Principal Network Sales Engineer
$175,000–$411,500 year
On-siteSeattle, Washington, United States or All, Catalunya, Kingdom of Spain
Job Summary
Drive technical consulting activities for a Tier 1 Service Provider customer, acting as a trusted adviser on routing, automation, and cross-segment technologies while collaborating with domain architects. Build relationships with account management and engineering teams to support customers through solution design, technical deep-dive presentations, Proof-of-Concept tests, and RFP responses. Become the go-to person for the customer and sales team on product portfolios, automation solutions, and industry trends. Make and communicate relevant connections between proposed technical solutions and customer business requirements, influencing technical and executive stakeholders throughout the sales cycle. Speak at internal and external conferences and technology days. This role requires 10+ years of networking experience, 20–30% travel, and is based onsite at an HPE partner/customer office with a preference for Seattle or Kansas City.
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years of relevant experience in networking
- proven track record in a customer-facing pre-sales role selling networking equipment
- equivalent end-user experience in design, architecture, or vendor selection
- Bachelor's degree or higher in a technical discipline
- Exceptional hands-on skills and the ability to support complex proof-of-concept tests involving new products and emerging technologies
- Outstanding communication skills — written, verbal, and presentation
- ability to engage audiences from deeply technical to executive level
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- ability to work effectively in virtual, multinational teams with little supervision and diverse stakeholder demands
- Credible technical interaction with Enterprise and Service Provider engineering teams on service provider domain topics at a detailed technical level
- Comfortable with travel to visit customers, partners, and account teams (typically 20–30% of working time)
- Expert-level, hands-on knowledge of routing protocols including BGP, ISIS, OSPF, Multicast, L2/L3 VPNs, BNG, and Carrier Ethernet
- knowledge of tunneling technologies such as MPLS, RSVP, SR-TE, and SRv6
- Strong knowledge of mobile wireless architecture, virtualization technologies, and data center networking
- Outstanding knowledge of network management, service provisioning, automation, monitoring, and telemetry interfaces — including Netconf/REST APIs, YANG, OpenConfig, and gRPC
- Experience with solutions such as Paragon, MIST, Apstra, or equivalent competitive products
- Extensive knowledge of containers and container-related technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes
- familiarity with Linux operating systems
- Automation and programming skills (e.g. Python, Ansible)
- Professional-level industry certification
Desired Qualifications
- familiarity with merchant silicon technologies (Trident, Tomahawk, Jericho, etc.)
- Understanding of products across relevant categories, including MX/PTX Series or equivalent core routers, SRX or equivalent security platforms, QFX/Nexus/Arista or equivalent switching platforms
- General knowledge of emerging protocols and technologies being shaped in standards bodies
- General knowledge of high-performance security solutions for network infrastructure, cloud, and mobility
- Experience with solutions such as Paragon, MIST, Apstra, or equivalent competitive products is an advantage
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