Sales Engineer - US Fed

About the company

DDN provides high-performance data intelligence and storage platforms that enable rapid, low-latency, high-throughput data access for NVIDIA GPU clusters, accelerating AI, LLM, GenAI, RAG, and HPC workloads.

About this 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) - 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