Forward Deployed Engineering, Portworx

Pure Storage, Inc.; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Pure Storage, Inc. is building a Forward Deployed Engineering team to embed with strategic customers during high-stakes Kubernetes storage deployments. You will be the bridge between customer infrastructure and Portworx, designing architectures and unblocking rollouts.

This role focuses on end-to-end engagements, from solution validation and on-site work to handoff with documentation and automation, while building trusted advisor relationships with senior platform leaders.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in infrastructure/platform engineering, SRE, or field/solutions engineering.
• Hands-on Kubernetes production experience (CKA/CKS preferred).
• Strong knowledge of enterprise storage (SAN/NAS, NVMe/TCP).
• Comfort with both on-prem and cloud/CaaS deployments.
• Ability to build trusted advisor relationships with senior leaders.

Responsibilities

• Reproduce customer environments in lab (on-prem or cloud) to validate solution designs before site visits.
• Design and validate production Portworx architectures for complex, high-stakes environments.
• Lead hands-on implementation: storage class design, topology, replication, sizing models.
• Run failure-mode and performance validation before go-live.
• Troubleshoot production-blocking issues during critical rollouts.
• Author runbooks, reference architectures, and reusable automation.
• Upskill customer platform teams for post-handoff independence.
• Build relationships with senior technical leaders to shape platform strategy.
• Conduct periodic visits to live accounts to surface expansion opportunities.
• Develop fluency in customer dev environments to discuss CaaS platform needs.
• Log and structure field feedback for product/engineering.
• Partner with Sales Engineering, Customer Success, Support to decide engagement scope.
• Work primarily in-office from Santa Clara, per Everpure policies.

Skills

Kubernetes expertise

Infrastructure / platform engineering

SRE experience

Customer-facing / advisory

Tools

CKA/CKS

Production deployments

Job description

We’re in an unbelievably exciting area of tech and are fundamentally reshaping the data storage industry. Here, you lead with innovative thinking, grow along with us, and join the smartest team in the industry.

This type of work—work that changes the world is what the tech industry was founded on. So, if you're ready to seize the endless opportunities and leave your mark, come join us.

THE ROLE

Portworx is building a Forward Deployed Engineering team to embed directly with our most strategic customers during their highest-stakes Kubernetes storage deployments. You'll be the technical bridge between complex customer infrastructure and Portworx itself: designing production architectures, unblocking critical rollouts, and turning field experience into structured product feedback that shapes our roadmap.

This is not a support role and not a pure pre-sales role. You'll own engagements end-to-end: from solution validation before you ever get on a plane, through architecture design, production stabilization, and a clean handoff. You'll leave behind documentation and automation that make the next customer's journey faster.

Just as important as the technical delivery: this is a relationship-building role. You'll work directly with senior technical leaders (Directors and VPs of Infrastructure and Platform Engineering), and the goal is to become a trusted advisor on their broader platform strategy, not just their Portworx footprint. Done well, this role gives Portworx (and Pure) visibility and influence across the customer's whole platform organization.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Where possible - reproduce a customer's target environment, whether on-prem or cloud/CaaS, in a lab and validate the proposed solution and architecture pattern before traveling on-site, so on-site time is spent building trust and executing a proven design
• Design and validate production Portworx architectures for complex, high-stakes customer environments (multi-cluster, DR, KubeVirt VM migration, regulated/air-gapped deployments, cloud-native CaaS platforms)
• Lead hands-on implementation: storage class design, KVDB topology, snapshot/backup policy, async/sync replication, capacity and sizing models
• Run failure-mode and performance validation before go-live (node/AZ loss, network partition, upgrade paths)
• Troubleshoot production-blocking issues in real time during critical rollouts
• Author runbooks, reference architectures, and automation that become reusable IP across engagements
• Upskill customer platform teams so they can operate independently post-handoff
• Build and sustain relationships with senior technical leaders (Directors/VPs of Infrastructure and Platform Engineering) by understanding and helping shape their broader platform strategy, not just their Portworx deployment
• Conduct periodic visits to established, already-live accounts to maintain the relationship, stay current on their evolving platform needs, and surface expansion opportunities. Many customers start small and grow, and this is how that growth gets found and won
• Develop enough fluency in the customer's development environment and workflows to speak credibly to their CaaS platform needs as a whole
• Log and structure field feedback (bugs, feature gaps, roadmap signal) for a recurring feedback loop with Product and Engineering
• Partner closely with Sales Engineering, Customer Success, and Support to triage which engagements warrant FDE involvement
• We are primarily an in-office environment and therefore, you will be expected to work from the Santa Clara office in compliance with Everpure's policies, unless you are on PTO, or work travel, or other approved leave.

WHAT YOU BRING

• 5+ years in infrastructure/platform engineering, SRE, or field/solutions engineering roles; prior "forward deployed," field engineering, or professional services experience a plus
• Deep, hands-on Kubernetes expertise (CKA/CKS or equivalent production experience). You've run clusters in production, not just in a lab
• Strong understanding of enterprise storage infrastructure: SAN/NAS, Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NVMe/TCP, multipath (dm-multipath), LVM
• Comfort working across both on-prem and cloud/CaaS deployment models. You shouldn't have a blind spot on either side
• Working understanding of customer