Field PLM Principal Architect

Description

This is a remote role designated as Remote/Teleworker, so you will mainly work from home.

You will be a senior technical architect in the Field PLM organization, covering strategic campus and branch networking opportunities and customers.

You will work alongside Field PLMs, territory managers, systems engineers, product management, engineering and support to win complex deals, validate designs, clear technical blockers and protect the install base.

The company connects, protects and analyzes data and applications from edge to cloud. The role sits within the sales function, at job level TCP05.

Responsibilities

• Join strategic and technically complex opportunities early, and help run discovery, architecture discussions, whiteboarding and solution design.
• Work with Field PLM and account teams to shape the technical win plan.
• Lead or guide complex proofs of concept, migration planning and architecture validation.
• Spot technical risks, dependencies, product gaps and customer objections early in the sales cycle.
• Support competitive positioning and displacement where architecture decides the outcome.
• Build customer confidence in the company's AI-driven, self-driving networking solutions and act as a thought leader on them.
• Design complex campus and branch solutions covering wireless, wired, switching, campus fabric with EVPN-VXLAN, access control and NAC, segmentation, branch and WAN, APIs, automation and third-party integrations.
• Assess end-to-end designs for scale, resilience, simplicity of operation, security, migration feasibility and customer outcomes.
• Act as the senior authority on architecture decisions and difficult design trade-offs.
• Stay hands-on and current across the campus and branch portfolio and related adjacent technologies.
• Take on critical customer satisfaction issues and escalations, and determine whether the cause is product, configuration, architecture, operations or a mix.
• Run architecture reviews and analyze telemetry, evidence and systemic risk.
• Coordinate technical work across Field PLM, account SEs, support/TAC, product management and engineering.
• Check remediation plans and explain findings and recovery steps to the customer's technical leadership.
• Identify lessons learned and wider improvements beyond the immediate incident.
• Mentor Field PLMs and systems engineers on advanced campus and branch architecture.
• Create reusable reference architectures, validated designs, best practices, configuration guidance and enablement material.
• Deliver advanced training, architecture office hours and knowledge transfer.
• Turn field experience into product feedback for product management and engineering, and bring product direction and engineering guidance back to the field.
• Get involved when technical complexity or business impact calls for it, such as large strategic new logos, major competitive takeouts, complex multi-campus or multi-domain designs, complex migrations and POCs, critical escalations, and situations needing product or engineering input.

Requirements

• Extensive experience designing enterprise networks and in pre-sales, with a record of success in complex customer environments.
• Expert knowledge of campus wired and wireless networking, switching and routing architectures, and enterprise network design.
• Deep understanding of EVPN/VXLAN and modern campus fabric architectures.
• Strong knowledge of identity and NAC, segmentation, branch and WAN, and AI-driven network operations.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical discovery, architecture workshops, POCs and customer-facing design reviews.
• Ability to speak credibly with senior network architects, technical executives, product management and engineering.
• Strong troubleshooting and critical thinking across product, configuration, architecture and operations.
• Ability to influence without direct authority and work well across sales, field, support, product and engineering teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication, with the skill to make complex technical ideas simple.
• Willingness to travel as needed for strategic opportunities and customers.
• Relevant advanced networking, wireless or security certifications.

Conditions

Remote role (Remote/Teleworker), primarily working from home.

Travel is required as needed for strategic opportunities and customers.

US annual base and target-level sales compensation range: USD 178,500 to 420,000 in Texas, reflecting pay at 100% of the sales plan.

Of the on-target pay, the mix is 75% base salary and 25% target-level sales compensation.

The actual offer may fall outside this range depending on location, experience, education, training and skill level.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender or any other protected category.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health and wellbeing benefits covering physical, financial and emotional wellbeing for employees and their families.
• Personal and professional development programs, including paths to become a subject expert or to move into another division.
• Flexibility to manage work and personal needs.
• US benefit details are available through the company's new-hire enrollment information.