Sr Director, Solutions Engineering

Job Summary

The Area SE Senior Director is a strategic leader partnering with the Area VP, Geo SE Leader, and SE Directors to shape strategy and ensure execution. This role builds a future-ready SE organisation, advocates for customer and market needs, and balances local and GEO priorities.
As a senior leader, the Director shares accountability with the Area VP for business outcomes. Operating across multiple countries, they translate WW and GEO strategy into local priorities and provide evidence-based insights to GEO leadership.
1. Own Technical Execution and Business Impact
Prioritise key customer, partner, and business outcomes; enhance architecture quality; improve opportunity management; and showcase SE contributions through technical wins, operational excellence, pipeline influence, competitive success, and market growth. Drive adoption of NetApp's AI and Intelligent Data Infrastructure by partnering on strategic transformations.
2. Build a Future-Ready Organisation
Develop technical talent and leadership through coaching, feedback, and targeted growth. Strengthen succession, close capability gaps, and foster an inclusive, high-performing culture with clear expectations and accountability. Build capabilities supporting NetApp's AI, cloud, and technology goals.
3. Partner with Sales Leadership and the Area VP
Shape Area strategy, priorities, and execution collaboratively. Provide credible technical perspectives, use market evidence to inform decisions, and partner with sales leadership on strategic planning and go-to-market efforts. Serve as a trusted advisor on technology transformation and AI adoption.
4. Connect Field Reality to Portfolio and Go-to-Market
Gather Area insights for Product Leaders. Translate customer, partner, competitive, and market data, including AI use cases and adoption challenges, into clear recommendations guiding portfolio, product, enablement, and go-to-market decisions. Participate in feedback loops and communicate outcomes to the field.
5. Represent and Advocate for the Area
Present customer, partner, market, and resource needs; synthesize evidence into recommendations; build support cases; and collaborate with GEO and WW leaders to remove execution barriers. Represent NetApp in executive engagements, partner ecosystems, and industry forums to strengthen its AI leadership.
6. Lead Organisational Transformation
Challenge current practices, remove execution barriers, and lead experimentation to evolve SE capabilities, culture, and operating models. Align the organisation with NetApp's growth ambitions by building technical capability and execution discipline to accelerate AI and cloud growth and position the NetApp Platform as the AI era’s intelligent data infrastructure. Enable teams to convert customer use cases and partnerships into adoption, pipeline, and growth.
7. Operate as a GEO Leadership Team
Collaborate with the GEO SE Leader and SE Directors to set standards, share capabilities, address systemic issues, and ensure consistent execution. Prioritise enterprise success over local optimisation and execute agreed decisions collectively.

Job Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive technical leadership experience within enterprise infrastructure, AI, cloud, data management, storage, or adjacent technology markets, including responsibility for leading and scaling pre-sales or Solutions Engineering organizations.
• Senior leadership experience in Solutions Engineering, Presales, Technical Sales or Enterprise Technology leadership within a global technology organization, with a proven track record of leading leaders and building high-performing technical organizations.
• Deep understanding of enterprise infrastructure, AI, Intelligent Data Infrastructure, Hybrid Multicloud, Cybersecurity and Data Management technologies, with the ability to translate technology strategy into business outcomes.
• Significant executive customer engagement, customer transformation and strategic account leadership experience, with the credibility to influence senior business and technology stakeholders.
• Strong business acumen with experience influencing product direction, go-to-market strategy and business priorities through customer, partner and market insights.
• Exceptional communication, executive presence and talent leadership capabilities, with demonstrated success developing future leaders and building diverse, high-performing teams. Bachelor's degree required; advanced business or technical qualifications preferred.