Senior Solutions Architect - Data Infrastructure

LOCATION

This is a remote opportunity supporting the South and Southwest United States. Candidates must be based within the territory to be considered.

JOB SUMMARY

NetApp is the Intelligent Data Infrastructure Company. Our Solutions Architecture team operates as a portfolio-level innovation and strategy function, working on the most complex, visible, and impactful customer engagements across the enterprise. As a Senior Solution Architect - Data Infrastructure, you will act as a technical evangelist and strategist, partnering with enterprise customers on their most critical initiatives. This role is for individuals who are passionate about being in front of customers, shaping vision, influencing executive decision-makers, and driving large, transformational deals.

You will work across the entire NetApp portfolio, helping customers design, integrate, and scale modern data platforms across on-premises and hybrid cloud environments, spanning block, file, and object storage; cyber resilience and data protection; and performance-intensive AI/HPC workloads. You will translate business imperatives into forward-looking architectures that deliver measurable outcomes. This role supports Enterprise customers across the TOLA region, focusing on a defined set of top strategic accounts and high-impact opportunities.

HOW THIS ROLE IS DIFFERENT

The Solutions Architecture organization sits parallel to NetApp's Solutions Engineering team:

• Solutions Engineers are aligned directly to Enterprise Client Executives, supporting day-to-day opportunities and acting as trusted generalists across accounts.
• Solutions Architects operate at a strategic level, supporting enterprise regions and their most critical customers, focusing on innovation, complex architectures, executive engagement, and portfolio-wide strategy.

Solutions Architects are deeply involved in:

• Executive Briefing Centers (EBCs)
• NetApp INSIGHT and regional flagship events
• Complex, high-visibility enterprise deals
• Long-range architecture planning and technical strategy

This role is ideal for technologists who love big ideas, big customers, and big impact.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own Technical Win Plans. Partner with enterprise sales and field leadership on priority opportunities. Lead discovery, shape solution strategy, differentiate competitively, and drive the technical win for large, complex deals.
• Design End-to-End Architectures. Create scalable, resilient, and future-ready architectures across on-prem, cloud-adjacent, and public cloud environments, aligned to customer requirements for performance, availability, security, and total cost of ownership.
• Act as a Portfolio Evangelist. Represent NetApp's full data infrastructure vision to customers, partners, and internal stakeholders, connecting portfolio capabilities to real-world customer outcomes.
• Build Trusted Executive Relationships. Develop and sustain deep relationships with customer technical and business leaders, partners, and alliances. Drive engagement across executive, architecture, and engineering communities.
• Generate Pipeline with Marketing. Lead webinars, workshops, and Executive Briefing Center sessions; contribute to blogs and video content; present at NetApp INSIGHT; and support regional demand-generation events to open new workloads and buying centers.
• Mentor and Upskill the Field. Coach Solutions Engineers and partner technical teams on solution domains, reference architectures, and repeatable best practices.
• Stay Ahead of the Market. Track industry trends, competitive dynamics, and portfolio evolution to provide timely guidance to customers, sales leadership, and field teams.

YOU WILL WORK ACROSS THE ENTIRE NETAPP PORTFOLIO:

• Core Data Platforms. ONTAP (AFF, AFX, ASA, FAS), ONTAP
• Object & Secondary Platforms. StorageGRID for S3 workloads and tiering strategies
• Performance & Scale Platforms. E-Series / EF-Series for throughput- and latency-sensitive AI, HPC, and analytics workloads
• Hybrid Cloud & Multicloud. Azure NetApp Files, Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP
• Cloud Volumes. ONTAP and ONTAP-adjacent architectures
• Consumption & Control. NetApp Keystone and NetApp Console for flexible consumption models and simplified operations

QUALIFICATIONS

• 8+ years in solution architecture, systems engineering, or enterprise pre-sales for storage or data infrastructure platforms, with a strong track record of driving technical wins and customer outcomes.
• Executive Presence & Communication. Exceptional presentation, storytelling, and whiteboarding skills, with the ability to lead technical workshops and executive briefings.
• Technical Depth. Expertise across NFS, SMB, iSCSI, FC, NVMe, and S3; experience with virtualization and container platforms (e.g., VMware, Kubernetes); and strong understanding of security, cyber resilience, and AI-adjacent technologies.
• Hybrid Cloud Knowledge. Practical experience with hyperscaler file and object services, data mobility, and replication strategies.
• Solution Design Skills. Comfortable producing reference architectures and integration plans spanning compute, networking, and storage.
• Nice to Have. Familiarity with AI/HPC stacks and parallel file systems.

Compensation:
The target salary range for this position is 205,700 - 266,200 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. The range is based on 'On Target Earnings' (OTE) representing the total potential earnings, which is the sum of the base salary and potential commission earned when performance targets are achieved. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU's). These offerings are subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. We will provide detailed information about the specific benefits for your region during the recruitment process.