Advisory Sales Engineer - Strategic AI

Ddn; Berlin (NH); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Ddn in the United States is seeking a Sales Engineer to architect high-performance storage solutions across AI, analytics, and enterprise workloads. You will translate customer requirements into scalable designs and demonstrate capabilities through POCs and benchmarks.

You will partner with customers through the sales cycle, design for reliability and security, create proposals, and mentor teammates while shaping product direction with field insights.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS, Eng, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Experience with pre-sales, solutions architecture, or technical consulting.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Customer-facing communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Partner with customers to understand data challenges and translate requirements into scalable storage solutions.
• Create BOMs, system architectures, and technical proposals for complex RFPs.
• Conduct live demos, POCs, and performance benchmarking.
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering teams using field insights.

Skills

Storage architectures

Data protocols

Networking basics

AI workloads

Tech comms

S3/NFS/SMB

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Eng or related

Tools

GPU clusters

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

Job 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

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