Now Hiring - DDN (Portugal) - Advisory Sales Engineer - Strategic AI in Sacramento, CA

Full description of the position

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 AIdesigning 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 challengeshigh-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 scalebalancing 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 mindsetyou 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