Principal Network Sales Engineer

We are looking for a Principal Network Sales Engineer to join our Service Provider Pre-Sales Engineering team supporting a Tier 1 Service Provider customer. This is a remote opportunity, with a preference for candidates located in Seattle or Kansas City, or within close proximity to a major airport to support customer travel. 

This is a highly visible, customer-facing role for an experienced technical leader who thrives at the intersection of networking, architecture, and strategic pre-sales. Working closely with account managers, product management, engineering, and customer technical teams, you will drive complex networking opportunities, provide trusted technical guidance, and help customers solve business challenges through innovative networking, automation, security, and data center solutions. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in service provider networking, outstanding communication skills, and the ability to build lasting relationships while influencing technical and executive stakeholders throughout the sales cycle. 

Responsibilities:  

• Drive technical consulting activities in both new and existing opportunities, acting as a trusted adviser to the account team and customer across a wide range of routing, automation, and cross-segment technologies in cooperation with other domain architects. 
• Build and maintain close relationships with account management teams and cooperative functions such as Product Line Management and Engineering. 
• Support customers with understanding requirements, providing guidance in solution design, delivering technical deep-dive presentations and demonstrations, contributing to Proof-of-Concept tests, and assisting with RFP responses. 
• Become a go-to person and trusted advisor for the customer and sales team on our product portfolio, automation solutions, wider industry trends, and competitive landscape in your area of focus.
• Speak at internal and external conferences, technology days, innovation days, and other industry events. 
• Make and communicate relevant connections between proposed technical solutions and customers' business requirements, up to and including executive-level decision-makers. 

Education and Experience: 

• 10+ years of relevant experience in networking, with a proven track record in a customer-facing pre-sales role selling networking equipment, or equivalent end-user experience in design, architecture, or vendor selection. 

• Bachelor's degree or higher in a technical discipline required

• 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 — with the ability to engage audiences from deeply technical to executive level. 

• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the 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). 

Knowledge and Skills: 

• Expert-level, hands-on knowledge of routing protocols including BGP, ISIS, OSPF, Multicast, L2/L3 VPNs, BNG, and Carrier Ethernet, as well as 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 — and how these apply to modern WAN architectures especially in service providers. Experience with solutions such as Paragon, MIST, Apstra, or equivalent competitive products is an advantage. 
• Extensive knowledge of containers and container-related technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes, as well as familiarity with Linux operating systems. 
• Automation and programming skills (e.g. Python, Ansible). 
• 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. 
• 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. 
• Professional-level industry certification desired.