers the world's most demanding data workloads—from AI research to drug discovery, autonomous vehicles to financial modeling. For over two decades, our massively parallel storage solutions have enabled breakthrough innovations across industries. Join us in building the infrastructure that makes the impossible possible.
The Role
As a Sales Engineer, you'll architect high-performance storage solutions that enable customers to achieve their boldest ambitions. Work across finance, pharmaceuticals, education, and physical AI—designing systems that power real-time trading, accelerate drug discovery, enable groundbreaking research, and fuel autonomous systems.
You'll translate complex customer requirements into elegant technical solutions, demonstrate capabilities through POCs and benchmarks, and serve as a trusted advisor throughout the sales cycle.
What You'll Do
Customer Engagement
Partner with customers to understand their critical data challenges—high-frequency trading, genomics processing, AI model training, or autonomous vehicle sensor fusion
Translate technical requirements into elegant, scalable storage solutions that exceed expectations
Act as trusted technical advisor throughout the sales cycle
Solution Design
Architect storage for AI/ML training, HPC simulations, data analytics, and GPU-accelerated workloads
Design for reliability, resilience, security, and scale—balancing performance with data protection
Create BOMs, system architectures, and technical proposals for complex RFPs
Conduct live demos, POCs, and performance benchmarking
Integrate with GPU clusters, Kubernetes, cloud platforms, and AI frameworks
Innovation & Growth
Stay current on AI infrastructure and storage technology trends
Collaborate with Product and Engineering teams using field insights
Mentor team members and contribute to technical thought leadership
Shape product direction based on customer needs
What You Bring
Technical Foundation (All Levels)
Experience with parallel technologies (Lustre, GPFS, Exascaler)
Strong understanding of storage and data architectures: SAN, NAS, object storage, parallel file systems
Knowledge of Storage architectural patterns for reliability, resilience, security, and scale
Understanding of storage and data protocols: S3, POSIX, NFS, SMB
Familiarity with network protocols: TCP/IP, InfiniBand, RDMA
Aptitude for AI workloads and how storage enables AI innovation
Ability to communicate technical concepts to both engineers and executives
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
Customer-facing communication skills
Experienced (8+ years)
8+ years in pre-sales, solutions architecture, or technical consulting
Proven track record designing storage/infrastructure solutions
Hands-on experience with enterprise storage systems
Experience with AI/ML infrastructure, HPC, or high-performance workloads (preferred)
Success managing complex technical sales cycles
What Sets You Apart
Genuine curiosity about AI and its impact across industries
Ownership mindset—you solve problems until they're solved
Ability to translate technical complexity into business value
Thrive in fast-evolving technology environments
Collaborative team player with integrity and empathy
Diverse Backgrounds Welcome: Whether you're coming from enterprise storage vendors, research computing, or infrastructure roles (cloud architects, storage Administrator, platform engineers), your experience translates to this role. Technical depth + customer focus matter more than your starting point.
Why DDN
Impact
Power cancer research, autonomous vehicles, and AI breakthroughs
Work on infrastructure enabling discoveries that change the world
See direct results from your designs
Growth
Master AI infrastructure, parallel computing, and next-gen storage
Learn from world-class engineers and architects
Clear career progression: SE → Senior SE → Principal Architect
Continuous learning: training, certifications, conferences
Team & Culture
20+ years leading storage innovation
Technical excellence and customer obsession
Competitive compensation: base, bonuses, stock options, benefits
Flexible work arrangements
Industries We Serve
Financial Services: High-frequency trading, risk modeling, real-time analytics
Pharmaceuticals: Genomics sequencing, drug discovery, clinical research
Education & Research: University HPC, AI research, climate modeling, scientific computing
Physical AI & Robotics: Autonomous vehicles, robotic systems, sensor data processing
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Solutions & Sales Engineering$250k+
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