Senior AI Solution Consultant

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that has been at the forefront of AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a global market leader renowned for powering many of the world's most demanding AI data centers, in industries ranging from life sciences and healthcare to financial services, autonomous cars, Government, academia, research and manufacturing.

"DDN's A3I solutions are transforming the landscape of AI infrastructure." - IDC

"The real differentiator is DDN. I never hesitate to recommend DDN. DDN is the de facto name for AI Storage in high performance environments" - Marc Hamilton, VP, Solutions Architecture & Engineering | NVIDIA

DDN is the global leader in AI and multi-cloud data management at scale. Our cutting-edge data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling organizations to extract maximum value from their data. With a proven track record of performance, reliability, and scalability, DDN empowers businesses to tackle the most challenging AI and data-intensive workloads with confidence.

Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals who bring their expertise and dedication to every project. This is a chance to make a significant impact at a company that is shaping the future of AI and data management.

Our commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership makes this an exciting and rewarding role for a driven professional looking to make a lasting impact in the world of AI and data storage.

The Senior AI Solutions Consultant (Sales Engineering) 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

• 5+ 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.

DDN has a very strong orientation towards these 4 characteristics and any successful employee will demonstrate these capabilities:

Self-Starter - Takes independent action to identify and solve problems. Seeks out relevant information needed to make decisions. Gets involved with new initiatives.

Success/Achievement Orientation - Delivers quality results consistently. Targets, achieves (or exceeds) measurable results. Sets challenging goals, focuses on critical priorities, and is accountable.

Problem Solving - Recognizes problems and responds with a systematic assessment that identifies and addresses cause of issue. Practical, realistic, and resourceful.

Innovative - Builds and improves key business processes that enhance the effectiveness of DDN. Generates new ideas, challenges the status quo, and solves problems creatively.

DataDirect Networks, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, sex stereotyping, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.