[Hiring] Sales Engineer @Data Direct Networks

Role Description

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.

Qualifications

• Technical Foundation (All Levels)
  • Strong understanding of storage and data architectures: SAN, NAS, object storage, parallel file systems.
  • Knowledge of 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.
  • Curiosity about massively parallel technologies (Lustre, GPFS, Exascaler).
  • Aptitude for AI workloads and how storage enables AI innovation.
  • Ability to communicate technical concepts to both engineers and executives.
• Entry Level (0-3 years)
  • Bachelor's in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
  • Exposure to storage/systems through coursework, internships, or projects.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Customer-facing communication skills.
• Experienced (3+ years)
  • 3-8+ 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.

Benefits

• DDN has a very strong orientation towards these 4 characteristics and any successful employee will demonstrate these capabilities:
  • Self-Starter - Takes independent action to identify and solve problems. Seeks out relevant information needed to make decisions. Gets involved with new initiatives.
  • Success/Achievement Orientation - Delivers quality results consistently. Targets, achieves (or exceeds) measurable results. Sets challenging goals, focuses on critical priorities, and is accountable.
  • Problem Solving - Recognizes problems and responds with a systematic assessment that identifies and addresses cause of issue. Practical, realistic, and resourceful.
  • Innovative - Builds and improves key business processes that enhance the effectiveness of DDN. Generates new ideas, challenges the status quo, and solves problems creatively.

Company Description

DataDirect Networks, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, sex stereotyping, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.