Principal Solution Architect
DDN · Santa Clara Office · hybrid
USD 300,000 to 330,000 a year
The Principal AI Solutions Architect at DataDirect Networks (DDN) combines technical mastery with outcome driven strategic selling/consulting delivering high-performance AI, ML, and HPC solutions. This role is pivotal in aligning DDN’s cutting-edge AI solutions and data management technologies with clients’ business needs, driving measurable outcomes to include efficiencies, optimizations, utilization, reduced latency, and accelerated time-to-insight. The ideal candidate will bring pre-sales engineering experience, AI technical expertise and intelligence, and a passion for delivering tailored solutions that enable customer success.
Core Responsibilities:
- AI Intelligence: Demonstrate expertise in AI technologies, including architecture, deployment, optimization, and integration, with a focus on delivering measurable outcomes
- Outcome-Driven Approach, Positioning and Consultation: Engage deeply with clients to understand their AI and data challenges & performance goals, recommending DDN’s AI & high-performance solutions to achieve desired business outcomes, whether it’s accelerated time-to-insight or operational efficiency.
- Value-Centric Solution Design: Partner with clients to architect and deliver AI-driven data solutions that prioritize long-term value, scalability, and performance optimization. Leverage DDN’s expertise in AI, HPC, and cloud storage to address current requirements while enabling future growth and innovation.
- Active Selling Partner: As a proactive part of the sales process, the AI Solutions Consultant is a Sales Engineering role which actively engages in client discussions, delivers compelling product demonstrations, and contributes to closing deals by demonstrating the business value and ROI of DDN’s solutions.
- Pre-Sales Customer Development: Providing hands-on technical presentations, demonstrations, proof-of-concept support and management, and ongoing client management and support to ensure successful adoption, usage, and maximized business impact from DDN technologies.
Primary Responsibilities
- Outcome-Driven: Leverage experience in AI, Data & Analytics to engage deeply with clients, understanding their challenges and delivering value-driven solutions.
- Data Architecture Proficiency: Design scalable solutions and implement strategies for effective data models and management to support AI/ML workflows.
- Generative AI Enablement: Apply knowledge & expertise in AI technologies, including Large Language Models (LLMs), neural networks, RAG, Inference, and recommendation systems, to drive innovation and client success.
- Technical Solution Design: Utilize frameworks like NeMO, NIMs, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Nvidia Enterprise Suite to craft and demonstrate DDNs advanced AI solutions tailored to client needs.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: You are a partner with between Sales, Product, Marketing and Engineering teams, ensuring customer insights inform messaging, collateral, product development, support/services and technical strategies.
- Partner Ecosystem Development: Build and maintain relationships across our ecosystem of Alliances, OEMs, CSPs, hyper-scalers, channel and integrators to create joint go-to-market strategies and expand DDN’s market reach.
- Enablement and Training: Deliver technical development for internal teams and partners, ensuring a deep understanding of DDN’s AI solutions.
- Market Awareness: Stay abreast of trends in AI, data management, and competitive landscapes to position DDN’s solutions effectively.
Key Practices:
- Consultative Engagement: Demonstrate the ability to understand client needs, outcomes and deliver tailored solutions through effective discovery processes and relationship building.
- AI Expertise: Showcase knowledge of AI workflows, frameworks, pipelines to include above the stack applications, Data Prep/Analytics, Toolkits, Training, Inference, Application Frameworks, NVIDIA Enterprise suite, LLMs, RAG, and related technologies, aligning solutions to business outcomes and emerging AI trends.
- Data Architecture Leadership: Provide insights and designs for data strategies that support efficiency, scalability, performance, and ROI.
- Technical Depth: AI Intelligence and knowledge of AI Pipelines, Applications, Frameworks, Workflows, LLMs, RAG, Inference, GENAI, ChatBots and advanced tools/frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and NVIDIA Enterprise Suite.
- Client Delight Focus: Build enduring client relationships and ensure successful adoption of DDN solutions, with measurable outcomes.
- Strategic Collaboration: Partner with internal and external stakeholders to align technical capabilities with business objectives and outcomes.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience in AI/ML infrastructure, data engineering, or consulting for AI projects and/or AI/ML and/or Data Science application development practices and architectures.
- Demonstratable expertise in generative AI technologies, including LLMs, neural networks, and recommendation systems.
- Familiarity with AI frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, NVIDIA Enterprise Suite, NeMO, NIMs etc.
- Proven track record of delivering technical wins in complex sales or consulting environments.
- Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage technical and executive audiences.
- Certifications in AI and cloud architectures (e.g. NVIDIA, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or similar) are a plus.
- Subject matter expert in AI frameworks, Data Science and Data Engineering concepts, Predictive Analytics, and/or Generative AI development practices
- Working knowledge of full stack AI training, inference, development and deployment tools, including LLM, Feature Stores, Vector Databases, Embedding Models, ETL tooling, and modern programming languages/frameworks
- Executive presence with public speaking skills
- Entrepreneurial mindset
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Engineering, or a related technical field or equivalent experience.
- Experience working with alliances, OEM, partner ecosystems, hyperscalers, and joint solution delivery.
- Previous experience as a sales engineer, technical sales, consultant or similar role, highlighting expertise in driving sales and technical conversations in the Data Science AI/ML and Generative AI space.
- Knowledge of ROI and AI - data center optimization metrics, including energy efficiency, space utilization, and performance tuning.
- Experience working with cloud providers and other 3rd parties for joint GTM, leveraging relationships to drive indirect sales and co-selling opportunities.
- Demonstrates a deep understanding of customer challenges and the ability to propose credible solutions.